A model of educational processes called multidisciplinary gradual is presented, whose objective is to guide the teacher in the teaching-learning of STEAM educational activities using as a use case the topic of basic logic gates, which associates mathematical, algebraic, electronic, and logical knowledge, presenting the theory and strengthening it in practice. The topic of logic gates is not directly related to the middle-higher level educational plan; however, it is possible to apply and deepen it by relating the basic mathematical operations. The work describes the three stages that make up the model, achieving that students approach a problem or topic from different contexts, each discipline contributes its own knowledge and qualities, but not necessarily integrated in the common understanding of the problem, so that they develop the foundations to solve interdisciplinary and/or transdisciplinary problems. At the end, the results obtained by using this model with data from a control group and an intervention group are demonstrated with statistical analysis.
TopBackground
STEAM education is a paradigm with the goal of developing skills that depends on three approaches: 1) Interdisciplinary, this involves the collaboration of different disciplines, each contributing content from their own point of view and specific skills to address a complex topic or problem (Conde et al., 2021; Greca, Ortiz-Revilla & Arriassecq, 2021); 2) Transdisciplinary, focuses on transcending disciplinary barriers and exploring the topic from a global perspective by incorporating both expertise and knowledge from various disciplines (Li et al., 2020; Peterson & Hipple, 2020; Huffman, Thomas & Basham, 2020); and 3) Multidisciplinary, which involves combining different disciplines, knowledge and qualities but independently to address the complex issue or problem (Flores-Nicolás & Martínez, 2022; McLure, Tang & Williams, 2022). STEAM aims to foster 21st century skills (creativity, critical thinking, logical-mathematical thinking, problem solving, among others) to prepare students to face current and future challenges to complex and unknown problems (Conde et al., 2021; Krüger & Chiappe, 2021).
The importance of STEAM education lies in facilitating the understanding and application of knowledge from traditionally separate disciplines to develop the skills needed for the jobs of the future in an increasingly technological and changing world (Li et al., 2022; Wang et al. 2022). In addition, it seeks to improve diversity and inclusion with the participation of women and minorities in these fields to reduce the gender and ethnic diversity gap (Nasri et al., 2021). This is due in part to the inclusion of the arts, allowing students to gain a different perspective, not only to maximize professional or academic opportunities, but also in personal and social development (Lorenzo-Lledó, 2023). Broadly speaking, STEAM education helps to make the development of STEM subjects more attractive, achieving a personal improvement to expand professional opportunities.