STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. It is a teaching philosophy that brings reality into the classroom by connecting the 4 subjects together and making students learning by doing.
STEM education thus makes it possible to better understand the functioning of everything that surrounds us and also allows to reach every type of learner. But STEM education has its weaknesses. Understanding the world around us is good, being able to improve it is better. But STEM education does not allow to learn to be creative and innovative. This is where the addition of the A to STEAM takes on its full meaning and importance.
The A in STEAM represents liberal arts, language arts, social studies, physical arts, fine arts and music. In STEAM education, the same subjects are explored but the incorporation of arts allows to initiate new ways of thinking and solving problems. With this new method, students will use both parts of their brain, creative and analytical, to become the thinkers of tomorrow.
5 reasons why Arts is essential in education
1. Arts engage students
Integrating art with other disciplines helps reaching students who might not otherwise be engaged in classwork. Art makes it possible to practice immediately and thus allows an immediate reward that encourages all children to participate. This allows children to gain self-confidence and think positively about their abilities.
2. Arts enhances creativity
Creativity is a very useful skill and highly demanded by recruiting companies. Creativity allows to develop the ability to observe and analyze the world around us in different ways. It also increases capacity to solve problems in new ways and the ability to adapt in different contexts.
3. Art develops intellectual skills
Through the arts, children learn to observe, interpret, see different perspectives, analyze, and synthesize. This helps to develop their ability to analyse and to synthesize.
4. Arts helps to learn languages
When children learn to play an instrument they first have to learn how to read notes, how is a music composed, how to play the instrument. This process is thus really similar to learning a new language.
5. Arts help students learn mathematics
The practice of an art requires making measurements, thinking about proportions, manipulating numbers, learning patterns, spatial and geometric relationships... Children who practice an art and especially those who play a musical instrument quickly become better than their peers in mathematics.
You can also watch that TedTalk to have a more in-depth understanding of the importance of art in education.