education
sciences
Article
Fostering Critical Reflection in Primary Education
through STEAM Approaches
Marcel Bassachs 1 , Dolors Cañabate 2,3 , Lluís Nogué 2,3 , Teresa Serra 4 , Remigijus Bubnys 5
and Jordi Colomer 3,4, *
1
2
3
4
5
*
Department of Pedagogy, University of Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain;
[email protected]
Department of Specific Didactics, University of Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain;
[email protected] (D.C.);
[email protected] (L.N.)
Teaching Innovation Networks on Reflective and Cooperative Learning, Institute of Sciences Education,
University of Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain
Department of Physics, University of Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain;
[email protected]
Institute of Education, Siauliai University, 25 Visinskio Street, 76351 Siauliai, Lithuania;
[email protected]
Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +34-630-349-766
Received: 16 November 2020; Accepted: 14 December 2020; Published: 16 December 2020
Abstract: This paper describes a quantitative study that explores teaching practices in primary
education to sustain the hypothesis that students’ critical thinking may be activated through
individual and group reflection. The study examines the quality of the reflections from primary
school students during group processing when participating in Science, Technology, Engineering,
Arts, and Math (STEAM) instructional approaches. The project’s core methodology lies in scientific
(physics) and artistic (dance) instructional activities which were executed in a continuous reflective and
cooperative learning environment. The educational approach was refined by analyzing the reflective
discussions from focus groups where descriptive, argumentative, reflective and critical reflective
knowledge about acquired knowledge, competences, beliefs, attitudes and emotions were considered.
While the educational intervention proved that 1st-year (K-7) students essentially reflected at the
level of description, 3rd-year (K-9) and 5th-year (K-11) students, however, attained higher levels of
individual critical reflection development than initially anticipated. The STEAM approaches were
found to produce significant use and understanding of both science and artistic concepts and to
increase a sense of competence readiness and a perception of modes of cooperation such as individual
responsibility and promotive interaction.
Keywords: learning; STEAM education; competence; critical reflection
1. Introduction
Reflection is one of the most exciting competences in primary, secondary and tertiary education
systems because it empowers students in their personal learning [1]. Reflective learning relates
to the needs of an ever-advancing world by ensuring a constant understanding of continuously
changing social and environmental paradigms and where experiential knowledge is activated through
continuous inquiring and self-assessment [2,3]. In the educational context, knowledge acquisition
not only demands inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches and competences [4–7], but also entails
transformative instructional approaches [1]. Reflection connects previous and new experiences
with existing knowledge and skills; all of which are essential in defining students’ specific learning
outcomes [8,9]. Reflection can also offer a way of identifying, in terms of acquisition of systems
thinking, transversal and specific competences, attitudes and emotions as explicit outcomes, the unique
Educ. Sci. 2020, 10, 384; doi:10.3390/educsci10120384
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learning style(s) of each student [4]. The complex nature of education requires continuously evaluating
environments and societies [1], to ensure increasing inclusivity, reflectivity and democracy to “boost the
cognitive and emotional development of children with effects that persist into adulthood” [3] (p. 2).
Promoting STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) activities relies heavily
on integrating the arts into STEM to reshape education in the sciences and humanities, and which
are then supported by trans-disciplinary frameworks within which real-world problems can be
solved [10]. Perignat and Katz-Buoincontrono [11] postulated that STEAM can enhance students’
creativity, critical thinking, innovation, collaboration, and interpersonal communication skills. However,
while the educational outputs behind STEAM activities are well established, it can be argued that
their development strategies are still a weak point [8]. Continuous independent research and
development, cutting-edge projects, mechanisms for curriculum design and transformation, multi-angle
course effectiveness verification and contextualized learning are all key educational strategies [12,13],
along with strategies based on STEM practices that foster students’ results in terms of knowledge,
understanding, skills development, values and attitudes [14], that are yet to be fully developed.
Reflective learning can be closely linked to STEAM practices [12]. Through reflection, students
can develop and acquire strategic competences [15], skills [6,7], attitudes and emotions [16] concerning
their future actions, along with an initial recognition of personal identity [1]. Reflective learning
increases self-knowledge and helps to identify correlation between different scientific domains [3],
as well as understand the processes of community and society [1,4,17]. These are the basis of connecting
the arts to science [3,4]. Reflection, for example, is intended to examine, frame and contextualize
scientific questions to answer hypotheses during experimentation, and also to query and reflect
on individual responsibility during active experimentation [18,19]. Reflective practices also focus
on behavioral, emotional, and social principles to enhance students’ engagement as learners [9].
