STEAM practices connecting mathematics, arts, architecture, culture and history in a non-formal learning environment of a museum

Abstract

This study adopts STEAM practices integrating architecture, arts, culture, and history into mathematics education in a museum learning environment. A workshop was conducted with five in-service mathematics teachers in an Egyptian museum, utilizing digital technologies such as GeoGebra, Augmented Reality, and 3D Printing to model, visualize and connect the museum collections to their teaching practices. Teachers’ modelled artefacts were qualitatively analysed for their artistic, cultural and historical connections. Findings indicate that participants followed the design expected outcomes of these STEAM practices by implementing a transdisciplinary approach towards mathematically modelling the museum objects while connecting to their mathematical, cultural, historical, and artistic relations. Participants’ reflections showed positive changes in their attitudes towards considering the museum learning environment for mathematics teaching during the implementation of these STEAM practices. Furthermore, such STEAM practices allowed participants to explore and connect disciplines through interacting with museum collections from artistic, cultural, historical, mathematical, and technological perspectives.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• STEAM education
• non-formal learning environments
• architecture
• history
• culture
• technology
• mathematics education
• transdisciplinary education
• augmented reality

Introduction

The process of enabling young children to start a lifelong interest and understanding of science in the wider world may be improved by the provision of out-of-school science experiences. (Jarvis & Pell, 2005, p. 980)

Education must take diverse approaches in order to meet learning challenges emerging in increasingly complex living environments. As a response to these challenges, various learning environments emerged to accommodate these learning requirements. While some researchers distinguish between formal, informal, and non-formal learning others believe that ‘learning is learning, and it is strongly influenced by setting, social interaction, and individual beliefs, knowledge, and attitudes’ (Dierking, 1991, p. 4).

In order to differentiate between formal, informal, and non-formal learning in addition to the physical settings, Maarschalk (1988) and Tamir (1990) also considered other factors that could contribute to students’ learning processes such as motivation, attention, social perspective, and the evaluation procedures that they suggested should vary between the three learning settings. Thus, while discussing learning environments and settings we must consider the above-mentioned variables. Eshach (2007) proposed that formal learning is a structured, in-school, pre-prepared, teacher-lead type of learning, while informal and non-formal learning happens outside of schools. Nevertheless, Eshach (2007) slightly distinguishes between informal and non-formal learning: Informal learning occurs regularly and randomly in everyday locations that learners visit such as their homes, playgrounds, parks, or streets, and usually when they interact with their families, friends, or neighbours. Moreover, learners’ hobbies, reading or any social activities they usually participate in, all contribute to informal learning; and informal learning happens naturally without the assistance of teachers or mediators. In contrast, non-formal learning happens occasionally in places that have pre-prepared, hands-on and interactive activities such as at exhibits or museums. Each type of learning is supported by specific learning environments that could vary from outdoor to indoor and could include locations such as classrooms, field trips, museums, etc. The composition of these environments structure and their nature may have a substantial impact on students’ learning process contributing to the learning situation and therefore to their formal achievements (Eshach, 2007; Tamir, 1990; Greenwood & Kirschbaum, 2014; Gijbels et al., 2008). In non-formal learning environments, learners interact with non-formal educators or with their teachers outside of their formal learning contexts. During informal and non-formal learning, the learners’ motivation is usually intrinsic, which helps in defining learners’ required knowledge or capabilities (Csikszentmihalyi & Hermanson, 1995). However, non-formal learning needs more attention in today's world where we strive to connect students’ learning to their everyday experiences and surroundings.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the implementation of specific STEAM practices in an innovative non-formal learning environment, in our case a museum in Egypt. These proposed STEAM practices allow learners to mathematically model architectural constructions and connect them to their culture and history (El Bedewy et al., 2021). The aim of these STEAM practices is to foster students’ mathematical thinking and to support their development of problem-solving strategies by integrating arts and architecture with mathematics through a technology-supported modelling activity. Moreover, these practices offer teachers opportunities to connect mathematics to students’ cultural and historical heritage (El Bedewy et al. 2021). For example, when learners apply these STEAM practices, they start by choosing a certain architectural model inspired by the learning environment. Afterwards, learners analyse and model the architectural model’s components using GeoGebra, learners’ problem-solving skills may foster during the mathematical modelling process. In addition, during the architectural model choice learners are exposed to the architecture’s cultural and historical connections that they are encouraged to represent as part of their practices learning outcomes.

It is important to note that these STEAM practices were designed in a way to support their implementation in various learning settings, i.e. online, in-person, or hybrid learning environments (El Bedewy & Lavicza, 2023).

In this study, we will outline some implementations of these STEAM practices with teachers in a museum environment as an innovative non-formal learning setting. The specific museum was selected based on the fact that it includes architectural, cultural, and historical collections meeting the aims of our STEAM practice designs and opportunities to integrate objects in the museum with our mathematical tasks. Furthermore, this qualitative study was guided by the following research questions:

• RQ1: How did the study participants apply transdisciplinary in their outcomes to connect architecture, arts, culture, and history with mathematics while implementing STEAM practices in a museum learning environment?

• RQ2: In which ways could a museum serve as a supportive learning environment for the implementation of the proposed STEAM practices?

We will discuss how the literature review and theoretical frameworks guided this study implementation, analysis and findings in the coming sections of this paper.

Literature review

Sometimes innovative learning environments are perceived as non-formal educational settings because they endeavour to change the traditional environments such as schools and classrooms (Dewey, 1904). In this section, we will explain the implications from the literature that encouraged us to implement these STEAM practices in non-formal environments.

Effects of informal/non-formal learning environments on learning outcomes

Educational environments outside of formal school settings can foster mathematical learning and can offer new kinds of teaching experiences (Hein, 2004). As discussed earlier such learning settings can be distinguished as informal or non-formal learning environments. Cooper (2011) further explained that ‘informal learning environments, such as museums (art, science, history, natural history), zoos and aquariums, botanical gardens and arboretums, and historical sites, are places both children and adults can leisurely browse to discover and learn from their experiences’ (p.48).

In his study, Cooper (2011) examined opportunities for fostering mathematical thinking with non-formal educators in museum learning environments. This study showed that non-formal educational environments can support mathematical learning because they offer learners opportunities to connect with real-life situations and the world around them by recognizing natural patterns, symmetries or proportions. Since non-formal learning environments are more flexible than classroom settings, they can relieve constraints on learners’ exploration options. Moreover, these environments offer freedom of choice, which makes the learners’ experiences more individualized (Solares-Rojas et al., 2022). Cooper (2011) also explored the challenges of the existing non-formal learning environments that can affect the learning processes, such as the educators’ expertise and their capabilities in linking learning contents with objects in these non-formal environments. Pattison et al. (2016) highlighted the shortage of studies exploring opportunities for mathematics learning in non-formal learning environments.

Studies highlighted educators’ readiness in embracing non-formal learning is key to enhancing non-formal learning environments and to fostering mathematics learning by connecting mathematical concepts with exhibitions (Santaolalla et al., 2020; Ash & Lombana, 2012).

