The Search for Method in STEAM Education (Palgrave Studies In Play, Performance, Learning, and Development)

This book explores various approaches to building a positive interdisciplinary STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) learning environment, as described by educators across the K-20 educational ladder. Crucial to their success, Martinez finds, is the playful and performatory approach they employ in their teaching. Their practices are creative, improvisational, and inclusive, and are shared in detail through illustrations and interviews. Throughout the book, the author explores a Vygotskian cultural performatory approach to creating interdisciplinary STEAM learning environments, drawing out the history of this approach and its success in fostering collaboration, creativity, leadership, and communication skills, as well as its effect on social, emotional, and cognitive growth in both formal and informal educational settings.

Jaime E. Martinez is Assistant Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Education at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), USA. His active research interests include STEAM education, service-learning pedagogy, and Vygotskian cultural performatory approaches to human development and learning.