STE(A)M EDUCATION CHALLENGES IN BULGARIA
Keywords:
STE(A)M education in Bulgaria, STE(A)M approach, teachers, students, STEM centresAbstract
Technological progress has led to the development and implementation of innovative approaches,
methods and practices in our educational system. One direction of this trend is STE(A)M education. After the global
advent of STE(A)M learning, the education system in Bulgaria faces certain challenges: creating suitable STE(A)M
environment, teacher-training and preparation for approach implementation, student and pupil instruction using
modern educational approaches, STE(A)M in particular, development and approbation of good pedagogical
practices.
This article presents the results of a research encompassing Bulgarian publications in the field of STE(A)M in the
last four years. The aim is to find answers to the question: “What is the direction Bulgaria has assumed to work
towards overcoming the obstacles and challenges?” The research method used in the article is analysis of published
articles from Bulgarian authors, regarding STE(A)M education in Bulgaria.
The research was carried out from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023. It encompasses fifty articles published
between 2018 and 2022 in various e-media and conventional paper issues. Derivation of key words such as “STEM
education”, “STEM learning”, “STEM essence”, as “STEAM education”, “STEAM learning”, “STEM approach”
and “STEAM approach” were used to find the articles. After thorough analysis, it was confirmed that 38% of all
Bulgarian articles investigate the essence of STEM/STEAM education.
The results of a survey amongst teachers, administrators and university students is also presented in the article. The
aim is to shed light on the current attitude of working and future pedagogical experts towards STE(A)M education.
The teacher and student survey was conducted during the previous three school years (2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-
2023). The interval of the survey was after the start of the national programme “Development of School STEM
Environment” of the Ministry of Education and Science. There are certain differences between the opinions of the
students, due to the fact that the majority have learnt the most about STE(A)M through social networks, and the rest
have been taught a compulsory university subject – STEAM-based training in Informatics and Information
Technologies. The percentage of teachers acquainted with the essence of STE(A)M education is significantly lower,
and the implementation of the STE(A)M approach in Bulgarian education is a rather slow process.
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