Further research is required to explore innovative mathematical practices in several environments such as museums. Although these environments appear non-mathematical to learners and educators, they allow educators to broaden their visions thinking of how learning takes place and where could it take place to engage learners in mathematical practices within cultural and realistic settings (Nemirovsky et al., 2017; Arcavi, 2002).

Given the above context, it has been concluded that further research is needed to discover and uncover mathematical practices in several situations and environments; particularly, situations that may seem non-mathematical to students and educators settings (Nemirovsky et al., 2017; Arcavi, 2002). Moreover, Nemirovsky et al. (2017) advocated for ‘a broadening of what counts as mathematical inquiry and understanding’ (p. 575) and urged consideration for whom these mathematical practices are designed and how they function in non-formal learning environments. Consequently, Nemirovsky et al. (2017) encourage further research to explore the development of non-formal learning environments by incorporating learners’ communication through culturally-based discourses of practices that support logical arguments. Therefore, we contend that addressing these gaps and broadening our views on what constitutes a mathematical practice will propel us, as mathematicians and educators, to consider where and how learning happens. It will also prompt us to think about the opportunities students are afforded to explore mathematics and engage in mathematical practices within cultural and authentic contexts.

Accordingly, based on the literature it is obvious that more research is needed on the preparation of educators to be able to utilize and embrace non-formal learning environments, foster mathematics learning and reasoning in such environments, and enrich learning opportunities for students beyond formal classroom learning.

Museums as non-formal learning environments

It is a miracle that curiosity strives for formal education. (Einstein, 1950as cited in Levi, 2021, p. 1)

Museums, cultural and historical sites, and workshops designed to meet specific needs of learners or users are all considered non-formal learning environments. Non-formal education is described as ‘any organised, intentional and explicit effort to promote learning to enhance the quality of life through non-school settings’ (Heimlich, 1993, p. 2). These non-formal settings help in producing sharable knowledge, skills enhancements, nurturing, and foster personal happiness (Edwards, 2007). Moreover, non-formal education offers a flexible user-centric approach in a novel setting providing learners with the opportunity to control their learning (Taylor & Neill, 2008).

Taylor and Neill (2008) argue that teachers need to be reminded that considerable knowledge can be acquired outside the traditional classroom settings in the form of non-formal education. These authors suggest that considerable knowledge can be found in museum environments, where people get exposed to art, culture, history, and the real museum collections around them. However, this knowledge transfer taking place at museums is not a well-structured relationship between a learner and an educator as one that exists in a traditional classroom. To overcome the unstructured relationship of educator and learner in a museum, some museum educators, especially, in museums that have artistic pieces, adopt didactical methods in transferring knowledge, for example, using storytelling to connect to museum collections in a narrative form (Chadbourne, 1991).

According to Nemirovsky et al. (2017), in their attempt in defining who are the non-formal educators

someone who engages learners in the development of skills with a wide range of tools and materials; who facilitates the learners’ involvement in the design of their own collective projects; who is eager to pursue ideas she had not expected to have arisen; who habitually trespasses conventional boundaries between mathematics, art, history, design, literature, sports, music, or philosophy; and for whom feelings and sensibilities are the substance of what they do with each other. (p. 977)

Non-formal educators stated that artistry’s perspective should be considered for learning possibilities along with mathematical practices. Therefore, non-formal educators could establish learning possibilities that combine other disciplines such as arts, culture or history as a natural dimension to museum collections’ objects. While researchers suggested that these possibilities should be considered a practical skill for educators to use in non-formal environments for all grades (Simpson & Kastberg, 2022).

These non-formal learning environments bring opportunities that are sometimes challenging to educators and require them to learn certain skills to offer the best learning experiences in these short intervals. Consequently, more studies are needed to explore various ways to support educators to overcome these challenges. Connolly (1914) suggested using the museum as a non-formal learning environment that is connected to real-life experiences which were inspired by Dewey’s (1904) ideas. Connolly (1914) suggests in her chapter ‘Good Museums Waited on Good Teaching’, that along with museums’ role to make the learning experiences successful, teachers’ qualifications and teaching methods and learning content taught is playing an extensive role in making the museum experience successful. Taylor and Neill (2008) identified three main opportunities to enhance the teaching approaches in non-formal environments. Firstly, by using the term ‘In situ’, which means ‘in original location’. The term was inspired by Gardner’s Art (Kleiner, 2015) and it refers to observing a unique repaired construction as in museums. Therefore, museum pieces that are observed in situ have a privilege of a truthful connection between the site components and the real-life environment setting. We will refer to the ‘In situ’ advantage of the teaching-learning situations as museum practice and its close connection to place-based learning. Secondly, the learning advantage of a museum is the ‘free choice’ and its effects on the learning process. It indicates ‘the learning people do when they get to control what to learn, when to learn, where to learn, and with whom to learn’ (Falk & Dierking, 2018, as cited in Taylor & Neill, 2008, p. 28). Moreover, the freedom of movement in this learning environment is also an advantage to learners. Hence, it allows learners to control their learning by deciding when to stay and participate, when to leave, and by choosing their educators. Thirdly, the advantage of non-formal education practices is the short duration of learning experiences. As reported by museum educators the learning events can take place between 10–50 min, which is sometimes challenging to non-formal educators (Taylor & Neill, 2008). Hence, in this study, we strive to provide teachers with professional development workshops to get them aquatinted with non-formal learning environments while building connections to disciplines that they teach such as mathematics, culture, history, arts or technology.

Moreover, this brings a connection to considering the museums as educative and learning centres furthermore places, which possibly connects to the place-based learning approaches that could occur in museum learning environments.

The place-based learning approach

We considered museums as places that entail multidisciplinary nature and could constitute cultural and historical connections in their collections and artefacts. Therefore, we adopted place-based learning, as a learning approach that guides educators on how to utilize the places’ benefits for their educational purposes. Moreover, a common goal of non-formal education and place-based learning is to foster learners’ skills and enable content enrichment according to Stoilescu (2016) ‘Place-based learning does not advocate ignoring the formal educational standards regarding skills or content but integrating them and using them in an adequate moment and place’ (p. 150).

Place-based learning at museums and historical sites could encourage sensitive engagement with artefacts of places and related knowledge about them (Sheppard et al., 2019). Place-based learning is not a generic term to be applied to any place that has no relevance to the learning goals and achievement rather it should be focusing on specific places that contribute to society and the history of learners. Woodhouse and Knapp (2000) suggested that the positive aspects of place-based learning depend on the choice of the place, the cultural recognition of the place, and its multidisciplinary nature. Therefore, in this paper, we consider museums as places that could benefit from the advantages of place-based learning innovative approaches.

It is suggested to have more educational opportunities for out-of-school learning explorations using the place-based learning approach (Pyle, 2001). Place-based learning positions a huge priority on providing learners with possibilities for learning practices in outdoor contexts, such as specific places and locations that seek to value natural settings and genuine knowledge (Pyle, 2001). Moreover, place-based learning tends to connect instructions between natural and social elements of locals and communities to contribute to solving real-life problems and offering genuine solutions. Therefore, place-based learning emerges from specifying places to learners and their learning aims that value locals, communities and their cultures, history and multidisciplinary practices (Stoilescu, 2016).

