Using draw, write, and tell to reveal gifted students’ perceptions and interests of STEAM disciplines

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, the aim is to examine the perceptions of gifted students toward STEAM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Art-Mathematics) disciplines. The phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research method designs, was used in the study. The study group of the research consists of 47 gifted students studying in the science and art center in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. The data of the research were collected using the draw-write-tell technique. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data. The analysis revealed that students generally perceive science as a laboratory activity. Also, they perceive math as operations, numbers, equations, chaos, and geometry. Similarly, students mostly perceive technology as technological items, engineering as construction, and art as painting. Most of the participants addressed science, engineering, and art as their STEAM disciplines of interest. Based on our results, we highlight that explanations regarding the nature of STEAM disciplines should be emphasized more explicitly in the lessons.