Integrated Steam Education Teaching Practice for Improving Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Abilities of First Grade Students in Small Primary School

Abstract

The research aimed to study the critical thinking and problem solving abilitiesand students’ satisfaction of using integrated STEAM Education.The process of this research started withthe workshop training course on the integrated STEAM Education teaching practice using coaching and monitoring for 8 first grade teachers from 8 different small primary schoolsin Nakhon Nayok provinceobtained by simple random sampling.Afterthat, the integrated STEAM Education lesson plansrelated to the context ofthose small primary schools were developed by those teachers. Then the developed lesson plans were implementedfor the sample group of8 classrooms from eachsmall primary school(65 students in total)by purposive sampling. The research tools were STEAM Education lesson plans, critical thinking and problem solving test, and students’satisfaction questionnaire. Data were analyzed using mean ( ), standard deviation (SD), percentage (%), and dependent t-test analysis. The results revealed that; 1) the average critical thinking and problem solving score after treated with learning activities based on STEAM Education (47.85%) was significantly higher than that of beforethe treatment(30.46%)at .05 statistical level; however, it was lower than the set criteria of 60%, and 2) the students’ satisfaction of learning through the STEAM Education was at a high level ( =4.43, SD=0.37).Furthermore, thesestudents who learning through integrated STEAM Education could observe, collect data, identify problem and find solution, test, make conclusion, and present results, indicating that they had improved critical thinking and problem solving ability.