Place-based learning approach can support learners’ connection to the environment and increases their learning motivation (Stoilescu, 2016), may promote stepping outside of traditional classrooms, enrich learning, motivation and help link social and natural education to formal and non-formal learning environments (Smith, 2002, 2007).

Place-based learning is also connected to ethnomathematics because of the mutual learning aims of establishing cultural and historical connections (Furuto, 2014). Ethnomathematics links history and cultural knowledge to problems that promote social connections (D’Ambrosio, 2001). Therefore, supporters of ethnomathematics consider it to be a ‘discipline as a case of rethinking and renegotiating pedagogy, culture, history, ideology, and mathematical content in very diverse contexts’ (Stoilescu, 2016, p. 150). These ethnomathematical connections align with STEAM practices’ aims to connect the museum collections’ culture and history to mathematical content for advancing pedagogy and learning experiences.

More research is needed to connect teachers with the value of place-based learning; teachers should be trained to integrate place-based learning in non-formal environments such as museums or other cultural sites into their teaching practices (Greenwood & Kirschbaum, 2014). Therefore, to overcome the raised gaps, we encapsulate the place-based learning approaches and introduce them to teachers through the application of STEAM practices in museum learning environments.

In the previous section, we argued that implementing STEAM practices in museums can be beneficial for developing innovative learning environments. Therefore, we utilize museums as places that could foster learning through STEAM practices while applying the place-based learning approaches and connecting culture and history within an Ethnomathematics learning approach.

Transdisciplinary connecting arts, culture, history and architecture at the museum

Arts have shown to have a positive effect on fostering student learning in formal learning environments (Nathan, 2008; Oreck, 2006). Okvuran (2010) suggests that introducing museum education to elementary school students can assist the goals of art education since we use a variety of our senses when we explore a work of art. Students perceive the learning content at schools as an ‘abstract phenomenon’ that they do not see in real-life situations. On the contrary, in the museum students can interact with museum exhibits and learn by relying on their senses and interacting with actual tangible devices and tools (Seidel & Hudson, 1999). Therefore, there is a strong connection between art education and museum education (Bacci & Melcher, 2011).

Culture and history are interwoven into museum collections through stories behind museum artefacts. For example, architectural heritage represents cultural diversity, thus, connecting them with arts and history. Architecture is the art of building and designing structures with an artistic element. The intersection between architecture and arts is visual aesthetics (Omale & Ogunmakinde, 2018).

There is a tendency to judge the aesthetics of architecture from its external appearance, much like a painting or sculpture. We observe pleasing proportions, suitable materials, interesting colours, fit with the cultural or regional context, and the craft of appropriate detailing. (Hamilton, 2019, p. 1)

El Bedewy and Lavicza (2023) demonstrated that architectural modelling could be effectively used as part of STEAM practices to teach mathematics in formal learning environments across different cultures. Moreover, El Bedewy et al. (2021) stressed the mathematical modelling learning opportunities that accompany the simulation process of modelling real-world objects by analysing its mathematical functions using GeoGebra (an open-source dynamic geometry software) (https://www.geogebra.org/) while implementing these STEAM practices. The mathematical modelling process (Niss & Blum, 2020) could allow learners to apply problem-solving strategies during the mathematical modelling and simulation of objects. In this study, we refer to these objects as those inspired by museum collections. Learners could apply (Polya, 2004) problem-solving strategies such as ‘understanding the problem’, ‘backward thinking’ and ‘specialization’ to utilize GeoGebra tools. Moreover, learners could provide several modelling approaches for the same museum collections that could foster problem- solving and reasoning skills (El Bedewy et al., 2021). However, there is a need to examine how these STEAM practices could be implemented in museum environments. Studies are also needed to examine how connections between arts, culture, and history in museum learning environments could support the implementation of STEAM practices, specifically for integrating mathematics with these disciplines.

Based on the aforementioned studies, we consider museums as important environments for innovative learning approaches that can foster learners’ mathematical knowledge while applying these STEAM practices in place-based and ethnomathematics learning approaches, while connecting to culture, history and arts.

Theoretical framework

In our STEAM practices, we are capitalizing on several theories that are derived from the constructivism school of thought that states that ‘knowledge is the result of a learner’s activity rather than of passive reception of information or instruction’ (Von Glasersfeld, 1991, p. xiv). Therefore, acquiring knowledge requires learning environments that provide hands-on activities linked to real-world ideas and situations (Falk et al., 1986). This culturally relevant learning approach adheres to what Windschitl (2002) categorized as cognitive, social, and cultural constructivism. Thus, we use sociocultural constructivism to adapt STEAM practices to learning outcomes.

Sociocultural learning approaches and constructivism

Sociocultural approaches state that acquiring knowledge is mainly a social experience influenced by cultural settings (Vygotsky & Cole, 1978). Sociocultural perception as a culturally and historically composed form of reflection and actions is derived from social interactions that are also intervened by languages, interactions, symbols, and items (Radford, 2012). Therefore, the motivation to gain knowledge is intermediated by cultural aspects that can vary among scientific, religious, or other values with the aim of guiding knowledge progression. With these views in mind, teachers are urged to apply sociocultural approaches to create hands-on interactive activities that utilize cultural and historical objects. This leads us to discuss the role of interactive environments that foster Sociocultural approaches. For example, Eshach (2007) suggests that museums are valuable learning environments that could support the social constructivism approach to learning. Constructivism can aid in the learning process and interactions that take place between museum visitors (socially) in the museum environment. Accordingly, the dialogue happening between museum visitors is referred to as sharing ‘prior and present understanding through focused conversation, thus engaging in the social construction of knowledge’ (Gilbert and Priest, 1997, as cited in Eshach, 2007, p. 750)

Rahm (2004) proposed that ‘through the interaction of multiple voices (students and teachers) reflecting diverse interpretations, understandings, and personal experiences, knowledge is taken as essentially “talked into being”’ (p. 225). Tunnicliffe (1997, 2000), explains that learners engage in scientific conversations in places such as museums even without mediators. Thus, it is reasonable to propose that sociocultural methods could be applied in non-formal learning environments such as museums.

This requires an understanding of social interactions between teachers and learners in such environments. Therefore, we integrated a more focused museum educational framework to support and enrich our theoretical stances while implementing these STEAM practices in a museum learning environment.

Museum education framework

Museum education is an already well-established field of study among education sciences. Active visitor involvement in museum experiences helping to make learning exciting is a long-term trend that can be observed in museums that focus on natural history, science, and technology (Danilov, 1986). In order to optimize learning processes in an exhibit and achieve desired learning outcomes, Koran and Lehman (1981) argued that educators should focus on learning-related objects that emphasize certain key ideas to visitors. The study found that exhibits attributes like colour and shapes can help in grabbing students’ attention. The curiosity of learners led to more time spent in front of certain objects or interacting with certain exhibits, which in turn led to asking more questions that helped achieve the desired learning outcomes (Koran & Lehman, 1981). Four decades ago, Koran and Koran (1986) proposed a framework for museum education as a non-formal learning environment. In this framework, the visitor is at the centre of the experience that is affected by the factors in four distinct categories: (1) characteristics of visitors (i.e. age, sex, knowledge, attitudes, etc.); (2) visitor processing activities (i.e. attention, coding, strategies, rules, memory storage, retrieval, etc.); (3) characteristics of museums (i.e. static, dynamic, walkthrough, etc.), and (4) desired outcomes (i.e. knowledge, curiosity, motivation, etc.). According to Koran and Koran (1986), these four categories affect the learning process and outcomes of visitors’ museum experience.

