STEAMING Ahead by Challenging Thinking

Teaching in the U.S. is currently being driven by political bureaucracy. Under the design of “common core,” the political solution to achieving equality is a pre-packaged curriculum and standardized testing where all children are provided the exact same learning experiences with the same high-stakes assessments. The expectation for teaching, learning, and assessment is “sameness.” However, considering the whole child, developmental processes, and the characteristics of a diverse society, sameness should not be the priority of the educational system. This paper showcases a different approach taken in one elementary art classroom.  Instead of using a pre-packaged curriculum, the teacher provided students with the opportunity to guide their own learning through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) activities.