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There is a growing number of products for learning the interdisciplinary application of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) in K-12. However, there is no general assessment tool for those STEAM creations, so as to help parents or instructors to experience and evaluate the STEAM products created or sold by companies or proposed by academic institutes when they want to introduce one to their children or students. Therefore, this study developed and validated an assessment of STEAM Creation with formative constructs by utilizing the PLS-SEM technique. The four constructs taken into account based on the theoretical foundations were computational thinking (CT) levels, design thinking (DT) levels, STEAM interdisciplinary levels, and literacy-oriented (LO) levels. CT was operationalized as four indicators (i.e., problem decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithm steps), and DT was operationalized as another four indicators (i.e., analysis of design requirements, creative brainstorming, hands-on experience, and test and verification). Meanwhile, STEAM was operationalized with five indispensable indicators, where each indicator refers to one discipline. LO was operationalized with three indicators (i.e., cooperation and co-creation, problem solving, and daily application). There were 16 indicators in total. Therefore, the formative relationship was established and evaluated in this study. This paper assessed STEAM creations with a formative measurement model comprising four hypotheses indicating that CT has a significant direct effect on STEAM and LO, DT has a significant direct effect on STEAM while STEAM has a significant direct effect on LO. The results reveal that all four hypotheses were accepted and the paths in the model were confirmed. CT has a significant indirect effect on LO through STEAM, which was also deeply discussed.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of virtual reality (VR) application on creative performance and immersion, evaluated through electroencephalography brain wave data to achieve accurate and robust results. In this study, 72 middle school teachers were recruited as participants, and a non-randomized control-group pre-test--post-test design was employed. The experimental group received VR-based design instruction, and the control group received lecture-based design training. Our results revealed that VR significantly affects immersion, especially with regard to attention. Additionally, VR had a positive effect on the feasibility of the creative process, although its effects on variety and novelty were inconclusive. VR was significantly correlated with theta, beta, and gamma brain wave activity. VR also increased attention-related and meditation-related brain wave activity and desynchronized alpha waves.

This study investigated the effects of teaching via virtual reality (VR) on creative design performance and creative experiential learning processes by using a pretest--post-test nonequivalent group design to sample 138 seventh graders from a junior high school in Taipei City. The main conclusions from this study are: (1) VR has significant positive effects on creative design processes, particularly in the "design and planning," "testing and revision" and "thoughts and appreciation" stages. (2) VR has significant positive effects on creative design outcomes, with high- and low-level effects on "creative design" and "functional appropriateness," respectively. (3) The learning process for VR and creative experiential learning shifts from "concrete experiences" to "reflective observations," "abstract conceptualization" and, finally, "innovative applications." Behaviors of "reflective observation" and "innovative application" are active and vital to the performance of creative processes and outcomes.

There is a worldwide trend to include engineering design in high school curricula as a bridge course to higher-level STEM education and to increase high school students' interest in STEM fields. This study used a battlebot design curriculum to compare engineering design learning between high school and college first-year students and then proposed suggestions for curriculum planning that promoted the continuity of learning between different levels of engineering design education. This study used the creative product analysis matrix (CPAM) and lag sequential analysis (LSA) to explore the possible similarities and differences between the two groups' understanding of engineering design. The results show that college first-year students were significantly better than high school students in CPAM, but the two groups were similar in their reflections on engineering design behaviors, indicating that the noncumulative learning results must be taken seriously. Higher-order engineering design thinking skills take a longer time to develop than technical skills. For both high school and college first-year students, it is important to enhance their higher-order engineering design thinking skills to promote higher engineering design performance. Moreover, high school students could be provided with convenient processing tools and easy-to-use, hands-on techniques to increase their technical skills. Educators from institutions of higher education and K-12 schools should work together to develop pedagogical models that provide rigorous, well-rounded education and outstanding engineering design instructions to most effectively cultivate STEM talent.

