Learners’ Engagement in Transdisciplinary STEAM Activities: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Perceptions, Self-Efficacy, and Self-Determination Within an Out-Of-School Science Program

In this three-article dissertation, I explore how ten Palestinian fifth and sixth-grade students perceive and engage with science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and art (STEAM) activities within an out-of-school context. I collaborated with a local organization, Al-Roward for Science and Technology which developed the programming for the four-day program (about 2 hours each day). Each day of the program students completed a hands-on science activity that integrated technology, engineering, mathematics, and art. Under a sociocultural and political lens, I study learners’ perceptions of their engagement with transdisciplinary STEAM, examine shifts in learners’ self-efficacy, and analyze moment-to-moment interactions of learners as they engage in the learning setting.Across each chapter I used a different method to examine students’ perceptions and engagement. In the first chapter I examine students’ perceptions using an interview instrument to understand ways students conceptualize their experiences with STEAM. Findings show that students have varied ways of describing their perceptions, such as normative views about STEAM and values that shape their experience. In the second chapter, I use a mixed-methods design to explore if and how students’ self-efficacy shifts as an outcome of participating in the program. The findings demonstrated that students’ conceptualization of science varied between instruments. In the third chapter, focusing on the case of one learner, I examine moment-to-moment interactions with peers, educators, and materials as the student navigates his learning trajectory during the third day of the program. Findings show varied ways in which the learner enacted self-determination across the learning activities to assert his positionalities, engage with others, interact with the educators, and use materials. In doing this analysis of students' experiences in transdisciplinary STEAM, this dissertation contributes to the ongoing research of sociocultural and political dimensions of learning, examining learning as a complex phenomenon. In addition, this work contributes to critical STEAM education that examines science learning and practices while taking into consideration that learning is a relational and ethical process. Implications for future research on learning, methodological approaches in the learning sciences, and critical STEAM pedagogy are considered.