Effects of a Diversity STEAM Workshop on Teacher Perceptions and Abilities

This paper is situated within a project focused on student competencies and motivation, specifically by targeting teacher digital competencies and ability to engage learners while fighting diversity gaps. Workshops were carried out to train teachers on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) tools and techniques to improve classroom diversity gaps, with the goal of disseminating best practices. The hypothesis is that such workshops have the potential to increase interest in STEAM for teachers that enter with negative perceptions, and increase knowledge and ability in STEAM for teachers that enter with moderate to positive perceptions. Analyzing pre-course and post-course surveys of participants revealed that the workshops increased overall teacher interest in STEAM, increased inter-subject interest in STEAM, and increased knowledge of STEAM tools, thus adding evidence to the hypothesis’ validity. In terms of diversity, teachers generally indicated that the workshop provided them with tools that would help them address diversity gaps in their classes.