STEAM Education in Korea: Current Policies and Future Directions

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Policy Trajectories and Initiatives in STEM Education / Korea
Science and Technology Trends
Policy Trajectories and Initiatives in STEM Education
STEAM Education in Korea:
Current Policies and Future Directions
Oksu Hong1
1. Introduction
In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,
in which artificial intelligence is continuously in
development and jobs evolve at a rapid pace, creative
human resources are needed in order to create new
jobs and solve future problems. With changes
emerging in the economy, society, culture, and the
ecological environment, education for future
generations must advance, as well. The World
Economic Forum (2016) presented the key skills
required for the Fourth Industrial Revolution by
2020, such as complex problem solving, critical
thinking, and creativity. While identifying the skills
required for students to succeed in work, life, and
as citizens of the world, Partnership for 21st Century
Skills (P21) focused on the 4Cs: Critical thinking,
Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity
(http://www.p21.org).
The Korean government has continually driven
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts,
and Mathematics) education policy since
announcing “The second basic plan to foster and
support human resources in science and technology
(2011-2015),” which includes STEAM education
(The Korean Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology, 2011). As the most representative
national institution for STEAM education, as well
as science, mathematics, and software education,
the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of
Science and Creativity (KOFAC) has managed
systematic STEAM education programs at the
national level. To help STEAM education become
more well established, KOFAC cultivates and
supports leading groups, reinforces teachers’
capabilities, develops and distributes content,
promotes interactive and exploratory activities for
students, and institutionalizes and builds
infrastructure (see Figure 1).
Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity, 602 Seolleungno, Gangnam-Gu, Seoul 135-847, Korea
E-mail:oksu@kofac.re.kr

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Figure 1.
The structure of STEAM education programs managed by KOFAC
Source: Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity, 2016 (p.45)
The Learning Standards Framework of STEAM
Classes has been developed so that it can be utilized
to design classes that meet the goals of STEAM
education. The framework consists of the following
three steps: Context presentation, Creative design,
and Emotional touch. A description for each step
is given in Figure 2. It is recommended that STEAM
classes be conducted based on this framework.
Korea’s new national curriculum, ‘2015 Revised
Curriculum,’ aims to cultivate creative talents with
integrative thinking and problem solving. STEAM
education will thus continue to be emphasized as
an educational strategy for future generations. It is,
therefore, meaningful to look into STEAM education
policy put forward thus far and to propose the next
step based on what has already been established.
In this report, an outline is presented on the current
policy of STEAM education in Korea based on the
three elements of education: the teacher who teaches,
the student who learns, and the educational content
that mediates the teaching and learning (Shin, 2005),
future directions for STEAM education are then
suggested.

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Policy Trajectories and Initiatives in STEM Education / Korea
Figure 2.
Learning standards framework of STEAM classes
Source: Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity, 2016 (p.25)
2. STEAM Professional Development for
Teachers
Teachers’ capabilities in practicing STEAM
education are of great importance. According to
research conducted to investigate the current status
of STEAM education by analyzing online survey
responses collected from 56.8% (N = 6,473) of
elementary, middle, and high schools in Korea, it
was found that 48.3% (N = 3,127) of the responding
schools conducted STEAM education (Park et al.,
2016). Assuming that schools not participating in
the survey do not implement STEAM education,
it can be understood that approximately 27.1% of
all schools in the country have conducted STEAM
education classes (see Table 1). This research
discovered that the most important factor in
implementing STEAM education was the ‘voluntary
efforts of teachers,’ and the main reason for not
implementing STEAM education was difficulties in
drawing a consensus from teachers regarding
STEAM education. This result indicates that the role
of teachers is very important in the implementation
of STEAM education.
Table 1.
The number of schools that implement STEAM education
no.(%)
School
Level
Total
schools
Responding
schools
Implementing
STEAM
Not Implementing
STEAM
Implementing
STEAM/Total
Elementary
5,978
3,362 (100.0)
1,838 (54.7)
1,524 (45.3)
1,838/5,978 (30.8)
Middle
3,204
1,831 (100.0)
879 (48.0)
952 (52.0)
879/3,204 (27.4)
High
2,344
1,280 (100.0)
410 (32.0)
870 (68.0)
410/2,344 (17.5)
Total
11,526
6,473 (100.0)
3,127 (48.3)
3,346 (51.7)
3,127/11,526 (27.1)
Source: Park et al., 2016

