Reclaiming the Democratic Heart of STEM Education

• In Event: 28.062 - The Art in Science and the Science in Art

Abstract

Contemporary educational reform focuses on the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. These efforts are premised on instrumental goals, including career preparation for students and a concern for national economic competitiveness. This paper argues for improved STEM education, but on behalf of democratic engagement and citizenship as higher goals than the more commonly pursued instrumental goals. Drawing on Dewey’s concepts of experience, growth, and habit, as well as complementary progressive efforts by David Hawkins and the Bank Street College of Education, the author proposes an alternative model of STEM education founded on transactional constructivism. There, students and teachers engage in iterative transactions with each other and the world, leading to progressively more complex warranted assertions backed by evidence-based reasoning.

Author

• Bob Coulter, Missouri Botanical Garden