In this study, we adapted this framework for museum education for the design of teacher professional development with a focus on the learner instead of the visitor at the centre of museum education (Figure 1).

Figure 1. A learner-focused Framework for Museum Education Explorations (adapted from Koran & Koran, 1986).

Careful consideration of the factors in the four categories of this framework can inform the design of new museums and the remodelling of existing museums for all stakeholders: the designers, educators, and researchers.

In this study, the Framework for Museum Education Explorations (Figure 1) guided the design of museum learning tasks used in teacher professional development to demonstrate various ways that STEAM practices could be implemented in museum learning environments. These tasks integrated innovative technologies allowing teachers to mathematically model the exhibits in various museum collections and to visualize them as physical or virtual objects in order to achieve the desired learning outcomes.

Methodology

The study is part of a larger project that followed design-based research (DBR) (Cobb et al., 2003) to integrate arts, culture, history, and technology into mathematics by applying transdisciplinary STEAM practices. Typically, DBR cycles include four stages starting with an analysis of practical problems which in this project was to implement these transdisciplinary STEAM practices that foster mathematics education in non-formal learning environments such as museums. Moreover, we aim to investigate in this design cycle how we could update the proposed solutions and design to meet learning environment needs when shifting from formal to non-formal settings and situations.

Followed by the development of a proposed solution to the stated problems, and then implementing the solution design through iterative cycles of testing and refinement. Afterwards, out of the cycle outcomes analysis, we finally propose design principles and solution enhancements to the coming cycles (Reeves, 2006; Bakker & Eerde, 2015). Therefore, this paper represents a DBR cycle, in which the STEAM practices were adapted for implementation in the museum (Figure 2).

Figure 2. The DBR cycle adapted from (Reeves, 2006, p. 59).

We will discuss the development and construction of these STEAM practices for implementation in museum learning environments.

Design of the museum learning environment for STEAM practices

The STEAM practices for a museum learning environment were designed according to the learner-focused framework for Museum Education Explorations (Figure 1) to ensure fidelity of implementation of STEAM practices in this non-formal learning environment. The design adaptations in this cycle of implementing STEAM practices from formal to non-formal settings is an important methodological learning outcome because it will contribute to the DBR expected outcomes in defining matured interventions and theoretical understandings (Cobb et al., 2003) such as design principles. These design principles at the end of the project cycles should be of a prescriptive and heuristic nature on how to carry out interventions in non-formal environments such as museums for teachers to practice transdisciplinary STEAM practices.

In particular, the process of adaptation included the choice of the museum for the implementation of these STEAM practices was made based on recommendations by Eshach (2007): We visited the museum beforehand, explored its components, and selected architectural, artistic, cultural, and historical examples from the museum collections to be used as learning materials for the teachers. Using these examples, we developed the mathematics learning content for the STEAM practices by focusing on the architectural, artistic, cultural and historical connections to discuss transdisciplinary connections. We also pre-defined the technologies that can be used in the STEAM practices’ implementation in a museum learning environment such as GeoGebra for mathematical modelling, and digital (AR) and physical (3D printing) visualizations of museum objects. These propositions helped shape the design of the STEAM practices for implementation in the museum learning environment.

Participants

In-service mathematics teachers in Cairo, Egypt were recruited for the study via social media. Thirteen teachers registered for the STEAM practices workshop in the museum. Five of these teachers attended all sessions and agreed to participate in the study. All participants had undergraduate mathematics education degrees from the same programme and taught different age groups (Table 1). This relatively diverse group of participants in their teaching experiences supported the development of the DBR study and led to important further investigations in this area.

Table 1. Participants demographics.

Participant	Age/Gender	Student taught (age)	GeoGebra, AR, 3D printing backgrounds	Teaching experience
Teacher 1	35/Male	15–17 years old	GeoGebra beginner	15 years
Teacher 2	26/Female	9–17 years old	None	5 years
Teacher 3	23/Female	7–13 years old	None	2 years
Teacher 4	26/Female	7–13 years old	None	6 years
Teacher 5	22/Female	7–10 years old	None	1 year

Based on the interest survey administered to the participants prior to the first session, all teachers were interested in learning about the STEAM practices and educational uses of technologies such as AR and GeoGebra.

In addition, the study engaged three museum educators: a mid-age female member of the museum education team and two mid-age male educators responsible for the technology integration and application in the museum.

Data collection and data analysis

An initial teacher survey was distributed to collect participants’ demographics including age, student-taught age group, the school they work at, and the reasons for participating in this workshop.

Semi-structured individual interviews with teachers included 26 open-ended questions. The interviews focused on capturing teachers’ reflections about teaching mathematics, the STEAM practice concepts and the integration of the disciplines in a museum learning environment. Each interview lasted approximately 40 min. Teachers’ interviews were conducted online after the third session and all the interviews were video recorded.

The final teacher survey included 22 open-ended questions and 9 multiple-choice questions created using Google Forms and distributed to teachers using a shared link. The survey had four parts and was conducted after the workshop. The first three parts asked about participants’ experiences and knowledge prior to the workshop. The first part included 4 questions about teaching methods the teachers use in their teaching and how they usually plan their lessons, and whether they use any technology during their lesson planning. The second part included 10 questions about teachers’ technology literacy and GeoGebra knowledge. The third part had 8 questions about teachers’ knowledge of STEAM education and whether they use STEAM practices in their schools. The last part had 9 questions that collected teachers’ reflections on the museum workshop and their ideas about implementing STEAM practices in their future teaching was guided by the museum framework (Koran & Koran, 1986) and the sociocultural theory learning approaches.

Field notes that focused on the teachers’ reflections and questions were recorded in the course of workshop observations by one of the authors of this paper. All the sessions were video recorded.

Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with museum educators. These interviews included four questions that focused on their reflections on parts of the sessions which they observed that were held in the museum. These interviews were conducted at the end of the museum intervention and each interview took about 20 min long.

Teachers’ artefacts included GeoGebra files of the museum objects in 2D and 3D forms and teachers’ PowerPoint presentations. The presentations included cultural and historical facts about selected museum objects and lesson plans for future implementation of the STEAM practices with their students. These artefacts were collected after the last session as the teachers’ final projects.

All interviews were translated from Arabic to English. Participants’ interview data were transcribed, coded according to a priori coding schema from an earlier study (El Bedewy & Lavicza, 2023) and examined for emerging themes using thematic analysis. Participating teachers’ GeoGebra files and PowerPoint presentations were analysed using content analysis methods (Weber, 1990). The content analysis followed pre-determined codes (deductive) and additional codes were produced from the analysis (inductive) that were later reorganized and possibly collective to result in all-purpose themes that were incorporated as part of the analysis and results of this study (Weber, 1990; LeCompte & Preissle, 1993).