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To support STEAM professional development for
teachers, three steps of teacher training programs are
currently being operated. ‘Introductory training’
focuses on helping teachers understand the concepts,
policies, and representative content of STEAM
education. ‘Basic Training’ involves a 15-hour online
program centered on sharing best practices, such as
how to organize STEAM education suitable for the
school curriculum or how to implement STEAM
education for after-school programs. ‘Intensive
Training,’ a mixture of online and offline programs,
has the purpose of improving teachers’ capabilities
to develop and implement their own educational
materials for STEAM classes. The 60-hour training
program includes fieldwork, as participants attend the
Teacher Training Center for Cutting-edge Science and
STEAM fairs, as well as group activities in developing
classroom-applicable STEAM educational materials.
In spite of these great efforts made to train STEAM
teachers, many teachers have difficulty in selecting
appropriate topics, integrating two or more subjects,
developing educational materials, and evaluating classes
(Noh & Paik, 2014; Lee & Shin, 2014). Jho, Hong,
and Song (2016) categorized in-service training programs
for STEAM education in Korea, including three steps
of teacher training programs, by adopting Ryn and
Cowan’s (1996) framework with two dimensions of
knowledge and learning (see Figure 3). Knowledge
construction is separated into the individual level and
the community level, while learning construction is
categorized as content-oriented and activity-oriented.
This research asserted that teacher training programs
for STEAM education should focus on designing a
learning community that is activity-oriented at the
community level (top right plane of Figure 3) to foster
sustainable professional development.
Considering this assertion, STEAM research
groups of teachers, made up of experienced teachers
and experts in relevant fields, work together to
develop and apply STEAM educational materials,
serving as a good model for sustaining STEAM
professional development. Furthermore, according
to the report surveying teachers’ needs for STEAM
education, what STEAM teachers reported most often
was the need for support for teacher communities
in terms of learning and research (KOFAC, 2013).
Figure 3.
Mapping in-service training programs of STEAM education in Korea
Source: Jho, Hong, & Song, 2016

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Policy Trajectories and Initiatives in STEM Education / Korea
3. Improving Students’ Science Preferences,
Self-directed Learning, and Creative and
Integrative Thinking Abilities
STEAM education began with the expectation that
it could solve some of the problems associated with
students’ studies in science and mathematics.
According to international evaluation programs, such
as TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and
Science Study) and PISA (Program for International
Student Assessment), Korean students demonstrated
high performance but very low interest in the subjects
of science and mathematics. In addition, the lessons
and evaluations, which focused on concepts and
knowledge relating to science and mathematics, led
to decreased interest for learners.
According to a study on the effects of STEAM
education, conducted by KOFAC (2013), students
who participated in STEAM classes showed higher
‘science preference’ than students who did not
participate. This trend has been revealed in all detailed
areas: Curiosity in science, Interest in science
learning, Embracing the values of science, Belief
in learning science, Will to perform science-related
tasks, and Wish to pursue a career in science. The
students who experienced STEAM classes also
showed higher levels in terms of ‘Ability to perform
self-directed learning,’ composed of Ability to lead
learning, Cognitive strategy, Learning motivation,
Will to solve problems, Use of tools, and Ability
to cooperate. Students learning through STEAM
classes also showed a higher level of creative and
integrative thinking ability.
What are the characteristics of STEAM education
that have brought about positive changes for
students? According to the results of a survey of
19,147 elementary, middle, and high school
students participating in STEAM education, the
most crucial characteristic of a STEAM class that
differentiates it from existing classes was “a lot
of group activities to work with friends” (Kang
et al., 2016). Many students also identified “to
learn by connecting various subjects, such as
mathematics, science, and technology” as another
important feature of STEAM education. In addition,
there were opinions presented on STEAM education’s
features that encourage students to think and learn
on their own, lead learners’ active learning through
student-centered activities, and link learning content
with real life.
Figure 4.
Effects of STEAM classes
Source: KOFAC, 2014

