Full STEAM Ahead with Creativity

Abstract

The integration of arts in science education (STEAM) aims to provide innovative activities to reach deeper learning levels and generally promote student engagement in (science) education. The European Horizon 2020 project CREATIONS with 16 partner institutions addresses this challenge with more than 100 initiatives over three years. All initiatives followed our STEAM guidelines based on the fundamental principles of responsible research and innovation (RRI). The positive effects of STEAM on cognition and motivation were evident in all initiatives with a sufficient empirical database. Besides the intention to integrate creativity, our study focused on flow that is experience of total immersion and exhilarating absorption in an activity that is experienced as effortlessly mastered. The productivity resulting from the self-rewarding creative rush makes flow particularly interesting. This chapter contributes to the open question of how flow is triggered with an exemplary meta-analysis of motivation and creativity scores of ten interventions ranging from complex projects at CERN to art-centred, play-based, laboratory-oriented projects or almost classical school initiatives. The regression analysis decoded self-efficacy as the crucial factor enabling the flow experience—which was demonstrated in this study for the first time, moreover, in a variety of age groups in the context of classroom activities.