Reflection might create the conditions to define personalized learning pathways for the uptake of
knowledge and to develop and acquire of specific competences [3,4]. Reflective practices prompt
individual-centered reflection on how to increase one’s own engagement as a learner, thus leading
to deep learning outcomes [15,20]. Outcomes and skills have both been recognized to positively
influence the acquisition of learning [21,22]. Reflective learning, a component of reflection, has a direct
implication for the transformation of activity, feelings, emotions, and empathies during experiential
action [16,23,24]. Reflection begins by considering one’s personal activity, ideas, beliefs and feelings [1],
while also considering the processes, mechanisms of various environmental and social contexts [1].
It is widely recognized that students develop higher cognitive processes and activate individual
self-knowledge when they pose questions [7], identify problems, find outputs and solutions [6],
and produce actions, activities and goals [25].
Reflective learning, in environmental and social contexts, results in focusing and optimizing
activities to best impact quality teaching [26]. However, despite this, reflective activities have been
poorly explored in STEAM education and the positive impact gained by combining arts and science
environments in primary school is still to be recognized. Consequently, this is not reflected in teacher
training in the different disciplines, and thus is still a major issue [13,14]. Unlike in secondary and
tertiary education, STEAM activities are yet to be effectively contextualized in primary education and
this is widely recognized as a seriously underdeveloped educational strategy [3,8]. Interdisciplinary
STEAM educational approaches can be used to stimulate individual and group reflection for continued
personal development as citizens and enable one to make important decisions in complex settings
such as those encountered in environmental education [2,27]. It is especially important that primary
students participate in group research using discussions addressed to encourage personal development,
awareness and communication skills, all of which are the basis for developing STEAM education [9,10].
STEAM activities embedded with reflection and cooperation as their foundation for scientific and
artistic education skills and content [15,19] are found to develop higher levels of thinking and learning
among students [8,15,19]. As such, learning takes place in a community-centered environment where
both creativity and critical thinking represent a students’ development and progress [28]. Teaching the
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sciences and the arts cooperatively provides primary school students with the opportunity to improve
their abilities to interact and communicate with their peers and teachers [29,30]. It also promotes joint
thinking and respect for others [8,31] and provides primary school teachers with the skills necessary
to assess their students during the process of developing strategies to operationalize contextualized
scientific and artistic concepts [32,33]. However, despite such findings for tertiary education [19],
little is known about the perception the primary school community has on promoting competences
through active approaches to further operationalize students’ competences.
The pragmatic notion of reflection was first reported as incorporating reflection to action [34] so as
to engage students in a process of continuous learning [1,5]. The works of Kolb [35] and Kolb [36],
established the basis for experiential learning as being the active creation of knowledge through the
transformation of experiences. Schön [37] described the process of reflecting as a dialogue between
thinking and doing [38]. Consequently, learning occurs through action [15,38,39] with learners
undergoing experiential cycles several times [26]. In STEM classroom environments, knowledge
transformation is mainly based on the early stages of Kolb’s model where only concrete experiences
are described with almost no processes on reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and/or
active experimentation being activated. Some authors [15,40] argued for effective grounded learning
environments in which students initiate unique trajectories to learning. Though employing reflective
activities in STEM education has been partially explored, this is not the case—despite being highly
recommended—for STEAM education [8,41]. Abdulwaked and Nagy [42] and Bassachs et al. [8]
noted that the impact scientific laboratory classes have on student’ progress is yet to be recognized,
and the role formal and non-formal education plays in engineering and science education should be
reformulated. Thuneberg et al. [10] and Perignat and Katz-Buonincontro [11] report that in STEAM
education, students should be experiencing constructivist pedagogy to gain a sense of belonging,
self-esteem and autonomy, and, in return, this kind of education would serve as a motivating factor
towards pursuing professional identity.
A hybrid combination of STEAM processes might produce modes of effective learning [1,8,22,33].
For instance, arts education could include learning outcomes in creativity and critical thinking [11],
because grounded learning appears when there is a concrete situation. For example, the learner
specifies the learning goals for the transformation of some beliefs, experiences and/or prior knowledge
(about themselves, the context or profession), argues and transfers learning based on scientific evidence
and also implements improving alternatives and argues them without shortcomings and mistakes,
thus closing the reflective cycle [5]. As stated by Crouch and Mazur [43], students might develop
complex reasoning skills when they are effectively engaged with the methodology, objectives and
goals of the experience. Therefore, it is important to engage students in reflection processes to
confront them with dynamic cross-instructional approaches with which to confront environmental and
social questions.
The aim of this study is then twofold: (i) to examine the quality of the reflections of primary
school students to discern the degree of reflection for K-7 (1st year), K-9 (3rd year) and K-11 (5th year)
primary school students through STEAM instructional approaches, and (ii) to compare, quantitatively,
reflection levels between 1st-, 3rd- and 5th-year primary school students to determine the level of the
students’ critical thinking and sense of competence readiness.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
Ninety K-7 (1st year), K-9 (3rd year) and K-11 (5th year) primary-school students (30 students
per year and two classes per year) were supervised by the authors of this manuscript and by two
teachers for each group: one a specialist in science education and the other in physical education.