The museum intervention

This study was conducted at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in Cairo, Egypt. The museum is named the Museum of Egyptian Civilization since it includes various artistic, architectural, and cultural collections covering different time periods starting from ancient Egypt to the Islamic regime. That was the main reason for selecting this museum as a place for the implementation of STEAM practices with the teachers. This museum was recently opened, and in 2021 it hosted the Egyptian Parade, an event that was locally and internationally recognized. This was another reason for selecting this particular museum, as we believed it would be attractive to local teachers as a place for professional learning.

During the first visit of researchers to the museum, we met the museum manager, education team, and technical team in order to establish a collaboration between the researchers and the museum staff necessary to support teacher workshops. After the researchers clarified the workshop aim and the main learning goals of the STEAM practices, the museum educational team offered a detailed tour of the museum collections. During the tour, we took photos of various objects in museum collections as examples that can be modelled using GeoGebra. These photos were later used to prepare teaching materials for the professional development workshop.

Teachers’ professional development workshop about STEAM practices

The STEAM practices’ intervention in the museum learning environment included five sessions with the participating mathematics teachers. One of the authors of this paper and collaboration with museum educators was responsible for providing these sessions to the participants. The first and last sessions intentionally took place in the museum to apply the place-based learning approach. To provide the participants with the aim of these STEAM practices and how to connect them to the museum collections. Moreover, the last session took place in the museum to experience the technology visualizations in relation to the real museum collections and allow participants to receive their certificate of participation. While the other three sessions took place online via Zoom due to the in-service teacher’s availability limitation to attend the five sessions from the museum.

The first session started with an introduction to the concept of STEAM practices. This introduction included a PowerPoint presentation about STEAM education, a discussion of possible methods of implementing STEAM practices, examples of integrating architecture and arts with mathematics, and connecting culture and history with these practices. In order to demonstrate how these practices were adopted in different cultural settings, we also showed the participants examples of artefacts developed by Austrian and Libyan teachers when implementing these STEAM practices online in a formal learning environment (El Bedewy & Lavicza, 2023).

Following this introduction, we demonstrated GeoGebra modelling using the Saqqara pyramid, a well-known ancient Egyptian pyramid (Figure 3(a)). With its simple geometric shape, this museum object was easy to model in GeoGebra. The Saqqara pyramid modelling starts with the construction of six similar squares with the same centre and sides of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 units respectively (Figure 3(b)). Then in the GeoGebra 3D view, extrude to prism tool was used to construct rectangular prisms for each square base, so that the height of each prism is inversely proportional to the side of the base. We followed that by explaining the visualization technologies possibilities for participants as AR and 3D printing. This modelling step helped us to introduce teachers to GeoGebra tools and functions necessary for mathematical modelling.

Figure 3. (a) Saqqara Pyramid, (b) GeoGebra 2D and 3D models.

After this demonstration, teachers took a 2-hour museum tour that was led by the museum educators. This tour covered the museum collections with an explanation of the architectural, artistic, historical and cultural connections. During the museum tour, teachers were advised to take photos of interesting objects in the museum collections that they could use in their final projects.

After the tour, we demonstrated the second modelling example which was the museum lantern used in the museum front entrance area (Figure 4). The museum lantern consists of two distinct parts, a support and a lamp. This support is formed by four vertical rectangular columns connected on the top by four horizontal rectangular beams that form a square. The square base of each column has a side that is twice the size of the square in the vertical cross-section of each horizontal beam. The lamp is in the shape of an inverted pyramid that is placed on the support in such a way that the edges of the pyramid are attached to the edges of the horizontal rectangular beams.

Figure 4. The inverted pyramid lanterns are at the museum's front entrance area.

We demonstrated the development of the GeoGebra model of the museum lantern. We used a regular polygon tool to construct the shape and keep it open from the centre, when the shape is translated using vector translation and extruded then it will be a 3D unfilled model like the real museum lantern (Figure 5).

Figure 5. The modelling approach toward the inverted pyramid.

Afterwards, as a practice, participants modelled this structure on their own during the workshop (Figure 6). Teachers tried to imitate the inverted pyramid structure using GeoGebra. We noticed that only one teacher, Teacher 1, was capable of modelling the inverted pyramid during the session. This reflects that teachers needed more practice and training in order to master the use of technologies such as GeoGebra in order to be capable of using it in their teaching.

Figure 6. The GeoGebra model of the museum lantern was developed by Teacher 1.

The first session concluded with a discussion about the objects from the museum collections that teachers selected for their final projects and the reasons for these choices.

The second session was held online via Zoom because of in-service mathematics teachers’ limited time for the sessions. Moreover, participating teachers had the essence of the museum learning environment during their first session where they covered the museum exploration part and captured several pictures of the museum collections, which they will need for these STEAM practices implementation. The purpose of the workshop was to demonstrate how the surface of revolution function in GeoGebra can be used to model museum objects. For this purpose, we chose two Egyptian vases that were part of the museum collections (Figure 7).

Figure 7. (a) The first vase from the museum collections of the ancient Egyptian tableware, (b) The second vase, from the museum collection of a group of ceramic vases by the artist ‘Mohamed Mandour’ who was born in Al-Fustat, Cairo, 1950.

We used the polyline tool to approximate the curve of the vase cross-section. We then used the GeoGebra surface of revolution function to rotate the polyline around the y-axis (Figure 8).

Figure 8. The modelling approach of the first ancient Egyptian vase using Polyline.

The second ancient Egyptian vase was modelled using the same modelling approach clearly with less approximation because this vase isn’t symmetrical. The two handles of the vase were modelled using a polygon tool, translated to the actual position as the imported picture (Figure 9), extruded in 3D view with specifying a certain height, translated to the actual position on the vase, and finally reflected using the reflection about point to appear on the vase on both sides (Figure 9).

Figure 9. The modelling approach of the second ancient Egyptian vase uses the Polyline, the surface of revolution, and the reflection of the vase handle on both sides.

The ‘Sultan Hassan’ mosque located in old Cairo was another architectural construction that was discussed during the second session. This mosque belonged to the period of the Islamic regime of Bahri Mamluk in Egypt (1356 and 1363 CE) (Behrens-Abouseif, 2007). The mosque mock-up was part of the museum collections illustrating the architecture of this historic period (Figure 10).

Figure 10. (a) Showing the mock-up of the main mosque of the ‘Sultan Hassan’ mosque inside the museum, (b) mock-up of the central part of the ‘Sultan Hassan’ mosque inside the museum.

We demonstrated to the participants step-by-step how to model the mosque's central part using GeoGebra (Figure 11). We started by modelling the base as an octagon using the regular polygon tool and providing 8 angles, we then constructed the base of one column at one of the corners of the octagon that is formed of two squares, followed by vector translation to the other 7 corners of the mosque centre base. In the 3D view, we extruded the base and the columns and used vector translation to place the extruded base above the columns. Lastly, we created a 3D sphere in the centre of the base and translated it to the top (Figure 11).