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Figure 5.
Students’ thoughts on the characteristics of STEAM education
Source: Kang et al., 2016
In order to continue these positive changes for
learners through STEAM education, policies to
promote interactive and exploratory activities for
students are being implemented, such as STEAM
Research and Education (R&E) and STEAM
outreach programs.
STEAM R&E aims to enhance students’ research
capabilities and encourage an atmosphere of
autonomous inquiry by supporting student-led
research activities on integration-based themes.
Students who organize a team to participate in
STEAM R&E come up with their own problems
in daily life, define research problems, design
research methods, and then submit their research
proposals. Research projects are selected for funding
through expert reviews, and the results are published
at R&E festivals. According to research exploring
the effects of STEAM R&E, conducted by Mun
et al. (2017), students’ creative leader competencies,
consisting of cognitive, affective, and societal
domains, improved after participating in STEAM
R&E. In addition, R&E has a positive impact on
students’ creative thinking by providing students with
experiences related to research field careers and
collaborative research activities carried out with
friends (Choi & Park, 2015).
STEAM outreach programs aim to help students
plan science-related careers by giving opportunities
to experience the latest in science and technology
available at actual industrial and research sites. Since
2013, about ten universities, government-funded
research institutes, and companies have been selected
as STEAM outreach operating organizations on an
annual basis. They have developed and implemented
STEAM education programs that meet the
characteristics of the organization by utilizing their
infrastructures for students across the country.
Overall, STEAM outreach programs have shown
a high level of student interest and satisfaction, and
they have also displayed a positive impact on
students’ desires to pursue careers related to science
(Kang et al., 2016).

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Policy Trajectories and Initiatives in STEM Education / Korea
4. STEAM Education Content that
Brings Positive Change
According to the analysis of 821 STEM/STEAM
related research papers published in Korea over the
last ten years (Kim & Kim, 2017), the most frequently
researched topic was ‘program/instructional materials,’
which accounted for 72% of the total. Furthermore,
‘program’ and ‘development’ were the keywords that
emerged most often. This shows that studies in the
field of STEAM education have been focused on the
development of diverse educational materials and
programs that promote the practice of STEAM
education.
The Korean Ministry of Education and KOFAC
are continuing to develop four types of STEAM
programs to be used in schools: Integration-based
programs for each theme of STEAM (e.g.,
biotechnology, global environment, and appropriate
technology), Programs to utilize up-to-date products
(e.g., up-to-date ICT, up-to-date medical appliances,
and up-to-date vehicles), Integration-based programs
in science and art (e.g., topographical maps in science
and art, creative activities in manufacturing, and
world-changing designs), and Design-based programs
connected to promising future jobs (e.g., cognitive
engineers, robot engineers, and information systems
professionals). In addition, STEAM research groups
of teachers, in which teachers and experts work
together, have continuously developed a variety of
high-quality teaching materials. STEAM educational
materials and programs developed through these
processes are uploaded to the STEAM homepage
(http://steam.kofac.re.kr) and can be freely accessed
by anyone.
Table 2 shows a checklist that can be used in
designing a STEAM class. It consists of the following
four categories: Purpose of STEAM education,
Concept of STEAM education, Learning standards
framework for STEAM classes (i.e., Context
presentation, Creative design, and Emotional touch),
and Evaluation of STEAM education. In order to
apply STEAM classes that satisfy the checklist,
despite the already organized schedules based on
each subject, three types of curriculum activity can
be applied: Subject curriculum activity connecting
the factors of S, T, E, A, and M with a main subject;
Creative curriculum activity connecting multiple
subjects for a main theme; and Extra-curriculum
activity reconstructing the curriculum or developing
a separate program for a main theme. Among these,
an example of ‘Subject curriculum activity’ can be
found in Table 3.
Some studies analyzing STEAM programs and
educational materials have pointed out that the degree
of integration was limited. According to the results
of analyzing STEAM educational materials
developed by STEAM leading groups, such as leader
schools and research groups of teachers, based on
the linking frequency of each of S, T, E, A, and
M in elementary educational materials, linkages
between science (S) and arts (A) have been frequent,
while technology (T) and engineering (E) are not
frequently connected with other fields (Ahn & Kwon,
2013). For secondary educational materials, the
frequency of linkages between technology and
engineering was higher than for elementary materials.
According to the research analyzing 821 theses
and articles on STEAM education published in
Korea, research on science (S) accounted for the
highest percentage (27%) when the core subject
covered by the research included a single subject,
and research dealing with science (S) and arts (A)
together accounted for the highest percentage (2.6%)
when the core subject covered by the research was
an integrative type. Although STEAM education
emphasizes Creative Design as an element of the
learning standards framework for STEAM classes,
technology (T) and engineering (E) were not
emphasized in both academic research and
educational program development.

