Do not despair!

Everything is good. Once it’s not so bad it can still be a stepping stone,

BY

Fr. Dr. Alozie Eugene I. (Eugenic Anthology)

Everything is good. Once it’s not so bad, it can be your stepping stone.

NEW YEAR WITH BLESSINGS

 Welcome and well-done to the well born new year

Well born new year infusing strength to our veins

2025, the year we yearned for with quests and zest

Our zest and quests that shine now in the present

A present that can deflate any woo of woe as well

But what is so new about the so called new year

Our tropical trees and green flowers are in place

The level lands and fertile farms are still the same

Proxemics of our house and church look the same

But alas, all are now anew in the new time and year

Now stand, shine and oh, let good deeds also swell

As we ably breeze in to this pleasant flame of hope

Hope never to wail but to win and win and to cope

Not yet late to pray, wishing you fine new blessings

Of a brilliant and happy new year of fine findings!

A revised edition of “Our New Year Again” of 2008.

By Fr, Dr. Alozie Eugene .I (Eugenic Anthology, 2025)

The Marian Tree

There is a unique, powerful tree

Germinated from the natural soils of the earth

The roots sank intently into the divine depth

Greenish, super-productive, more a flower than tree

Her feminine arms stretched out, a worthy shade

While its efflorescence looks up steadily to the sky

Our elegant, virgin queen tree of life, so nigh

Not like the sure visions of the ancient great saints

Or other mental pictures of soaring imaginations

But perfect that many find underneath a cool base

Such loyal that it was worthy of a divine selection

Alas, a gentle breeze and cruise blew it in a minute

And since she totally agreed with the divine agreement

The shoot thrusted forth and flowered with a fruit

The special fruit ripened in time, a spectacle to behold

Suddenly, an evil wind of fate broke out and opposed

Seven eerie daggers pierced the heart of the tree

The precious fruit broke off and fell on the ground

All those under the tree wailed and lost their grip

T’was  then known, the fruit is as well the bread of life

Upon which to feed all the people and nations to survive

But on the third day a new news gathered momentum

That seeds of the fruit had sprout alive again and risen

Re- germinated with power and vigor as victor too

That He has won and won every opposing power, risen

And the queen tree is now the mother of the savior too

Then songs of victory chorused around the tree of life

While children rallied around as the victor family of life

Witty songs say: those who stumble while doing charity

Now know that to fall on divine grounds is to rise

And those who look up above and receive threats of life

Now know it’s better to die in order to live or rise

And those who obsessively learn and research for clarity

Now know every human task has to be green, pro-life

And that carrying well our cross can pay a gold crown

Then, with deafening noise, the strange wind popped back

Like an unguarded tour,  crashed back with threats to attack

Many singers ran back to the coddle of the maternal tree

 The Marian tree now spoke in subtle and strong decree

Of course you know Him my fruit, who He is, my son, ah

The eternal conqueror, the Lion of the tribe of Judah

Instantly a fierce roar was heard from afar off away

And swiftly the eerie winds and their master faded away

Then the sweet Easter songs re-switched re-chorused

It does not matter even if they threaten again to fight

For Christ the winner has won, our bread of life

The fruit seeds got planted and ‘twas born the church 

Branches fled to churches and homes as decors of fortune

And graduates can now wear the green leaves to be pro-life

For saved we are from gloomy doom to a boosty boom

BY FR. DR.  ALOZIE EUGENE I.( Eugenic Anthology)

Teachers, mentors and leaders should be slow to condemn. This is because Psychology teaches that human growth is age related and never age specific. Even God continues to give us a chance  to change; thus should we understand that the power to understand as well as the power to change continue to grow. And so we hope for the better as we make effort further.

A human deserves to be given a chance whenever possible than a strike wherever possible. This is true especially because we all are learners till death.

Fr. Dr. Alozie Eugene I.

(Eugenic Anthology, 2025)

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

 THEME:

PROMOTING STEAM EDUCATION THROUGH RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE

TOPIC:

             RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

                                                               BY

 ALOZIE EUGENE IHEANYI

17/PG/PhD/Edu-Tech/5772

AT

GREGORY UNIVERSITY, UTURU

ABIA STATE

DATE: 08/11/2023

Abstract

This paper examines the idea of promoting Steam Education through research and innovation in the digital age. Its attention is on research and innovation in Secondary education. It has a comprehensive review of 14 studies which revealed a lot of key themes like: Steam Education as varied from Stem, Edtech and Steam as an innovative research, Flipped Classroom and Steam learning. The study concludes that flipped classroom is a vast active learning experience that can leverage the expected impact of Steam education on the 21^st century students. Keywords:  Steam Education,  Edtech, and Flipped Classroom.

Introduction

The world is large and life itself is complex. So, education (Rufai,2014), as an effective means of developing the full capacities and potentials of the human resource”, cannot achieve its objective if teachers continue to teach students with a unidirectional curriculum like STEM. STEM stands for Science, Technology,  Engineering and Mathematics.