The distribution by sex was as follows: K-7 classes had 43.4% girls and 56.6% boys; in the K-9 classes,
52.3% were girls and 47.7% boys; in the K-11 classes, 55.4% were girls and 44.6% boys. The mean age
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for the K-7 students was 6.34 years, for the K-9 students 8.60 years and for the K-11 students 10.71 years.
Ethnicity was more varied in the group of 1st-year students (29.4%), while for the 3rd-year students it
was 25% and 13% for the 5th-year students. In the 1st-year class, for example, there were students
from Morocco, the People’s Republic of China, Nigeria and Senegal.
The classes were selected from a public school associated with the University of Girona.
Students from K-7, K-9 and K-11 participated in six groups of 15 students, i.e., two groups of
15 students per year. Through the school coordinator, all the students were informed of the educational
approach and objectives, as well as provided with information about all the science experiments,
the dance activities, the materials and the issues on reflection through discussions during group
processing. In addition, the University of Girona requested permission from the students’ families to
allow their children to participate in the study and to be recorded during the group processing. Families
were also informed about the privacy of the data and that it would be used only for research purposes.
2.2. Sequential Methodologies and Conceptual Framework
To facilitate the students’ initiation into each scientific experiment, they were first placed and asked
to build a conceptual map to reflect on previous knowledge concerning specific scientific parameters.
Next, the students were presented with the experiment along with all its variables and their qualities.
They then performed the six in-class experiments together and discussed the basis of the scientific
experiments. In the subsequent (third stage) group reflection session, the students redrew their initial
conceptual map, categorizing the scientific concepts and their qualities. In this activity, both the teacher
and the researchers introduced a set of questions to contextualize each experiment. The objective being
to promote self-reflection and improve the students’ skills in communicating science. Then, in the
fourth stage, the students translated the scientific variables (i.e., time, space, mass, velocity, rhythm, etc.)
to physical variables and their qualities. In the fifth stage, the groups were asked to cooperatively
develop these concepts through dance challenges, which would later be demonstrated to the whole
class. During this stage, the students explored and explained the scientific parameters and concepts
by creating artistic proposals through movement, which were, in turn, the synergies between the
experiments and their interpretations of them. In addition, teachers and researchers promoted the
dimensions of cooperative learning, as such, positive interdependence, promotive interaction and
individual responsibilities. In alignment with Spanish education policy requirements, mutual respect
independent of diverse levels of activity, gender, origin or condition was fostered.
During the final stage of the instructional approach, the students participated in groups of five in
an open discussion with the primary school teacher and one of the researchers. The students were
asked to reflect on the whole process by expressing their perceptions of the acquisition of scientific
contents, the processes related to the experiments, and the process of producing creative developments.
They were also asked to think about cooperation and collaboration within the groups, interpersonal
relationships, acquired competences, emotions, beliefs and skills. The open discussions lasted for one
hour. In all, seventy-two group discussions were recorded; they were transcribed into text and later
analyzed by the researchers.
The methodology can be described in four stages (Table 1) each corresponding to the consecutive
stages of the educational approach: reflection and exploration of each experiment (stage 1), reflection
on both scientific and artistic parameters and their qualities (Stage 2), development of reflective group
analysis (stage 3), and reflection on competences, skills and emotions (Stage 4).
In the first stage, the teachers presented the students with each experiment, the taxonomy of
concepts and the topics to be covered in a group session. They then asked the students to explicate
their prior knowledge concerning their participation in scientific experiments and research and their
knowledge about scientific experiments and their qualities. Further comprehension was facilitated
by drawing up a conceptual map, with an emphasis on concepts, qualities and contextualization [8],
for each scientific experiment. The basis for the educational approaches chosen were STEAM
experiments including scientific and artistic frameworks. The six scientific experiments were divided
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into three well-established fundamentals: experiments to consolidate recently acquired knowledge
(the Galileo pendulum, waves and falling objects), and the other three to introduce the new knowledge
(circular movement, flowing winds and the inclined plane (Table 2)). Both the scientific and artistic
parameters describing the experiments are listed in Table 2. All stages correspond to strands in
the Spanish curriculum for science and physical education (where dance is included) promoting
the following competences in science: (i) by posing research questions about science, cycle life of
organisms in nature, functioning of ecosystems, students should identify main characteristic and
dynamical processes and produce quality descriptions and understandings, (ii) explain complex
phenomena including their qualities, and begin with the transformation of observations to written/oral
communication, (iii) find explanations for the interactions between humans and environment, and the
description of basic scientific laboratory procedures and principles behind science, and (iv) participate
in cooperative groups, through individual responsibility, supportive member action, dialogical attitude
for promotive interaction, arguing and contrasting opinions with peers in continuous feedback with
them and the teacher. In addition, the following competences in arts education were also fostered:
(i) communicate creatively the basis of experiments using the expressive resources of one’s own body,
and (ii) participate in cooperative activities around dance reflecting linguistic, corporal–kinesthetic
and artistic expression parameters.