Figure 11. Showed how we demonstrated the modelling procedures of some parts of the ‘Sultan Hassan’ Mosque to the participants.

The third session was also organized online to introduce the participants to GeoGebra AR and 3D printing technologies. We demonstrated to participants how to use GeoGebra AR and how to export the models from GeoGebra software for 3D printing (Bedewy et al., 2023). The fourth session focused on answering the participants’ questions about GeoGebra tools and functions, technology exploitation, lesson planning discussion and how to integrate disciplines. The last session was designed to take place in the museum to demonstrate the teachers’ outcomes to their peers and to the museum educators.

After the sessions were over participants were required to submit their final projects. The final project included a GeoGebra file that presented the mathematical model of the museum object selected by the teacher using GeoGebra 2D and 3D tools, and PowerPoint presentations that included historical facts about the selected museum object, their motivations for selecting it, and images of AR or 3D printed visualization of the mathematical model of this object. Finally, their PowerPoint presentation also included a lesson plan example for implementing these STEAM practices in their teaching and connecting to their teaching curriculum.

Results

This section is divided into parts outlining themes emerging from the data analysis. Firstly, we discuss teachers’ museum object preferences and the motivations behind their choices which resulted in several emerging themes. Secondly, we outline emerging themes organized by each research question, to assist readers we created a map of the emerging themes in each section.

Teachers’ preferences in choosing museum objects

In order to provide the context for teachers’ choices of museum exhibits for their final projects, we analysed the reasons for these choices that teachers provided in their PowerPoint presentations and interviews. This resulted in emerging themes interpreted from the teachers’ motivations as follows (Figure 12).

Figure 12. Teachers’ preferences from museum collection themes.

Teachers were interested in a particular historical style

One of the reasons that emerged from this analysis was an interest in a particular style and historical significance of architecture. For example, Teacher 1 expressed an interest in Islamic architecture when selecting a museum model of the pulpit of Abu Bakr Mezher (Figure 13) stating that

Islamic architecture is one of the most beautiful and richest examples of architecture known to human history, and Cairo is one of the few cities that are very rich in Islamic heritage and architecture, which directly and indirectly affected the Egyptian conscience and taste throughout the ages. (Teacher 1, PowerPoint presentation)

Figure 13. The museum model of the pulpit of Abu Bakr Mezher (early sixteenth century A.D.).

This shows that historical preferences affect the teachers’ model choices, which is a good opportunity for history connections and allows learners to integrate history into their practices.

Teachers selected museum models that have a cultural relationship

Teacher 5 selected a model of a Banque Misr Museum, an eclectic building constructed in 1927 in Cairo (Figure 14), explaining the significance of this building as constructed for the first Egyptian bank ‘fully owned by Egyptians’ (Teacher 5, interview). Accordingly, teachers’ model preferences are connected to cultural reasons as such architecture represents an economic upgrade for their country of origin. This makes the cultural relationship in teachers’ choices important and may lead to future implications in designing STEAM practices with their students and the related ethnomathematics approaches involved.

Figure 14. A museum model of Banque Misr Museum (1927).

Teachers selected museum models to explore their mathematical features

Another reason that emerged from the analysis was teachers’ interest in connecting museum exhibits to mathematics. For example, Teacher 2 selected a mock-up of Sultan Hassan Mosque and School (Madrasah) (Figure 15) explaining that she chose this object ‘because it combines most of the geometric shapes, which you may consider at the beginning difficult to design, but it is easy and interesting to design and model’ (Teacher 2, interview) explains that teachers were motivated to exploit the mathematics behind the museum collections. This theme stresses the goals of STEAM practices to connect to mathematics learning.

Figure 15. The museum mock-up of Sultan Hassan Mosque and School (Madrasah) (fourteenth century A.D.).

Teachers selected museum models that have a personal discipline interest as astronomy

Additionally, Teacher 3, explained her choice of the Celestial Globe (Figure 16) through her interest in astronomy. This can constitute an application of transdisciplinary approaches, where teachers integrate objects and concepts from other disciplines while exploring their components mathematically during modelling.

Figure 16. A celestial globe captured from the museum.

Teachers selected museum models that have an artistic significance to them

Visual aesthetics was also found to be common for several participants. For instance, Teacher 4 described her selection of the ancient Egyptian funeral boat (Figure 17): ‘I liked how it looks like’ (interview). These teachers’ artistic intentions in the model selection are a clear explanation of how teachers can later motivate students to model visual aesthetic objects from their learning environments while applying these STEAM practices.

Figure 17. Model of an ancient Egyptian wooden funeral boat (2935 BC).

Certainly, there can be other reasons behind teachers’ choices, but our data analysis highlighted these five main themes, but further studies could categorize these choices. Nevertheless, these different reasons for selecting museum objects for mathematical modelling demonstrate diversity in participants’ interests that go beyond mathematics and provide pathways for discipline integration in the implementation of STEAM practices in museums. Thus, such learning environment can foster the teachers’ understanding of transdisciplinary learning approaches, STEAM education, non-formal education museums and connect them to their mathematical practices.

RQ1: How did the study participants apply transdisciplinary in their outcomes to connect architecture, arts, culture, and history with mathematics while implementing STEAM practices in a museum learning environment?

Connecting disciplines while implementing the STEAM practices in a museum

STEAM practices design supports the connections between mathematics and other disciplines such as arts, culture, and history. In addition, teachers had the freedom to select their own museum objects that helped them to make specific connections. Several themes about discipline integration emerged from the analysis of mathematical models’ teachers developed in GeoGebra and field notes from workshop observations (Figure 18).

Figure 18. Themes emerging addressing research question 1.

Teachers were inspired by artistic features of the museum collections

The first emerging theme displays that another artistic relationship appeared to the learning environment choice for the STEAM practises design and application which was noticed during the analysis of teachers’ field notes. Teachers mentioned that the museum collection was inspiring. During their museum tour, teachers showed great interest in the carvings and drawings in the museum collections and asked how they can cover that in their mathematical modelling, emphasizing teachers’ motivation emerging from artistic reasons and leads to mathematical applications through modelling, which is a clear implementation of these STEAM practices inspired by museum components.

Connecting mathematics with arts by using symmetry and proportions in mathematical modelling

The second emerging theme demonstrates that STEAM practices supported arts connection with mathematics by allowing teachers to apply symmetrical and proportional modelling in their attempts to create the most realistic representation of the museum object of their choice. For example, Teacher 4 used the surface of revolution to construct the museum object (Figure 19), which are real demonstrations of how these STEAM practices can allow artistic features integration while practicing mathematical modelling inspired from the museum collections.

Figure 19. The ‘Meshkah’ modelling in GeoGebra by Teacher 4.

Using geometric transformations to reproduce architectural patterns

The third emerging theme demonstrates that STEAM architectural patterns in some museum objects led teachers to the use of geometric transformations in mathematical modelling thus connecting mathematics with architecture. For instance, Teacher 2, did multiple vector translations in order to copy the columns around the octagon corners. By imitating their forms and colours using GeoGebra tools and functions which reflect a visual aesthetic connection (Figure 20).

