STEAM Education in elementary schools: A holistic investigation on technology enhanced teaching and learning

When we address the learning of mathematics in elementary school, we imagine pupils doing experiments, discoveries, and combining the different elements from arithmetics to geometry. Pupils interact with their environment and try to use their learned skills to get a deeper understanding of the world. They engage in a mathematical thinking process and try to interact with their environment. However, when you visit a classroom, you find a rather old fashioned teaching based on a deductive approach where imitations of technics play an essential role. Based on our observations, pupils learn mainly through to repetitions in textbooks. Experimentation, if any, comes as additional work, it is seen as a ludic activity rather than as real learning activity. In our research, we inquired about different ways to engage pupils in an experimental approach. We used digital and physical modulation, augmented reality, and various educational technologies.
In one of our first studies, we designed a tutoring system to foster process-related skills in mathematics within the educational software MathemaTIC . We collected data on pupils in assessments on transferring mathematical thinking from instructional technology to the everyday classroom teaching. In a second study, we worked with pupils from elementary schools, kindergarten, and from the special needs section to go beyond two-dimensional representations and discover how mathematics operates in three-dimensional settings. Pupils worked on designing software and three-dimensional printing. We collected data on how pupils and parents perceived the learning and teaching and how this influences the further thinking in mathematics. In a holistic approach, we aimed to identify how pupils, teachers and parents perceive the learning through these new technologies and how it affects the learning and teaching. Our research happened in onsite and remote teaching. In this conference, we will present results from the different studies, give insights into our research, and present future experimental investigations.