This paper describes a quantitative study that explores teaching practices in primary education to sustain the hypothesis that students’ critical thinking may be activated through individual and group reflection. The study examines the quality of the reflections from primary school students during group processing when participating in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) instructional approaches. The project’s core methodology lies in scientific (physics) and artistic (dance) instructional activities which were executed in a continuous reflective and cooperative learning environment. The educational approach was refined by analyzing the reflective discussions from focus groups where descriptive, argumentative, reflective and critical reflective knowledge about acquired knowledge, competences, beliefs, attitudes and emotions were considered. While the educational intervention proved that 1st-year (K-7) students essentially reflected at the level of description, 3rd-year (K-9) and 5th-year (K-11) students, however, attained higher levels of individual critical reflection development than initially anticipated. The STEAM approaches were found to produce significant use and understanding of both science and artistic concepts and to increase a sense of competence readiness and a perception of modes of cooperation such as individual responsibility and promotive interaction.
The objective of this paper is to prove that interdisciplinary educational approaches foster knowledge and competences for sustainable development in primary education. The intervention methodology employed is an educational and pedagogical approach to teaching science through physical activities and is based on developing dynamic reflective and cooperative learning environments to strengthen teaching–learning relationships. The educational approach included analyzing students’ reflections from their focus groups, in which five categories of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, the appropriate use of social skills, and group processing, were considered. The results show that, to a significant statistical degree, when the interdisciplinary approaches were adopted the primary school students reached higher levels of understanding, reflective and critical thinking development, and that cooperative learning provided them with a greater perception of sustainable development competences through systems and critical thinking, analysis, interpersonal relationships and collaboration, and strategic action.
This study investigates cooperative learning educational approaches that support preservice teachers’ (PSTs) academic and social attitudes. The extent of positive interdependence between PSTs during multimodal cooperative physical and mathematical activities was measured using a validated questionnaire on attitudes (academic and social) toward cooperative learning attitudes. The multimodal activities triggered positive PSTs’ interdependence characterized by teaching dimensions such as encouraging learner-to-learner interactions, intersubjective skills, and sociocultural awareness. PSTs believed that the cooperative activities helped to form peer-to-peer relationships among team members, which in turn fostered professional judgments. While social and affective attitudes were rated higher than academic ones, the difference was not significant. Hence, this study emphasizes that the multimodal approaches (based on both mathematical and physical development) triggered deeper social rather than academic attitudes, thus underscoring the importance of promoting key competences and the role they play in sustainable education.
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