Both evaluating students' design works and also understanding their cognition in the industrial design process are equally important for students' learning. This study used the design activities and design competencies required by the industrial design process as items to develop an "Industrial Design Self-Efficacy and Anxiety Scale" that can be used to help teachers better understand students' learning from a psychological perspective. In this study, 285 industrial-design college students were recruited and item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability analysis were used to construct a scale with good reliability and validity. Analyses of the background variables revealed that (1) the self-efficacy of male students in model prototyping was significantly better than that of female students; (2) the level of anxiety regarding model prototyping was significantly higher among senior students than among freshmen students; (3) students scoring higher for self-evaluation also scored higher for self-efficacy in problem solving, information collecting, and model prototyping; and (4) students with abundant maker-space experience scored significantly higher for self-efficacy in problem solving, information collecting, and model prototyping than those with less experience. Finally, the practical use of the proposed scale is discussed.

Virtual reality (VR) can promote design performance, and may generate a high cognitive load and affect creative design thinking as well. In order to examine the effect of VR application on cognitive load and engineering design creativity, this study recruited 81 eighth-grade students as participants and employed a non-equivalent-groups quasi-experimental design to examine how VR application influences creativity components and creative performance. A creativity component scale (creative motivation, creative thinking, and professional cognition), a measurement of creative performance, and a cognitive load scale were used to collect data. The study also investigated the ability of VR application to predict creativity components and creative performance, using cognitive load as the mediator. The conclusions are as follows: (1) VR application had marked effects on professional cognition and creative motivation but no effect on creative thinking skills. (2) VR application had marked effects on the novelty and usefulness aspects of creative performance, particularly with respect to usefulness. (3) VR application had marked effects on extraneous and germane cognitive load, but no influence on intrinsic cognitive load, and (4) Both VR application and cognitive load were able to predict creativity components and creative performance. Their abilities to predict creative performance approached an acceptable level. Nevertheless, VR application had no effect on general creative thinking skills; therefore, other teaching strategies are needed to strengthen creative thinking.

This study explored the influence of Virtual Reality (VR) on Engineering Design (ED) creativity. This study adopted a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test. A teaching experiment was conducted in a high school in Taipei City, Taiwan. The main findings were: 1) the use of VR in ED instruction moderately and positively affected ED competence among students in identifying constraints, 2) VR positively affected the cognitive and affective domains in the ED process, but the VR effects on the psychomotor domain were nonsignificant, and 3) the use of VR-based instruction positively affected the students' ED results with a medium effect regarding functionality and uniqueness.

This study explored the effects of virtual reality (VR) application on the process and outcome of skill learning. The participants consisted of 60 new employees in the customer network cable service division of a telecommunications company, and the study focused on the learning of optical-fibre fusion splicing skills. The skill-learning test results revealed the following: (a) the skill-learning effect associated with VR application was greater than that of conventional lecturing and demonstration approaches; (b) VR application had a considerable negative effect on the perception level of skill learning but a moderately positive effect on adaptation and origination levels; and (c) in the VR operation stage of learning, the behavioural transition from the cognitive phase to the associative phase was the most prominent.

Given the importance of innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) education, and online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, we explored the effects of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) hands-on learning on online AI learning and creativity. We also analyzed the effects of creative emotions on AI learning using facial expressions. We recruited 25 preservice teachers at a public university as participants. A pretest – post-test nonequivalent comparison group design was adopted. AI learning was applied to experimental teaching. The experimental and control groups received online STEAM hands-on learning and standard teaching, respectively. The findings were as follows: STEAM hands-on learning had a significant positive effect on the conjunction item, example item, and total AI concept scores, and an even greater positive effect on AI attitude scores, particularly for AI processing and output; the effect size of STEAM hands-on learning on AI creativity was large, and the effect was positive in terms of design novelty, elaboration, and usability; and participants had higher anger levels in the designing and drawing AI learning stages, implying a high degree of focus and engagement. Finally, recommendations for instruction include the use of more online resources and engaging practical software to improve professional learning and enjoyment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative problem-solving skills are one of the key competencies required in the twenty-first century. In this study, researchers attempted to compare the effectiveness of web-based collaborative problem-solving systems (wCPSS) and classroom-based collaborative hands-on learning activities (cCHLA) in the development of collaborative problem-solving skills in junior high school students who were learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related subjects. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent pretest-posttest control group design was employed, and 241 junior high school students were invited to participate in the study. According to the results, a wCPSS-supported environment with teacher guidance was found to be more effective than either a wCPSS-supported environment without teacher guidance or a cCHLA-facilitated environment in developing students' collaborative problem-solving skills in STEM fields. The study suggested that a web-based collaborative problem-solving system with teacher guidance can be used in developing junior high students' collaborative problem-solving skills in STEM education.

