The Critical Importance of STEAM Education

Australia/November 14, 2017

Did you know there were nearly 8.6 million STEAM jobs in 2015 (which is also 6.2 percent of U.S employment)? This data was provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and while it’s not as fresh as it could be, it still represents the whole picture quite well.

In other words, there’s a huge niche that remains in high demand and continues to grow each day. Moreover, nowadays it’s yet impossible to predict which jobs will appear in this niche during the next 10-20 years – but what we can say for sure is that they indeed, will appear.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

What isn’t great is that classical education is not enough to prepare students to take these jobs later. It isn’t surprising in general – after all, the whole educational system didn’t change much over the years, despite how much the technologies have developed. However, it also isn’t very pleasant. No matter how smart and flexible modern students are, if things remained the same, soon we would have found ourselves fighting the market crisis with too many new positions opened and too little people qualified to take them.

That’s why many modern colleges, universities, and schools slowly start offering STEAM education to the students.

What does STEAM education mean?

STEAM stands for «Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics». Basically, this is an educational method that is focused on these subjects mostly. Students who receive STEAM education are given the assignments that cover all of the subjects mentioned above and are mostly project-based.

Why was STEAM created?

Just like we’ve already mentioned above, the world has changed greatly over the years. Moreover, these changes happened with rapid speed – and it didn’t go unnoticed by many people, including educators.

It also didn’t go unnoticed by them that most of the traditional educational system stopped providing students with the skills needed to live in the modern world. The traditional education as it is these days, addressed problems of the past instead of preparing students for the future – and that’s why STEAM was invented as an alternative to it.

Moreover, the traditional education method is indeed more classic. While it has its perks, it doesn’t cover some subjects crucial for a developing world – engineering and design, for example. And it’s not the theory we’re talking about, it’s the thinking that matters. Sure, some students have this thinking even without a proper education, but we’ll need more students like them in the future and unfortunately, traditional education cannot guarantee that.

STEAM education, however, teaches students that; and that is only one of its many perks.

Why is STEAM important?

Probably one of the most important things about STEAM education is that it helps students develop critical thinking. It’s the critical thinking is so important to live in the modern world – after all, nowadays there are plenty of machines, technologies, and apps able to solve repetitive tasks. However, no machine or computer is yet skilled enough to solve problems that require creativity as well as critical thinking.

So, STEAM education teaches students that – how to be creative, how to solve problems effectively, how to think critically. It also helps them develop transferable skills, which is especially important considering that world continues to grow and change.

These changes will continue, but no one can predict exactly how. The students, however, need to be prepared to work in a growing world and take jobs that don’t exist at the moment – and they’ll need transferable skills to do so.

The process of mastering these skills requires students to respond to changes quickly as well as to adapt to them. This also helps them become more flexible – and, as the arts are included too, students can express their creativity and enjoy the process as well.

How is STEAM taught these days?

Although STEAM education is a new concept, it had already been successfully introduced to many students. It is mostly taught in colleges, helping students to master critical thinking, problem-solving, and use this knowledge to build new approaches, to complete projects using new skills and methods, and old solutions. It also teaches students how to come up with their own solutions to all kinds of problems.

STEAM education is also slowly introduced to young scholars and, hopefully, will become a part of school education all over the world.

Do you think that STEAM education really is the future? Or do you prefer the traditional one and think that it could be adapted effectively to the modern world too? Please share your thought and opinions in the comment section below, we will be glad to read them.

My bio: Lori Wade is a content writer for Elite Essay Writers who is interested in a wide range of spheres from education and online marketing to entrepreneurship. She is also an aspiring tutor striving to bring education to another level like we all do. If you are interested in writing, you can find her on Twitter or Google+ or find her on other social media. Read and take over Lori’s useful insights!

Lori Wade is a regular Maravi Post contributor.

The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the Publisher or the Editor of Maravi Post.

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