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We are delighted to launch a new monthly online reading group on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) education. This series is designed to bring together researchers, practitioners, and doctoral students from across the UK and internationally to engage in critical discussion of influential academic work that is shaping thinking in STEAM education research.

Each month, an educational researcher will select a published paper (circulated in advance) that has had a significant impact on their scholarly journey. They will introduce the text, explain its importance, and reflect on how it has informed their research, teaching, or practice. Participants will then be invited into a facilitated discussion where they can debate the paper’s ideas, examine its implications for educational policy and practice, and explore its relevance across different contexts and disciplines.

Draft Programme

13:00pmÌý Ìý ÌýWelcome
13:05pmÌý Ìý ÌýSpeaker critique of chosen paper
13:25pmÌý Ìý ÌýSeminar discussion
13:50pmÌý Ìý ÌýProject updates from SIG members
14:00pmÌý Ìý ÌýClose of Event

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Events in the series:

• March 2nd 2026 – Dr. Felicity McLure, Charles Darwin University

  Seven Key Characteristics of Integrated STEM: Are these the key to STEAM? Do our STEAM projects hit the mark?

  This seminar will discuss Roehrig et al.’s (2021) conceptualization ofÌý best practice in designing integrated STEM experiences for students. They propose seven key characteristics of integrated STEM projects that they argue are indicative of best practice. These characteristics include: focus on real world problems, engagement with engineering design, explicit context and content integration, engagement in authentic STEM practices and 21^st century skills and explicit links made with STEM careers. We will discuss whether these characteristics are also indicative of best practice when designing STEAM projects. Are there other characteristics that are also key to engaging diverse groups of students with STEAM? We will have an opportunity to reflect about how well the projects that we have designed and run with students address these characteristics.

  The presentation will be about 15 minutes long and will be followed by a discussion of the implications of this research to STEAM education.

  Roehrig, G. H., Dare, E. A., Ellis, J. A., & Ring-Whalen, E. (2021). Beyond the basics: a detailed conceptual framework of integrated STEM. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research, 3(11).

• April 13th 2026 – Dr Francesca Arrigoni

  Interdisciplinary STEM education reform: dishing out art in a microbiology laboratory.

  This work examines Adkins‑Jablonsky et al.’sÌýAgar Art: a CURE for the Microbiology Laboratory, 2021Ìýto consider how learners new to a scientific topic or subject may begin to understand itÌý when contact is through creative, low‑stakes making rather than purely procedural tasks. The empirical, evidence in this paper indicates consistent improvements in attitudes toward the Nature of Science across distinct teaching contexts, with engagement highest during an ²¹²µ²¹°ù‑a°ù³Ù activity integrated within a course‑based undergraduate research experience (CURE).Ìý While novelty must have certainly contributed to the students ‘motivation, the pattern of results suggested that continued ontological reading of images and artefacts as technologies, that disclose phenomena and structures ofÌý what can be known— contributed to a trained judgement in the students, positioning it as a complementary form of expertise alongside mechanical objectivity.

  Within this framework, making (technê) may be understood as epistemic rather than decorative: haptic practice and visual reasoning can support relational understanding prior to formal didactic learning, offering a plausible pathway by which engagement precedes gains in science education. This theory suggests that early, image‑rich, hands‑on tasks can foster the discernment needed to interpret complex representations, potentially strengthening scientific identity and confidence. Taken together, the available evidence and the ontological perspective encourage a reconsideration of how creative activities are situated in laboratory teaching. It may be reasonable to view making‑as‑knowing as one of several legitimate routes by which students come to perceive scientific patterns, with subjectivity—when cultivated as trained judgement—contributing to the formation of sound scientific understanding.

• May 18th 2026 – Dr Saima Salajhee, University of Strathclyde
  
  ‘STEAM success stories’: refocusing the framework of intersectionality.London Review of Education, 21(1), 32.Ìý

• June 8th 2026 – Dr Lindsay Hetherington, University of Exeter

  A framework for effective STEAM education: Pedagogy for responding to wicked problems.ÌýInternational Journal of Education Research Open, 9, p100474.Ìý

• July 13th 2026 –ÌýDr Amanda McCrory, IOE