Table 1. Description of stages based on their research contents.
Stages
Content
Stage 1
(a)
(b)
Explicating the known in-group cooperation (by verbal individual communication)
Hands-on experimentation (individually and in group cooperation)
Stage 2
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
Conceptualization of scientific parameters
Conceptualization of qualities of scientific parameters
Contextualization of scientific parameters
Translation of scientific concept to movement–dance (group cooperation)
Stage 3
(g)
Reflective analysis (written reflection and group conceptual map)
Stage 4
(h)
Reflection on competences, skills, attitudes and emotions
In the artistic field, for the 1st- and 3rd-year students, the aim is to quantitatively enrich the
child’s movement, giving priority to the variety of experiences and leaving the students to look for
various motor solutions. For a 5th-year student, the quality in the movement is directed to motivate
and encourage the effectiveness and the expressiveness of the movement. A 1st-year student must
communicate through simple expressive manifestations, while a 3rd-year student must be able to
communicate through more elaborate expressive manifestations and a 5th-year student must be able
to do so creatively and using all the expressive resources of the body itself. Specifically, 1st-year
students should (i) position themselves in space in relation to others using basic topological notions,
(ii) balance the body by adopting different postures, controlling tension, relaxation and breathing,
and (iii) move, jump, turn, throw, receive, and handle objects in various ways by varying body
positions. Meanwhile, a 3rd-year student should (i) orient the space in relation to the position of their
classmates and objects using topological notions, and (ii) move, jump and rotate differently through
coordinated body movement and propose simple rhythmic structures. Finally, a 5th-year student
should (i) adjust body movements to different changes in the conditions of an activity using topological
notions, (ii) develop active behaviors to stimulate and adjust one’s performance to one’s own bodily
possibilities and limitations, (iii) move, jump, and turn in a coordinated way by adapting to different
scientific experiments, and (iv) represent complex situations using the expressive resources of the body.
In the scientific field, during the first and third years, the learning of procedures must be relevant,
while during the fifth year the use of procedures is promoted as a research tool and as a way of
conceptualization. Specifically, a 1st-year student should (i) collaborate in groupwork tasks, contrast and
value the explanations of others with one’s own with respect, and (ii) ask questions about certain
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facts and phenomena using search strategies data and communicate the results orally, graphically
and/or physically. A 3rd-year student should (i) ask questions about the experiments to obtain relevant
information through direct and indirect systematic observation, (ii) show initiative, understand the
relationships and creativity with other experiments worked on and (iii) value groupwork demonstrating
an attitude of cooperation and responsible participation, accepting differences with respect and tolerance
for the ideas and contributions of others in dialogues and debates. Finally, a 5th-year student should
(i) show initiative and creativity in problem solving, (ii) ask questions about the experiments performed,
(iii) assess the relationships with other learning experiences and acquisition and (iv) demonstrate an
ability to synthesize the observation(s) and experimentation.
Table 2. Scientific experiments with the associated artistic (dance/movement) and scientific concepts.
Experiment
Dance Concepts
Scientific Concepts
The Galileo pendulum
Rhythm, synchronization. Order, sequence, and
progression. Space, amplitude and time. Control of
the moving body. Spatial perception. Orientation
and temporal structure. Displacements. Direction
and trajectory.
Uniform movement
The planets
Forces in a body
Transversal and
longitudinal waves
Fluency of movements, use of space, laterality, spatial
orientation.
Waves and sound
Falling objects
The intensity or energy of movement, gravity, inertia,
and fluidity. Muscle tension and relaxation, body
control, balance and imbalance.
Falling object
Measurements:
longitude and time
Learning to classify
Real movements
Rectilinear movements
Circular movement
Planes and body axes, synchronization, rotations and
displacements.
Circular movements
Equilibrium of forces
Flowing winds
Fluidity of movement of the whole body. Shape,
body and space. Global and analytical movements.
Perception of tension and relaxation. Displacements,
turns and jumps.
Movements and energy
Real movements
Forces in a body
Inclined plane
Static and dynamic balance. Intensity, speed,
acceleration. Strength and agility.
