STEAM approach for improving 21st century skills of multicultural students attending inclusive classroom

Abstract

Since educational institutions were concerned with the development of special education needs, various techniques of instructional practices have been discovered and an inclusive concept has become more realistic. This experimental research aimed to study the level of eight 21st century skills which include English literacy, numeracy, scientific literacy, problem-solving, creativity, communication, collaboration, and social and cultural awareness of the students in inclusive classroom, to examine the level of eight 21st century skills of the students in inclusive classroom after intervened by STEAM approach. Sixteen grade 6 students attended the inclusive classroom for two semesters, plus three children with autism. The theme for the first semester was “mix-match-make to be the pastry baker,” and the other for the second semester was “design thinking producing gadgets.” The findings revealed that after completing two-semester projects, all eight 21st century skills of sixteen participants had been promoted as there were significantly different scores between pre-test and post-test (p ≤ .01). In the case of the three autistic participants, the development of eight skills was reported by parents and the special education teachers, and all skills had reported improvement. The research findings would directly be beneficial to the special education teachers who are working on inclusive education as the process of teaching can be adopted in various classrooms and would give rise to the government sectors or relevant organizations to support or conduct research supporting sustainable development goals.