Examining the effect of STEAM approach applications on attitude towards STEAM in visual arts education: Examining the effect of STEAM approach applications

The aim of present study is to decide the effect of Visual Arts Education delivered with the activities developed as a part of STEAM approach, which is based on the integration of Art into the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, on the attitude towards the disciplines that constitute this approach. Views upon STEM approach also are identified. This study, which was carried out in a public school based in a central district city in the Western Black Sea region of Turkey, lasted 6 weeks as a part of the Visual Arts course. There are 48 students studying in 6th grade as for research sample, 25 of which are experimental and 23 are control group. Embedded mixed design, one of the mixed design types was used in the study. Quantitative data were obtained with STEAM Attitude Scale using a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group. In qualitative terms, data was collected by semi-structured interviews on the basis of case study. STEAM Attitude Scale data were analyzed by dependent / independent groups t test and ANCOVA. Content analysis was used for analysing the semi-structured interview form data. When the research findings were examined, a significant difference was found in favor of the post-test between the experimental group STEAM Attitude Scale pre-test-post-test mean scores. As a result of the analysis of the post-test scores of the experimental and control groups, a significant difference was found in favor of the experimental group. With the STEAM approach, it has been concluded that visual arts education leads to an increase in individuals' attitudes towards the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics disciplines that form STEAM. When the interview findings were examined, it was found that the positive opinions of the experimental group regarding the process carried out with the STEAM approach were intense. Based upon the findings, it has been determined that the application has a helpful effect on the development of attitude towards STEAM disciplines. Suggestions have been made to researchers and program makers to clarify the framework of the STEAM approach and to enrich the application examples