Equilibrium of forces
Rectilinear movements
2.3. Data Analysis
During the final stage of the experiments, reflection was organized with the primary school
students communicating to the group their perceptions. Each group discussion was formed by five
individuals and the group discussion was managed by the schoolteachers and one member of the
research team with the whole process consisting of 72 focus groups. During the group processing, all the
individuals were asked to reflect on perceptions including acquisition of scientific and artistic concepts,
personal development of competences, skills, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions. Each group processing
session lasted an hour. A member from the research team, together with a teacher, participated in
the group discussion. The research directed the process of inquiring, consisting of open questions,
while, during the process, the primary school teacher was providing support. All the group discussion
sessions were videotaped. An initial analysis was carried out in which those perceptions that presented
repetition were discarded. The full experiment consisted of a final 374 min video and all the information
was fully transcribed for analysis. The coding of the information was undertaken by the research
team, in subgroups of two, who initially agreed 93% of the information for students’ units and
categories [19,44]. Our analysis considered first, units describing either physical education, sciences or
general comments on knowledge, methodologies, materials, applications, competence, difficulties,
and attitudes. This resulted in a total of 242 units, some of which feature in Table 3. Likewise, this task
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was undertaken by members of the research team, divided into different subgroups of two members
each, who were, for the most part, in an agreement of 97%. Discussion between the first two members
and the second two members helped to resolve disagreements and endorse agreement [44]. The level
of reflection was assessed using the four scales from Kember et al. [45], in which the level of reflection
in the group discussions is likely to contain four categories: descriptive, argumentative, reflective and
critical reflective [45,46]. This analysis is already being used to analyze written reflective narratives by
pre-service students [6,19]. Using such a model of categories allows for analytical assessment between
the four-category scheme related to contents of the four stages described in Table 1.
Table 3. Units (sentences) of reflection by students in the areas of science and arts (through dance)
education for each level of the reflective learning.
Area
Level
Unit
Description
The force and the axis are linked to movement.
Not all the balls fall at the same speed. The big ones are the fastest.
The swing of the pendulum depends on how long the wire is, and nothing else.
Speed can be fast or slow, but not space.
Some waves can move back and forth.
Argumentation
I’ve learned that when a ball falls inside a tube it goes faster or slower depending
on the type of ball and the type of tube.
During the wave experiment, I was thinking with the waves in the beach.
When we were experimenting with objects in the air, I felt like an airplane.
Space, time and velocity are related to movement.
Balls move downwards due to gravity.
Reflection
The swing of the pendulum reminds me of the movement of a snake or what DNA
looks like.
To be able to fly you have to have very large rooms, which is something I don’t have.
I wonder if the fish also feel or see the waves.
The better I understand the concepts of physics the better I incorporate them into
my movement.
I can’t always make movements that express science.
Critical
reflection
I learned to build experiments by myself and that with just a few materials you can
build an experiment.
It’s more fun to do the experiments with your teammates than alone.
Working as a group means we could fix any complications.
In group experiments I feel responsible for the task assigned to me.
I would love to be able to build the experiments for myself.
Description
My arms and body can act like an axis when I turn.
Some of the movements need more than one person to be performed.
I control the directions of the movement very well.
To turn I have to coordinate my head, legs and arms, and to maintain the vertical
axis of my body so as not to lose my balance.
I rotate faster when my arms are attached to the body.
Argumentation
Everyone is full of axes. You just have to move to see them.
Almost all objects can move: fast, slow, right, left, up and down. People too.
The movement to the moon is lighter because there is less gravity.
When I do turns I imagine that I am a music box dancer, but I can also move in
different directions and speeds, it is more fun.
It is the gravity that makes us heavy.
Reflection
Without movement many things aren’t possible.
It’s easier to get into physics when you bring it alive.
Only when we move around the others can we see the twists.
I would never have imagined I could learn about science by dancing.
I am able of performing better when I understand the movement in my body.
Critical
reflection
It is my responsibility to carry out good dance movements.
Movement is not the same as dance, dance requires cooperation.
I want more movement activities so that I can talk, discuss with my friends and
learn other subjects better.
I have realized what I have to do to learn. I have to think, ask questions, give my
opinion, listen, communicate and experiment with my body in movement that I
have never done.
Science motivates me more when I consciously share it with colleagues.
Science education
Dance education
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The descriptive level corresponds to units from stage 1 where the scientific experiments and
artistic practices were described by a very simple sentence or scheme and were merely descriptive
and without reflection. The students expressed their understanding of the principles behind the
experiments and the artistic practices. The second category of analysis, argumentation, while still not
considered as reflection, implies an understanding of either the scientific and artistic concepts or the
experiments behind them. The students might explicate the relationships between experiments and the
real world. During argumentation, the experimentation is not related to personal learning or personal
competences. This corresponds to stage 2. The third category, reflection, is linked to stage 3. At this
stage, the students’ comments are closely linked to the learning process, i.e., the student presents a
sense of belonging and competence. The student is able to suggest high levels of reasoning which
includes the organization and development of some of the experiments through a process of reflection
in which the experiments were discussed in relation to what was being taught. These were also personal
insights going beyond theory, where the students critically and reflectively analyzed all the learning.
