Engineering the imagination? STEM learning in an arts context

Author(s):

Jo Trowsdale(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

29. Research on Arts Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

29 SES 02 B, Arts Education and Technologies

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-02

15:15-16:45

Room:

B111 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Fernando Hernández-Hernández

Contribution

Drawing on Bourdieu and Dewey, this paper presents an argument for an arts-led, experiential pedagogy to initiate creative learning, invention and achievement across the arts and sciences.

International indices such as PISA reflect the concern of educators and employers in technologically advanced countries that too few young people are skilled and knowledgeable in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Drawing on Bourdieu, research into young people’s aspirations with regard to science recognises the complex attitudinal challenge of increasing the pursuit of STEM studies and careers. It focuses upon the significance of building ‘science capital’, acknowledging their limited awareness of the varied application of science. It also recommends early intervention, from primary school age (Archer et al. 2013b) and situating learning to challenge popular perceptions and cultures of STEM subjects, such as its masculinity (Archer et al 2013a).

This paper describes the conceptualisation, design and evaluation of the 'Imagineerium' project, developed between a cultural and engineering organisation and the University of Warwick, to address such issues. The project developed from a performing arts and engineering partnership that has created nationally significant, community performance events. It also built upon experience of, and commitment to, developing young people’s creative capabilities. Critical is the situating of the physics / scientific processes, central to mechanical engineering, within a real-world project, led by arts processes. This prioritises embodied and situated learning (Rambusch and Ziemke 2005; Wilson 2010).

Research into the arts supports claims that it is both intrinsically and instrumentally beneficial (Steiner 2004; Dewey 1980; Matarasso 1997; Catterall 2009). The project hypothesised that a creative and artistically led educational experience could be instrumentally beneficial to the development of both pupils understanding of, and motivation for, STEM subjects, whilst feeding the habit of invention. The arts-led experience was conceived as the integrating context for these educational outcomes (Dewey 1980).

The presenter of this paper self-locates as an arts based educational practitioner migrating into a higher education role. As such the paper is grounded in an analysis of the arts as educationally significant. The intrinsic value of the arts and culture in society and learning is widely recognised yet its realisation and role remains a contested area. Steiner (2004), for example, considered a holistic (mind, body and soul) experience of the arts central to sensitising and realising the potential of the child. Whilst this integrated positioning of the arts is atypical in European schools (Bamford 2006), Steiner's influence and the wider progressive movement has contributed towards a view of the arts as intrinsically valuable to human development, innate and growable (Runco and Richards 1997; NACCCE 1999; Craft 2001; Jeffrey and Craft 2001). Nonetheless, recent European research argues an increasingly instrumental role for arts education, shaped significantly by the knowledge economy’s interest in creativity as a new kind of social capital. (Eurydice 2009).

A Bourdieuan perspective might suggest that the learning and creative inventions generated by these new partnerships between artists, engineers and young people, provide a kind of cultural and human capital (and the potential for economic capital). Arts-led experiences, like the Imagineerium project, potentially provide a context for embodied, purposeful creative learning across disciplines. Such experiences are also a context for trialling the more risky pedagogy of creative learning which challenge the controls of a standardised curriculum. (Craft 2003; Runco 2011; 179).

Method

Bourdieu’s notion of ‘reflexive sociology’ (Bourdieu and Waquant 2006), which emphasises the significance of habitus in shaping perspective, argues drawing on complexity theory and mixed methods. The research design privelegd the voices of all partners on this project who inhabit uncommon ground and are products of different cultures, embodying different traditions, processes, skills, materials and ways of thinking which regulate their working lives. Consequently the research uses traditional and new, creative tools in order for the evidence to speak persuasively to different audiences. Data was gathered from baseline and post-project scores for children’s learning in subject areas, surveys of participant self-evaluations and focus group interviews. In addition, a wealth of data was generated by piloting a newly-developed, creative evaluation. Each partner (artists, engineers, project workers, teachers – and later children) identified objectives which they considered important to the success of the project from their perspective. Collectively these objectives described key creative, engineering and arts skills or behaviours considered important for children to develop. Separately and together partners identified and planned how, within the sessions, they might measure a beginning-point and end-point project and evidence distance travelled. So evaluation was integral to all partners’ practice and was developed, authenticated and interpreted by partners, through a planning process which helped them theorise the changes they sought. Young people were engaged as active researchers, questioning selves and peers, often using digital media so that documentary elements of the process fed learning and provided research evidence. Three primary schools, five teachers, three engineers, three artists and seventy five pupils were involved. The development and design took place over a five-week period (half days in schools for four weeks with all partners with follow-up work outside that, and a full day in the prototype physical Imagineerium). The engineering build took place a month later over a two week period. As researchers external to the process, we analysed the evidence for feedback, connectedness and emergent structures to better understand the conditions which affected changes in learning and learning behaviour and to evidence what change happened. The research design sought to generate a Bourdieuan ‘sociology of reflection’ that might reveal emergent complex insights into the process of change and role of arts and creativity in that. This was an interactionist and constructivist approach which privileged ‘participatory, multi-perspectival, collaborative forms of research … looking through eyes of as many participants as possible’ (Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2011: 30).

