STEAM Stars - Literature Review: Analysis of the context and professional practice

The STEAM Stars project aims to design a European Framework of Competences in teaching STEAM education for gifted students. It will promote innovative methods and pedagogies focused on high achieving students, and develop OER digital learning materials and tools in STEAM education for gifted students.

It is clear that there is a need across Europe to improve educational practices and activities aimed at these students, influenced by the scarcity of targeted teacher training in this area. Currently, most gifted children spend the majority of their time in regular classrooms without access to challenging coursework or teachers knowledgeable about the special learning needs of our most highly able learners. That is the reality in countries like the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Turkey.

The first output of the STEAM Stars project is the development of an innovative European Framework of Competences in teaching STEAM education for gifted students. This Framework will define, for the first time, the competencies, knowledge and skills required to teach STEAM for this target group. The EFR will be designed following European frameworks of reference, such as the EQF and ECTS, in order to facilitate the recognition and validation of learning outcomes and foster mobility in Europe.

This output reports on a review of relevant literature undertaken in order to provide an analysis of the context and professional practice. The results of this review contribute to the identification of competences used in the construction of the European Framework of Competences.