A study on the competency of pre-service teachers to develop mathematics-centered STEAM instructional materials

The purpose of this study is to analyze the STEAM instructional materials centered on mathematics developed by pre-service teachers and the difficulties they experienced in the process of developing the instructional materials and to derive implications for their ability to develop STEAM instructional materials. To this end, the course “Understanding Creative Convergence Education” was operated in the first semester of 2022, and five types of STEAM teaching materials developed by pre-service teachers and focus group interview data from two teams were collected. As a result of analyzing the collected data in the areas of STEAM education goals, STEAM activity processes, STEAM evaluation, and STEAM education application, it was found that the criteria for analysis elements such as interest and understanding of science and technology, creative design process, and diversity of evaluation areas were somewhat insufficient, and it was difficult to meet these elements in the development process. Therefore, when developing STEAM instructional materials, it is necessary to provide pre-service teachers with an opportunity to develop STEAM instructional materials in a step-by-step and gradually manner by having them accurately recognize the importance of these elements, and to provide them with practical experience in implementing STEAM education through programs linked to school field.