Figure 20. Teacher 2 architectural coloured model in GeoGebra.

Teachers tried to maintain the proportional relationship of the architectural models they modelled using GeoGebra. Teacher 4 tried to simulate the components of the boat proportionally (Figure 21).

Figure 21. Teacher 4 added proportional components to the ancient Egyptian funeral boat (2935 BC) as in the real model in the museum.

Teacher 1, in their modelling process applied rotation as a transformational function to let the architectural model stand upright as a simulation for the real-life view (Figure 22).

Figure 22. Teachers 1 model rotation function to reach a realistic model look.

These examples captured from teachers’ artefacts show how mathematical modelling using GeoGebra can foster artistic features integration by using transformational and proportional mathematical applications which is important for participants’ transdisciplinary learning approaches.

Teachers showed interest in connecting to the models’ cultural and historical information they used for STEAM practices

This fourth emerged theme denotes that STEAM practices encouraged participants to make connections to culture and history. As teachers reflected a great interest in applying cultural and historical connections with their students during the implementation of STEAM practices to highlight ideas of connecting to other disciplines. Other observations from participating teachers that were included in their PowerPoint presentations indicated cultural and historical relationships of chosen museum collections by providing texts explaining some historical information about these collections. While all teachers were offered these historical parts, some teachers included several slides explaining historical connections in an even more extensive way. Teacher 4 showed in separate PowerPoint slides the historical and cultural significance of the museum object she selected (Figure 23).

Figure 23. Shows screenshots of Teacher 4 PowerPoint presentation about museum objects, a: Cultural information b: Historical information.

Teachers also mentioned that they liked connecting their work to culture and history, which was a motivation for choosing some museum objects and connecting them mathematically through their modelling processes. For example, Teacher 1 mentioned in the interview that historical and cultural information is more beneficial for students than for teachers. The historical and cultural significance of modelled museum objects was also an inspiration for thinking more broadly about mathematics and other disciplines as reported by Teacher 5. Teacher 2 noted that she was eager to collaborate with history teachers to implement these STEAM practices in the future. These findings show that the teachers were motivated to integrate culture and history and connect them to mathematics learning.

Teachers applied transdisciplinary learning approaches during STEAM practices implementation

The fifth emerging theme is based on the analysis of the collected data, emerging themes appeared that aimed to tackle transdisciplinary learning. Findings from teachers’ interviews supported this emerging theme, Teacher 5 reported that.

STEAM practices gave me a broader perspective by seeing many ancient objects and made me look at these objects not from a single perspective, but rather I understood the historical, and cultural relationship while still thinking about how to model them mathematically. So, it made me connect the meaning behind the architecture and the mathematical graphical part. (Teacher 5, Interview)

She also added, ‘it allowed us to see the real views and mathematical views of the monuments’. As these STEAM practices were designed to encourage teachers to connect to several disciplines, Yet, it was interesting to find out that teachers integrated disciplines in different ways. From teachers’ excerpts provided earlier, we also captured that teachers would implement discipline integration in different ways in their future implementations of these STEAM practices. Accordingly, some teachers mentioned that they plan to collaborate with teachers from other disciplines to develop joint practices, while others thought that culture and history integration can be highlighted, but not focused on in their mathematics teaching. Another teacher managed to integrate astronomy into her STEAM practices unintentionally by collecting some information about a related museum collection and stating it in her motivations. Some teachers can focus on one discipline of mathematics while providing their students with limited information about culture and history, while others can collaborate with history teachers to build a stronger connection to apply STEAM practices through transdisciplinary learning approaches.

RQ2: In which ways could a museum serve as a supportive learning environment for the implementation of the proposed STEAM practices?

Supporting the role of the museum in the implementation of STEAM practices

Further analysis resulted in a set of themes addressing research question 2 (Figure 24)

Figure 24. Themes emerging addressing research question 2.

Teachers suggest that the museum learning environment for STEAM practices implementation is effective

The first theme emerged from the analysis of the teachers’ reflections from their interviews about the museum as a non-formal learning environment specifically for these STEAM practices’ teachers’ implementation. We found that teachers had a positive attitude towards the museum learning environment, although some of them stated that they were confused in the beginning about why mathematical-related workshops and STEAM workshops were conducted at the museum. But after participating in these museum practices, teachers reported that they liked this learning experience. Teacher 3 described that she was still thinking about which museum collection she liked most to model it with GeoGebra,

I thought that the workshop would be fully online, but when I went to the museum, I liked the idea a lot. To see the objects and architectures and choose from them what to model and I was thinking afterwards about which one I liked most to model. (Teacher 3, Interview)

Teacher 2 said that the museum collection was so rich, culturally, and historically relevant, and she stated it had everything and no need to adopt models from outside the museum collections for these practices.

Teachers’ opinions showed that the museum was a useful non-formal learning environment for the implementation of STEAM practices, especially since the museum collection had various modelling options that were engaging. Teachers also believed that this museum specifically provided diverse collections from many time periods that existed in Egypt. Therefore, this diversity of museum collections was convenient for the workshop and practice content, and they didn’t need to choose any architectural model from outside the museum. Therefore, some teachers modelled more than one model and others were motivated to continue modelling although they faced some technical problems such as internet connectivity. Teachers liked the idea of modelling parts of the museum collections while connecting them to their artistic, cultural, and historical aspects.

Teachers imagined several ways of applying these STEAM practices in museums, one of them by conducting field trips to the museums to gather ideas inspired by the museum collections and then model them with the students later as stated by Teacher 2.

I really like the STEAM practice; I think I will start by doing a field trip then we can apply what we saw in the classroom later. And this field trip will definitely go to the museum. I liked the tour and how it connected to culture and history. I liked the architecture and objects in the museum. They were enough for me; they covered many time periods, so they were sufficient, and it was ok to continue online as long as we conducted the museum part. (Teacher 2, Interview)

Therefore, we noticed that these interactions through the STEAM practices with museum collections were richer than usual museum visits and it has a huge potential in applying learning in non-formal environments.