Expected Outcomes

The paper develops a systematic account of the concept, practice, research design and findings from this pilot project evaluating the impact of a arts based approach to improving pupils understand and motivation in STEM subjects. In addition to pupil improvement data, the paper analyses key stakeholders' perception of the impact of the project on pupils and each other. It argues for the significance of arts based ‘integrated experience’ which connects and realises the potential of professional expertise both for children and adult learners. Key outcomes are: • Report on the usability of a creative form of project evaluation suitable to gather pupil perceptions • Initial emergent analysis of the potential of imagineerium-like approaches to support STEM education • Initial findings of the perceptions of the key stakeholders, and analysis in terms of the discipline specific presuppositions they bring to the project. It concludes by proposing that: • Appropriately designed arts-based practice has clear benefit to support STEM education • Key stakeholders understanding their own disciplinary background and showing an openness to learning with and from those of different backgrounds is critical to the success of the project. • The piloted creative methods of pupils' evaluation of the project's influence on their understanding of, and motivation to engage with, STEM education fed the project purpose and warrant further trialling.

References

Archer, L., DeWitt, J., Osborne, J., Dillon, J., Willis, B. Wong, B. (2013a) ‘Aspire: Young People’s science and careers aspirations ages 10-14’, Kings College Archer, L., DeWitt, J., Osborne, J., Dillon, J., Willis, B. Wong, B. (2013b.) ‘Not girly, not sexy, not glamorous’: primary school girls’ and parents’ constructions of science aspirations, Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 21:1, 171-194 Bamford, A. (2006) The Wow Factor: Global Research Compendium on the Impact of the Arts in Education, Waxmann Verlag Bourdieu,P. and Wacquant, L. (2006) ‘An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology’, The University of Chicago Press Catterall, J.S (2009) Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art,: The Effects of Education in the Visual and Performing Arts on the Achievements and Values of Young Adults Los Angeles/London: The Imagination Group Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2011) Research Methods in Education, Routledge Craft, A. (2001) ‘Little c creativity’ in Craft, A., Jeffrey, B. and Leibling, M. in Craft, A., Jeffrey, B. and Leibling, M.[Eds] Creativity in Education, London: Continuum Craft, A. (2003) ‘The Limits to Creativity in Education: Dilemmas for the Educator’, British Journal of Educational Studies, 51: 2, 113-127 Dewey, J. (1980) Art as Experience, Perigree Books Eurydice (2009) Arts and Cultural Education at School in Europe, Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency Jeffrey, B. and Craft, A. (2001) ‘The universalization of creativity in education’ in Craft, A., Jeffrey, B. and Leibling, M.[Eds] Creativity in Education, London: Continuum Matarasso, F. (1997) Use or Ornament?, Comedia National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE), (1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education, London: Department for Education and Employment Rambusch, J. & Ziemke, T. (2005) The Role of Embodiment in Situated Learning. In: Bara, B.G., Barsalou, L. and Bucciarelli, M. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 1803-1808., NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Runco, M. and Richards, R. (1997) Eminent Creativity Everyday Creativity and Health, Connecticut, Ablex Publishing Company Runco, Mark A. and Pritzker, Steven R (2011) Encyclopedia of Creativity 2nd ed, Academic Press Steiner, R (2004) A Modern Art of Education, Anthroposophic Press. Walsh, E., Anders, K., Hancock, S. and Elvidge, L. (2013) ‘Reclaiming creativity in the era of impact: exploring ideas about creative research in science and engineering’, Studies in Higher Education, 38:9, 1259-1273 Wilson, M. (2010). The retooled mind: How culture re-engineers cognition. Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience.

Author Information

Jo Trowsdale (presenting / submitting)

University of Warwick

Centre for Education Studies

Coventry

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