STEM and Collaborative Learning: An Alternative Approach

Abstract

STEM education in Greek schools has become more prevalent in recent years, mainly through the implementation of Educational Robotics projects. Small-scale working groups of handpicked participants constitutes the main practice of implementing these projects, aiming to participate in competitions for the purpose of discrimination. These projects are usually a parallel school activity concerning only the participants in it, having relatively little impact on school community. An alternative teaching approach is proposed and applied in the present research consisting of collaborative activities between volunteer participants who created a learning community. Results show that the proposed method satisfied students and generated their interest in both the future engagement with Robotics and the participation in similar collaborative activities.