Enseñanza de STEM en Educación Primaria con metodologías activas y tecnologías

Resumen

This doctoral thesis aims to analyse the perspective of the educational community regarding the teaching of STEM areas (an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), as well as to evaluate the use of active methodologies and technologies in the teaching of these disciplines in Primary Education. This research is part of the European project CREATE-Skills, in which the Educational Technology Research Group of the University of Murcia participated together with other institutions from Portugal, Greece and Lithuania. The work has been developed in several phases: desk research and needs detection, design of an open-access web platform with various functionalities, and the implementation and evaluation of an educational innovation experience. For the needs analysis in the initial phase, non-experimental exploratory research was carried out using a mixed methodology with the application of questionnaires and interviews. The participants in this phase were 67 teachers, 141 students, 40 families, and 7 directors of public primary schools in the Region of Murcia, Spain. From this descriptive study, we conclude that a traditional methodology is still used for teaching STEM. Teachers deem the lack of resources to be the major impediment to carry out more practical and motivating teaching approach. Although no significant gender differences are found in terms of the students' perspective on STEM, there is a more critical view on the part of female teachers than male teachers regarding the methodologies used for teaching STEM, their own training to teach these subjects efficiently, or the influence of these aspects on students' motivation. In a second phase, the CREATE-Skills platform and a kit of Open Educational Resources were designed to teach STEM with active methodologies and technologies. This open-access web platform includes this kit of resources, a virtual community of teachers to encourage the exchange of teaching experiences, and a gallery of experiments to promote collaboration with families. We evaluate the implementation of an educational innovation experience. The participants of this experience were 5 teachers, 117 students, and 55 families from the public school associated with the project. After analysing the data obtained from this evaluative research, we conclude that the experience had a positive influence on the students' motivation, self-efficacy, and interest in STEM. Most of the participants view the experience and the OER used, available on the CREATE-Skills platform, very positively. The objectives have been met in terms of the active methodologies used, which have favoured experiential experiences in authentic contexts, teamwork, and the integration of the contents worked on. It is also concluded that there is a need to promote the involvement of families in the STEM learning process. Finally, several lines of research are identified on which attention should be focused in the coming years, such as the gender gap in STEM, the role of school management teams as educational leaders, or teacher training for teaching STEM, with special attention to digital competence.