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Table 2.
STEAM class checklist
Category
Element
Details
Purpose of
STEAM Education
Nurturing Talents for
Integration
Is the class appropriate for the purpose of nurturing talents for
integration?
Concept of
STEAM Education
Increasing Students’
Interest
Is the class designed to increase the students’ interest in scientific
technology?
Connection to the
Real World
In the theme related to scientific technology in the real world?
Cultivation of
Integrated Thinking
Abilities
Is the program designed to cultivate the integrated thinking
abilities of students?
Learning
Standards
Framework
of STEAM
Classes
Context
Presentation
Connections to the
Real World
Does the class present problematic situations for student to solve
in the real world?
Interest and
Immersion
Is it a specific situation that can arouse the interest of students
and appropriate for their level?
Creative
Design
Creativity
Is the process of creative design clearly revealed for the students
to think about how they will solve the problem?
Focusing on
Students
Is the class made up of activities focusing on play and experiences,
and is there a process for the students to personally devise and
think about the issues at hand?
Results
(Ideas)
Is the class designed for various results (or ideas) to be presented
by each students (or group) as a result of creative design?
Use of Tools
Is the class designed for students to solve problems using devices
from the real world?
Emotional
Touch
Solving Problems
Are the contents presented in the context presentation step for
students to feel the joys of success in solving a problem?
Learning through
Cooperation
Is the class designed for students to solve problems through
cooperation in coming up with their results?
Sprit of Challenge
Is the class guided for students to challenge new tasks through
the process of solving problems?
Evaluation of STEAM
Education
Detailed Perspective
Is it made to evaluate the experience of success for students
having solved the problem?
Are various results (ideas) analyzed in the evaluation of students?
Is the aim to conduct not a results-focused evaluation but rather
an evaluation focusing on the process and its steps?
Source: Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity, 2016 (pp.33-34)

