Staying abreast of what is happening in public and private schools is very important for all higher education educators. We have a responsibility to prepare our students to enter the workplace with an understanding of what is happening in the world of education and what might impact music and arts education in their schools. With this in mind, I want to delve into a curriculum that is growing in popularity in many schools around the country.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has grown in popularity in our schools to better prepare students for careers in these fast-growing fields. The curriculum focuses on teaching concepts and hard skills with an emphasis on problem-solving and hands-on learning. The reason for this curriculum becoming increasingly popular is the fact that technology is driving innovation in these fields and opportunities for employment in these fields are increasing.
Hard skills refer to learning skills referring to specific knowledge and technical abilities that can be measured and that are learned through training. Some examples of hard skills are data analysis, the operation of machinery, or programming languages. Soft skills deal more with “people skills” such as problem-solving, teamwork, communication, and critical thinking.
The arts, while they are resplendent with learning hard skills, are also, and just as importantly, about soft skills. In music specifically, students learn through their music and through their ensemble’s skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, social skills, creativity, discipline, perseverance, cultural and social awareness, interpretive skills, analysis skills, and collaboration just to name a few.
A relatively new teaching method is known as Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). STEAM adds arts into the original STEM curriculum to augment the hard skills learned with soft skills that will help students learn the STEM subjects and be more proficient in them by enhancing the hands-on experience by adding creativity, critical thinking, communication, and social skills into the curriculum. Adding the arts education component to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math component, students are encouraged to solve problems through a critical and creative mindset. Unique solutions to problems can result when you look at the problem through many different lenses and not only using technical knowledge. Adding arts adds the tools of creativity and critical thinking skills to the STEM curriculum allowing the students to be better equipped to be innovative and successful in the workplace.
I encourage you to investigate and learn more about how integrating two or more standards from the arts and one of the STEM areas can improve learning and understanding and how it can potentially improve the curriculum in a school that uses only the STEM model. Advocacy for STEAM vs STEM education will be of great benefit to the students and another advocacy point for the arts education programs in our schools.
W. James McNerney, Jr. Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Boeing Company said “At Boeing, innovation is our lifeblood. The arts inspire innovation by leading us to open our minds and think in new ways about our lives – including the work we do, the way we work, and the customers we serve”.