The fourth category, critical reflection, is linked to stage 4 and implies undergoing a transformation
of perspective because the students can now propose areas of application for the concepts from the
scientific experiments, or manifest the competences learned cooperatively. The students describe
all the processes by employing their own arguments, using significant motivating contextualization,
mainly on reflecting on the qualities of science and dance, formulating direct questions derived from
the experiments, and creating role models to explain the experiments. The students then transferred
the physical parameters into creative and inclusive modes of physical education.
Table 3 presents the classification of primary school students’ comments corresponding to the
students’ reflections for both the science and dance education domains. Units are categorized in
terms of the reflective levels of description, argumentation, reflection and critical reflection. Students
individualized the knowledge through the transformation of scientific and artistic experiences.
They were able to assign the relevant parameters such as force, axes, rotation, mass, etc.,
to each experience. Students also expressed reflective observation by conceptualizing concepts
or acknowledging the attitudes and feelings that were evoked. Some students considered that the
experiences had provided a way to dually learn the scientific and artistic contents. In some cases,
action was reinforced by the competences and the principles that lay behind them and, therefore,
generated the dialogical process between thinking and doing. In addition, students expressed initial
understanding of the phenomena of complex systems such as the rotation of the Earth, the basics of
sea waves, the movement of some animals and/or the rotation around axes. The understanding of
complex systems was intermingled with the appreciation that some knowledge and methods come
from both scientific and artistic disciplines, such as, for example, the rotation of systems and bodies
around multiple axes.
2.4. Statistical Analysis
The comments obtained from the students were analyzed in terms of the degree of reflection
following a numerical scale for each classification (description, argumentation, reflection and critical
reflection [45]); therefore, this study presents a quantitative analysis on levels of reflections. The number
assigned to each level of reflection was quantified by the number of comments obtained in each
category for each classification [9,10]. When no comment was made for a certain category, a zero was
assigned [9,10]. The database was entered onto an SPSS 21® software spreadsheet, and subsequently
analyzed with the same software. Data were first tested for homogeneity and normality. Although some
of the datasets fulfilled Levene’s test for homogeneity, none of them fulfilled the Shapiro–Wilk test for
normality [9,10]. With this consideration, and taking into account that all datasets had 30 observations
(i.e., all five observations above), a Kruskal–Wallis test was considered. In all cases, the degrees of
freedom were (df = 2), leading to a critical H of Kruskal–Wallis of 5.991 (the Chi-square for df = 2).
Therefore, differences were expected to be significant for H > 5.991. In addition, a post-hoc pairwise
comparison between courses was made based on the Mann–Whitney U test. The effect size was also
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√
reported in the analysis. To calculate the effect size, the value of r is reported, with r = |Z|/ n, where n
is the total number of observations in the pairwise comparison and |Z| is the absolute value of the
Z-score of the Mann–Whitney U test.
3. Results
For the analysis of the degree of reflection, no significant differences were found between the
courses (K-7, -9 and -11) for the dimensions of analysis corresponding to description, argumentation
or critical reflection (Table 4). However, a significant difference for reflection was found between
the courses. The pairwise comparison between courses revealed that differences were significant
between the first-year and both the third- and fifth-year courses for the reflection category. In addition,
a significant difference was found between the first- and third-year courses at the category of description
and between the third- and fifth-year courses at the category of critical reflection (Table 4). The mean
values were high for description for students in the first and third year, for reflection for students in the
first year, and for critical reflection for students in the third and fifth year (Table 4). According to the
Cohen’s criteria, the effect size was found to be small (r < 0.2) in most of the cases (Table 4). Only some
calculated r presented moderate effect size (0.2 < r < 0.5, Table 4).
Table 4. Kruskal–Wallis test results for the degree of reflection: Description, Argumentation, Reflection
and Critical Reflection, with the degrees of freedom (df), H-value and p-value. Results of the p-value for
the pairwise comparison between courses for each degree of reflection are presented. In parentheses,
the value of r (related to the effect size) has been included. The mean and standard deviation for each
reflection level and for each course are presented at the bottom of the table. For all the values, * denotes
a 95% confidence (in bold) in the analysis and ** a 99% confidence (in bold).
