STEM/STEAM Culture of Collaboration: A Separate World from Lecture Classes

A unique advantage of integrative STEM, STEAM, and maker education is its emphasis on collaborative approaches to learning that provide an educational experience that is qualitatively different from the heavy reliance on teacher-centered instruction. This is because collaboration and creativity are essential to spur innovation and multidisciplinary advances in many fields. In this chapter, we will discuss the salience of collaboration to support integrated instruction, the characteristics of common integrative STEM pedagogies. This includes inquiry learning, problem-based learning, design-based learning, and project-based learning. We also discuss how to draw upon community resources, experts, and mentors, as well as some of the obstacles that educational leaders face in cultivating opportunities for collaboration amongst students and staff. This is followed by a review of several empirically based models of collaboration in integrative STEM that may be useful in guiding future practice, research, and policy, such as whole-class investigations and projects.