This study combined virtual reality (VR) technology, the 6E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Engineer, Enrich, and Evaluate) model, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education to develop a hands-on activity aimed at helping students to achieve "learning by doing." The participants were 162 tenth-grade students, divided into the Experimental Group (hands-on activity using VR technology) and the Control Group (hands-on activity via lectures). Using sequential analysis, this study investigated how the hands-on activity influenced the students' behavioral patterns in learning. The results showed that all of the students' learning performances and hands-on abilities were enhanced. Moreover, the students who used VR technology achieved both significantly better learning performances and hands-on abilities, indicating that VR might be able to help the students understand abstract scientific concepts and build mental models, which they used to internalize and organize knowledge structures. Furthermore, this study discovered that the students who learned using VR technology formed a cyclical learning pattern, starting with a group discussion (G), moving on to solving problems (S) and developing a product (D), and then going back to another group discussion. However, the students who learned via lectures produced a linear learning pattern in the order of G[right arrow]S[right arrow]D.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictability of cloud-based m-learning for creative performance, and the mediating effect of motivation. The participants were 116 college students, who participated in the pre-test and post-test of a teaching experiment. The conclusions of this study are as follows: (1) cloud-based m-learning has a significant positive effect on the motivation of students, particularly on expectancy and affect; (2) cloud-based m-learning has a significant effect on the creative performance of students, particularly on elaboration and novelty; and (3) cloud-based m-learning exhibits predictability for creative performance and affects creative performance through using motivation as a mediator.

Due to the rapid advancement of technology, environmental sustainability education has gained significant attention. This study aimed to explore the effect of the metaverse on green building concept learning, creative design performance, and learning engagement. This research was conducted with 61 students from a public high school, employing a quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent groups. The experimental teaching theme was green building education, where the experimental group used online metaverse with Minecraft-assisted teaching, while the comparison group used internet images for assistance. Our research results were as follows: 1. The metaverse had a large effect size on the example dimension of concept learning but no significant effect on the linkages, hierarchical structures, or cross-linking terms. 2. The metaverse significantly enhanced creative design performance, including value, usability, novelty, and elaboration. 3. The metaverse had a significant effect on learning engagement, particularly in learning attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the effects of cloud-based m-learning on students' creative processes and products in engineering design. A nonequivalent pretest-posttest design was adopted, and 62 university students from Taipei City, Taiwan, were recruited as research participants in the study. The results showed that cloud-based m-learning had a positive effect on creative performance in engineering design. It also improved the creative process in terms of presenting problems and of generating and validating responses. Additionally, cloud-based m-learning effectively improved overall performance, novelty, value and elaboration in designing creative products.

As proof of educational quality and upgrading competitiveness of graduates in the global job market, business schools in Taiwan committed towards the goal of obtaining accreditation from Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), this paper exams the impact of AACSB accreditation on students' Organization Socialization, Person-Organization Fit (P-O Fit), and learning outcomes. In addition, this study compares organizations with AACSB and those without AACSB accreditation, examining whether significant differences exist regarding student behavior, effectiveness of learning, organizational identification, organizational citizenship behavior, learning satisfaction, and wishes to transfer to another department or school. The results show that Organization Socialization, through P-O Fit, would positively affect students' effectiveness of learning, organizational identification, organizational citizenship behavior, and learning satisfaction, and inversely affect students' desire to transfer to other school. Overall speaking, this research offers proof of AACSB accreditation as guarantee of educational quality.