Description
df
Kruskal–Wallis H
p-value
2
5.217
0.074
Argumentation
2
2.552
0.279
Reflection
Critical Reflection
2
9.698
0.008 **
2
1.838
0.399
Pairwise Comparison
First-year vs.
third-year
First-year vs.
fifth-year
Third-year vs.
fifth-year
0.019 * (0.13)
0.587(0.07)
0.009 ** (0.34)
0.167(0.18)
0.230(0.16)
0.294(0.14)
0.007 ** (0.35)
0.367(0.12)
0.315(0.30)
0.125(0.20)
0.609(0.07)
0.035 * (0.15)
Mean and Standard Deviation
First-year
Third-year
Fifth-year
0.93 ± 0.74
0.87 ± 0.63
0.50 ± 0.57
0.37 ± 0.49
0.300 ± 0.47
0.570 ± 0.68
1.23 ± 1.01
0.60 ± 0.62
0.60 ± 0.86
0.53 ± 0.68
0.97 ± 1.10
1.16 ± 0.67
4. Discussion and Conclusions
The question of whether STEAM education can encourage primary school students to reflect
on scientific reasoning and critical thinking has provided some results in which cross-disciplinary
instructional interventions, that include the arts, can be fully developed through interdisciplinary
approaches across domains [47–49]. Concerns regarding the development of scientific reasoning
tend to focus primarily on students pursuing concepts in science, technology, engineering, and/or
mathematics (STEM) since scientific reasoning has been given paramount importance thanks to the
ever-changing paradigms in the real world that demand deep, structural changes across all sectors in
society [50,51]. The application of STEAM approaches in primary school classes was found to produce
significant reflection concerning both the science and dance (arts) experiments, with reflection not only
focusing on the intake of specific knowledge, but also on an increasing sense of competence readiness,
Educ. Sci. 2020, 10, 384
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and perception of modes of cooperation as individual responsibility and promotive interaction.
The promotion of STEAM approaches in experiential settings is recognized to foster a myriad of
teachers’ reflections on competences, attitudes and emotions [52]. The participation of the primary
school students in cooperative and reflective modes of learning enhanced social relationships between
their peers and individual involvement through an individual’s inner desire to participate in the
scientific experiments and dance activities. Involvement, then, is seen as an inner competence that
may be vehiculated through group interactions [53,54].
The main differences (in substantial values) were found in relation to critical reflection, the highest
category in the process of reflection [5,15]. Critical reflection implied fifth-year students underwent
a perspective of transforming learning because some of them were able to contextualize scientific
concepts in the real world or manifested a sense of competence mainly within the framework of
cooperation. Students described scientific concepts and their translation into body movement by
employing their own arguments, using significant motivating examples, and mostly creating original
models to physically interpret the concepts and their qualities behind the experiments. The fifth-year
students were able to transfer knowledge into creative and inclusive modes of arts education [55,56].
At the level of reflecting on the experiences, the pairwise comparison between the students defined an
important difference between the first-year students and both the third-year and fifth-year students,
which is interpreted as a consequence of the cognitive differences of the natural evolutionary process
they are in.
It would be logical to argue that the first-year students are in the process of developing operational
thinking and that their psychological characteristics have not yet solidified the milestones of this
stage of cognitive development. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the first-year students still
maintain a centrist and egocentric perspective, which undoubtedly weakens their path towards critical
reflection. In the same vein, the higher assessment on critical reflection from the 5th-year students can
be understood as approaching another level of more abstract thought, which undoubtedly allowed for a
greater application and transposition of knowledge across the disciplines. Therefore, as reflection is an
age-dependent constructive process, the primary school students present different levels of competence.
Reflection is based on the capacity of students to construct knowledge around successive cyclical critical
thinking and deep analysis [5,35,36], and this was accomplished more in the case of the 5th-year students.
In contrast, for the first-year students’, description was an issue. For first-year students, primary school
teachers will need to create a normative framework of cooperation around experimentation and
reflection at the end of each experiment as the students might be struggling with the process of
reversibility and reflecting on the process of the operation of the group at an initial egocentric level [55].
If teachers intend to transform students’ learning, the instructional approaches must include not only
cognitive processes but also introspective inquiring into attitudes and competences, with teachers
emphasizing all the aspects of education in order to engage students in critical conversation [47,57].
The experiential activities showed that a critical point that should be considered when developing
STEAM activities, is the cyclic process of continuous experimentation [35,36,42] around science and
around the inter potential of the body and interrelationships as well. Although Abdulwahed and
Nagy [42] postulated that poor learning might be inherent in the laboratory due to insufficient activation
of the prehension dimension of Kolb’s cycle, the use of continuous reflective experimentation in STEAM
activities, where knowledge is cross-referenced in scientific and artistic practices, may influence this
aspect. Not only this, we found that STEAM activities may promote intrapersonal skills, reformulate
beliefs, attitudes and competences towards understanding our complex world, not only in the scientific
domains but also in the social one.