Teachers preferred the museum learning environment than the online learning environment

The second emerging theme from the interview analysis was that all the teachers expressed that the museum learning environment was an interactive and fruitful environment to apply these STEAM practices rather than an online learning environment. Teachers reported it was more important to see museum collections than just experiencing them through still pictures and if the whole workshop was conducted online then it would have been boring. As teacher 4 stated

Museum intervention was great and much better than online because I think online, I would have been bored even if I saw the architecture or objects in pictures wouldn’t still be like in the museum to see the objects in reality and it was much better. It was better in the museum because it was active. And allowed us to imagine things as in reality. It was ok to continue online afterwards but the museum part was mandatory. (Teacher 4, Interview)

Museum is an effective learning environment for place-based learning of mathematics

The third emerging theme was based on the teachers’ reflections, we saw a strong connection to real-life scenarios and place-based learning by applying these STEAM practices in the museum learning environment which answers RQ 2. We noticed that the place-based learning approach was convenient for these STEAM practices in a museum environment, as participants valued the place and its components, moreover, they interacted with these components and tackled them from many perspectives, this was a kind of analysing the museum collections historically, culturally, artistically, mathematically and visualizing them using various technologies. Moreover, teachers used terminologies such as ‘active’, ‘interactive’, and ‘real-life connections’, which all emphasize place-based learning principles and sociocultural learning approaches, where the learning connection to real-life examples in place-based learning was established. Teacher 1 stated that it connected him to the museum collections, and to real-life situations ‘It was good to connect culture and history to know why the architectures were built and how they were built is important through this STEAM practice. This makes the problems more related to reality and real-world examples’ (Teacher 1, Interview). He also stated his reasons for joining these STEAM practices workshops at the museum in the pre-survey which shows the connection to real-life examples in their teaching from this excerpt ‘Using GeoGebra to develop the explanation, to be interactive and to have an application in practical life’. Teacher 3 referred to the museum workshop as ‘It felt like I really touched the museum objects by modelling them. It was very interactive’. Teacher 5 reflections was ‘I like the museum part more than the online part, as the museum was more interactive and gave me more feeling of my real-world surroundings, it was different than usual and connected to reality’. Teachers believe that non-formal learning environment such as museums which applies place-based learning approaches could be engaging for students’ connections to real-life examples instead of implementing these STEAM practices in formal learning environments such as classroom settings.

The museum educators stated that the museum conducts several cultural and historical workshops, but they reported that this was the first workshop of its kind to introduce mathematics and technology through STEAM practices in the museum. Moreover, non-formal educators showed a huge interest in these STEAM practices, and the technical team reported that they want to learn GeoGebra and mathematical modelling to apply these practices in the future. This emerged theme ensures the potential STEAM practices’ effectiveness in the museum learning environment which shows how the museum's role is to promote innovative learning activities that encapsulate various technologies.

This also stresses the point raised earlier by Koran and Koran (1986) that the museums are ready to be a non-formal innovative learning environment to promote learning and exploration. Moreover, participants become aware of these STEAM practices and possibilities for future application. As a result, the museum administration team showed great interest in the workshop and in conducting it several times with teachers and with their students, therefore they invited the participating teachers to host them with their students for future museum learning experiences. Based on the above, we believe that the museum served as a useful non-formal learning environment for the implementation of these STEAM practices.

Discussion

Results of the emerging themes we highlighted in the previous section can extend our views to deepen our understanding of the STEAM practises implementation in non-formal environments such as the museum (Nemirovsky et al., 2017; Arcavi, 2002; Pattison et al., 2016). Results of the STEAM practices confirm that teachers’ preparation in terms of offering professional development workshops and guiding them through the understanding of these practices was provided (Cooper, 2011; Simpson & Kastberg, 2022). Moreover, part of the teachers’ preparation was to introduce teachers to transdisciplinary approaches to visualizing museum collections from several perspectives as artistically, historically, culturally, mathematically and technologically allowed them to connect and integrate disciplines in museum learning environments (Santaolalla et al., 2020; Bacci & Melcher, 2011). Teachers agreed that implementing these practices at the museum gives another edge in connecting to real-life examples over implementing these practices in formal settings such as online or in classrooms.

This study resulted in several emerging themes, which highlighted cultural and historical connections to museum collections. Mathematical, artistic and architectural mutual factors appeared when participants were modelling a realistic version of the museum collections. Therefore, the museum learning environment and the STEAM practices design enabled discipline connections. Consequently, all emerging themes contributed to STEAM practices in non-formal settings. They could offer us guidance for this empirical research, and how items can be perceived from transdisciplinary perspectives while connecting to place-based learning.

We were aware of how crucial it is to specify the design of STEAM practices to meet the museum environment implementations. We designed STEAM practices to make use of the innovative learning environment in the museum as follows (Connolly, 1914 & Dewey, 1904). We collaborated with museum non-formal educators to elaborate on the STEAM practises goals while connecting to museum collections. We designed the learning materials to adapt to the museum learning environment. Therefore, the practice’s design aim is to use the innovative museum's learning environment and capture all the pedagogical aspects that can be incorporated into these STEAM practices. All these connections helped us to shape a deeper understanding of study outcomes and in designing further DBR future cycles.

In order to make museum visits beneficial for learners, educators should have the knowledge of how to link the place to their teaching curriculums. In fact, teachers who did not get exposed to place-based learning in non-formal environments such as museums during their development programmes, tend to use the same structural teaching methods in non-formal learning environments as they normally do in formal ones, and they fail to make use of the place’s learning value and to link the place elements to their curricula (Santaolalla et al., 2020; Sheppard et al., 2019).

We also established awareness of the importance and advantages of out-of-school practices in non-formal learning environments such as museums for the participating teachers’ principles of applying learning in innovative non-formal learning environments and how they can be applied fruitfully (Edwards, 2007; Heimlich, 1993; Taylor & Neill, 2008). Teachers ‘awareness of these innovative non-formal learning environments’ advantages could help in the teaching preparations to allow learners to foster inquiry and problem-solving strategies in an unguided task approach (El Bedewy et al., 2021). And to leave room for the learners’ intuitive explorations and curiosity (Cooper, 2011). Moreover, teachers are advised to connect to the place-based learning approaches and their expected outcomes should be inspired by the museum collections.

To conclude, we introduced STEAM practices that integrate mathematics, architecture, arts, culture and history in mathematical modelling tasks supported by the use of technology in a museum learning environment. We found out from this study that the learning experience that was provided to participants through conducting these STEAM practices in museums is different from the usual museum learning tours that can be offered to learners in the museums. This STEAM practises integrational feature was emphasized in taking place in an innovative museum learning environment which allowed participants to interact with the museum collections and tackle them from many disciplines. Not only by hearing or reading about their historical connection and moving to the next museum object as in regular museum visits but by modelling the museum collections, imitating their artistic features, collecting cultural and historical relationships, connecting to mathematics education and finally visualizing them in digital and physical form using technology.

Our recommendation to make use of the innovative museum learning environment is to increase the awareness of teachers on the importance of non-formal learning environments and the possibilities they offer to connect to real-world examples. Moreover, increase the awareness of the museum educators by offering professional training and workshops on hands-on activities and practices that would serve the required innovative learning goals from the museum visits. The collaboration between teachers and museum educators is necessary for learners’ successful learning outcomes. From the research point of view, we believe that it is our duty to offer pedagogical ideas and practices that could be exploited by teachers and museum educators that enhance the learners’ learning outcomes in an interactive and engaging way.

We believe that in future refinements we can increase the museum learning duration and see how this can affect the STEAM practices outcomes. Moreover, a designed educational curriculum should make use of innovative museum learning environments, by encouraging policymakers, curriculum designers and school management to focus on the potential of non-formal learning and to send students on museum learning excursions. This will overcome the teachers’ challenges in meeting the demanding, time-restricting curriculum requirements and developing learning in innovative non-formal environments. We encourage teachers, museum educators, and researchers to exploit these possibilities and offer more practical, interactive innovative non-formal learning environments that connect to the real experiences in the world.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization for facilitating conducting this research in the museum premises.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).