Focusing on Affection Education: Constructing a STEM Interdisciplinary Curriculum

Overview

This school promotes ‘affection’ as the core of its teaching strategy. It has also constructed a STEM interdisciplinary Curriculum using the principle framework of ‘Identification’, ‘Convenience’ and ‘Adaption’. ‘Identification’ is based on a thorough understanding of the concepts in science and technology. ‘Convenience’ is the fundamental design philosophy in current inventions, that should be beneficial to others. ‘Adaption’ consists of the ability to integrate comprehensive knowledge and transfer it into everyday life. To raise students’ awareness of affective learning, the pedagogy of STEM education should be constructed based on the following four criteria:
1.the knowledge should be related to students’ own experiences;
2.to stimulate students’ five senses;
3.related to problem-solving skills; and
4.the learning contents should be practical.
The learning procedure should be systematic and flexible, including the steps of 'Engage', 'Explore', 'Explain', 'Engineer', 'Enrich' and 'Evaluate'. In the step of 'Explain', one should also consider the level of the science process skills.