Teaching and Assessing Creativity in STEAM Education

Areej ElSayary

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has become an international focus of paramount significance. Through educational reform, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has stated national strategic measures in its Vision 2021 to raise students’ attainment in TIMSS and PISA standardized assessments and to promote STEM education. Furthermore, developing STEM talents in Emirati students is one of the main purposes of the Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Policy. Adding art to STEM has a positive impact on students’ attitudes, motivations, and interests, leading to development of their creativity skills. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect teaching and assessing students’ creativity. A mixed-method design was used to answer the research questions. The study was conducted in a private school in the UAE. The participants are science, technology, language art, and mathematics teachers (n=30). The results of the study emphasized that motivation, cognition, and metacognition set as factors affecting students’ creativity in STEAM classes. A balance between formative and summative assessment should be considered, to shift the focus from raising students’ attainment in standardized assessments to developing their creativity skills.

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