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Policy Trajectories and Initiatives in STEM Education / Korea
Table 3.
Example of Subject Curriculum Activity of STEAM Education from Teacher’s Guide
Source: Ministry of Education (2014), Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity, 2016 (pp.33-34)
5. Suggestions for Future Directions of
STEAM Education
In the previous chapters, I presented the current policy
of STEAM education in Korea based on the three
elements of education: the teacher, the student, and
the educational content. Based on this, I would like
to briefly suggest potential future directions for STEAM
education.
Firstly, for teachers, systematic educational
opportunities should be provided so that teachers can
bridge the gap between education and our changing
world. For this, it is suggested to develop a model
for (and implement) a ‘STEAM bridge center’ (Cho
et al., 2017) in which academic and industry experts
and experienced teachers can work together to develop
educational materials, teach students, and collect and
analyze data on students. The National Science
Foundation (NSF) supported ‘Research + Practice
Collaboratory’ programs that develop curriculum,
technology, and after-school programs through the
cooperation of researchers and teachers, from the point
of view that STEM education research should be
promoted through the active participation of teachers
(http://collaboratory.mspnet.org). In order to strengthen
the capabilities of STEAM teachers, it is necessary
to construct research and learning communities beyond
individual-level training programs (Jho, Hong, & Song,
2016). The ‘STEAM bridge center’ model for
collaborative research between researchers and teachers
will contribute to the improvement of teacher capabilities
and can also be used as an effective method for the
development of qualified STEAM educational content.
Secondly, for students, more experience in
participating in social problem-solving projects should
be provided so that they can highlight social problems
and solve them through STEAM education. These
experiences help students to grow as democratic citizens

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who participate and practice, and to grow as leaders
who solve diverse problems caused by rapid changes
in industry. Furthermore, until now, STEAM
education has been mainly implemented in primary
and secondary education, but it should be extended
to university education. Recently, the Japanese
government announced the ‘Articulation Reforms
of High Schools and Universities (ARHSUS)’ in
order to transform high school and university
education into something more adequate for future
inhabitants of our society (Anzai, 2017). Since 2011,
STEAM education aiming to transform the
curriculum to prepare students for the future society
has brought positive changes to primary and
secondary school classes. If STEAM education is
implemented in universities, realistic projects
dealing with problems in real industries and
communities will be pursued based on the ideas
of university students, and student-led Research and
Solution Development (R & SD) for solving social
problems will be realized. Furthermore, STEAM
education in universities will help students develop
the problem-solving, collaborative, and creative
talents required for future jobs and careers.
Thirdly, for educational content, the degree of
integration should be expanded so that STEAM
classes can reveal students’ creativity by naturally
linking various subjects or disciplines
–
as was the
original purpose. More attention should be given
to technology (T) and engineering (E), which have
not been emphasized in current STEAM educational
materials, despite their importance in the Creative
Design process. Furthermore, it is necessary to place
additional emphasis on computational thinking, an
approach to solve problems efficiently by integrating
human ability and computing power, in STEAM
education, as many problems emerging with our
future society will be difficult to solve without the
help of computing devices. The NSF has supported
‘STEM+Computing Partnerships (STEM+C)’
programs that integrate computing with one or more
STEM disciplines, or integrate STEM into
computing education (NSF, 2017). In 2017, in a
similar vein, KOFAC published a series of
educational books titled ‘Problem-Solving Activities
for Computational Thinkers’ to provide various
STEAM activities based on computational thinking
with topics related to cutting-edge technologies (e.g.,
Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Cars, Virtual
Reality, Space Launch Vehicles, Natural Disasters,
and Sports Statistics). It is believed that computational
thinking is a very important keyword in presenting
the future directions of STEAM education.
Finally, teachers, students, and educational
content are all important elements in understanding
STEAM education, but an integrated approach
–
rather than an individual approach
–
must be taken
in order to understand and properly analyze STEAM
classes. According to Kim & Kim (2017), ‘creativity’
was the most frequently presented keyword as a
dependent variable in the study of the effectiveness
of STEAM education. Creativity is highlighted time
and again as a key skill required for future
generations. Recently, in Korea, there has been much
discussion regarding collective creativity at the
group level, along with an attempt to conceptualize
and analyze ‘classroom creativity’ that integrally
considers students, teachers, environment,
engagement, and creative behavior (Hong, 2016). As
a representative future education policy in Korea,
STEAM education make students actively participate
and communicate with others in order for creativity
to be naturally revealed in the process. Therefore,
in order to design the next step of STEAM education
policy, it is necessary to holistically understand and
analyze STEAM classes that enhance the active
interaction between teachers, students, and
educational content.

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Policy Trajectories and Initiatives in STEM Education / Korea
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