In that sense, this study has proved that when cooperating through sciences and arts, higher levels
of reflections are attained by the primary school students, i.e., a learning outcome that is acquired
through individual and group interaction. Students might differ in their learning styles and recognizing
this is the first stage in raising students’ awareness of possible alternative approaches [58]. For example,
students developed higher levels of motor skills, including a better knowledge of the capacity of the
Educ. Sci. 2020, 10, 384
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body to perform precise and complex personal and group movements [55]. During the experimentation
with the body, the primary school students understood fundamental dimensions and their qualities of
space, equilibrium, scales of time, laterality, synchronization, balance, tension, etc. This implies a full
recognition of a changing paradigm in physical education in which the consideration of movement as
a language includes an ontological and holistic approach from the teacher that fosters consciousness,
centeredness and transformation [59].
In addition, this research proves that STEAM educational processes may promote creativity
and critical thinking not only concerning concepts, but also attitudes towards either the arts or the
sciences [8,16,29]. Cross-educational approaches tend to search for contextualized questions and
their solutions, by combining both scientific and artistic competences towards solution solving [2,8].
Developing science through the arts has been found to develop critical thinking through creativity [60].
This implies an educational approach that is centered on students’ individual learning, with them
being actively engaged in the process of individual and group learning to construct new knowledge by
themselves [4,15,33].
The analysis of the 1st-, 3rd- and 5th-year primary school students’ reflective narratives showed
that creativity was an indispensable capacity and resource in developing their personal competences.
As stated by Pawlak [61], the most powerful tools to stimulate a creative society include creative
education, a stimulating environment, and multidisciplinary work teams. This includes, first, promoting
attitudes towards observation, perception, and understanding, which deeply rely on the first dimension
of experiential learning by promoting grounded experiences [35,36]; second, encouraging personal
initiatives such as spontaneity, curiosity, autonomy, which are engrained in the way each student
approaches the experience in question; third, stimulating the imaginative capacity of intuition,
association, and contextualization, which are the bases of abstract conceptualization, i.e., students
understanding the experience [61]. However, the transformation of learning is produced when active
experimentation is promoted and assessed, which is the final step of reflective learning [1,4].
All in all, this study highlights the conditional bases to promote STEAM education in primary
schools, where critical learning and creativity emerge through students’ experiences. This study
addresses the fact that, to develop strategic competences, primary education must approach critical
learning and creativity by developing: (i) an interdisciplinary educational approach that deals with
common competences, (ii) multi-literacy between domains of learning involving an awareness of
grounding knowledge, (iii) the need for multidisciplinary learning concepts favoring synergies for
knowledge, and (iv) professional teaching development that enhances transformative and constructive
pedagogies which state that students’ learning is a continuous constructive active process of sharing
knowledge, through cyclical experimentation and abstraction.
5. Limitation of the Study
This study relies on quantitative analysis structured into four levels of reflection based on
coding carried out previously by the researchers concerning the primary school students’ perceptions.
Assigning students’ perceptions to a specific level has been performed by the researchers through
a protocol that is exploratory in nature. The primary school students produced reflections in the
group processing that took place at the end of the six experiments. Therefore, since critical reflection
is fostered through successive cycles of reflection, the results might be biased since more students’
perceptions were categorized in the critical reflection level, for the last experiments. The analysis did
not use a program to categorize the students’ speech perceptions, which might limit the process of
their categorization.
This study is also limited in obtaining results on the understanding of scientific experiments and
dance experimentation since some of the parameters were new in nature, especially for the first-year
students, for which the initial reflection on contextualization was weak. In addition, the students
were not used to working in interdisciplinary domains or in the processes of communicating their
reflection(s) in a group process. This fact might also bias the results towards low levels of reflection,
Educ. Sci. 2020, 10, 384
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given that some students might have been reluctant to communicate any critical perceptions of their
personal experiences.
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, M.B. and J.C.; methodology, M.B., L.N., R.B. and T.S.; validation, M.B.,
T.S., R.B., L.N. and D.C.; formal analysis, M.B. and T.S.; investigation, M.B. and J.C.; resources, J.C.; data curation,
M.B., R.B. and J.C.; writing—original draft preparation, M.B.; writing—review and editing, M.B., R.B. and J.C.;
visualization, M.B. and T.S.; supervision, J.C. and R.B.; project administration, J.C.; funding acquisition, D.C. and
J.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research was funded by FECYT, Spanish Federation for Sciences and Technology, grant number
FCT-15-10017” and by the Institute of Sciences Education Josep Pallach, University of Girona, grant number
ICE-XIDAC05-2020.
Acknowledgments: The authors are very grateful to the Department of Physics, University of Girona, for providing
the know-how and material to set-up the scientific experiments in the primary schools.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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