What is meant here is that though the educational curriculum needs to be selective, it also needs to be comprehensive.  Educational Technology is able to do its work as a potent problem solving educational tool because it is characteristically eclectic. This implies that EdTech is open to accept ideas and becomes an interdisciplinary science.

In general, this work is of the view that no single learning experience or subject can answer all the questions of the human person; especially as life becomes more complex in this digital age. This is why STEAM education has become necessary for our students and comes to us through research as a timely educational innovation. Evidently, STEAM is more comprehensive than STEM.

An online document on STEAM education (n.d), says that it is “an approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Art and Mathematics as access point for guiding students’ enquiry, dialogue and critical thinking”.

Teaching a child with STEM curriculum alone is like teaching  only in view of the workforce, without  considering  the child as a human person. At a secondary school level, the student requires a strong comprehensive and diversified curriculum that will give a strong foundation required to establish and stabilize the learner as a human being preparing to live in the 21st century environment. Such comprehensive STEAM curriculum will also require to anchor on a dynamic instructional technique which can elicit the powers in STEAM education and impact beneficially on both the students and the society of our digital age.

STEAM:  A Practical Experience

Last two years, in an educational expedition, I met a secondary school superintendent who told all his Arts students to remain in class whenever the science students had lessons, which was contrary to tradition.  I pondered over it for a while and felt that something was at the offing. I could not wait. Immediately, I climbed up to the apartment of the school Principal to ask why.  The explanation I got for such innovative school initiative sparked off a fire of information in me, which I prefer to describe as unforgettable.  The issue is that the world is so vast and complex that teaching science to students, totally apart from Art in secondary school, remains a big question mark, over the efficiency of curriculum implementation today.

The Link Between Art, Science And Technology         

There is no such effective education where only art offers what the learner requires to live in the world.  At the same time there is no such effective learning where science alone offers what is expected for a balanced life in a young school leaver.  While science tries to understand the world as method, observations, experimentation and analytic process there is always need for that effective communication skills and powers of self-expression which only art offers abundantly. More so, in this digital age, we have many cases where artists are now employing the computer science technology to produce very awesome digital artworks. As Ayushi (n.d:1) has put it,

Overall, even if art and science have different methods and objectives they both have significant social contributions to make and when combined can enhance one another.

EDTECH AND STEAM EDUCATION

Looking at the afore-said, Educational Technology as the potent educational tool that resolves problems inherent in teaching and learning, has recently evolved STEAM education as a remedy to clear gaps. This is because the clear-cut separation of STEAM from Arts has caused a wide gap in education both in Africa and beyond.  At the three levels of curriculum development – macro, meso and micro level, these problems are noticed clearly  in our traditional instructional design.  In Nigeria and beyond, schooling loses its value as students finish and cannot get a job commensurate to the energy and resources expended in education.

It is evident that many people finish secondary education and continue to stagger about because they are not sure of the next step forward or what to do next in life. Apart from those who go straight to the University, a good number who finish secondary education remain stagnant and confused almost until those who were in JSS III when they were in school, come out of school as well. What it means is that the traditional curriculum and teaching methods are far away from the realities  on ground.  This should not be so because, school is noted as the microcosm of the society.  Looking at these challenges, Medvisit (2020) noted that “ clearly there is something missing in our world which are: communication, understanding, tolerance and emotional education”. Amid these outcries to fill the yawning gaps, some educationists admit that the needs of our school children in this 21st century are similar the above catalogue of needs.   In addition to that, the required 4cs of the 21st century education are noted to include: collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication.  In an online document on STEAM Education(n.d:2),  the educator said , “They  are critical components to students’ success in a rapidly changing workforce and society.   Luckily these are easily  woven into quality STEAM lessons” .

Such quality STEAM lesson of the 21st century seems to be better unearthed and elicited in a very tactical and dynamic instructional technique known as the flipped classroom.

According to Trach (2023:2),

The flipped classroom is a blended learning model in which traditional ideas about classroom activities and homework are reverted or flipped. In this model, instructors have students interact with new material for homework first.  They then use class time to discuss the new information and put those ideas into practice.

It is like saying that a STEAM education absolutely requires an up to date instructional technique to leverage its quality impact. No doubt the flipped classroom is a powerful teaching technique that draws force from the age-old theory of Constructivism of John Dewey and Brunner. According to them, “constructivism is a learning theory that says that people try to construct their own ideas through experiencing things and having a reflection over the experience they have had.  In a digital document captioned “Concept to Classroom” (2023), it was made clear that in constructivism, When we encounter something new, we begin to try to reconcile it with the previous ideas.  If it works out well, we may eventually adjust or change what we believed previously or even discard the new idea if it lacks relevance in our lives”. In order to do this, we must engage in active thinking of asking questions, try to explore, and access what we know.

In a constructivist classroom, teachers encourage students to constantly access how the activity is helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the constructivist classroom ideally become expert learners. This gives them the over broadening tools to keep learning. And with a well planned classroom environment like the flipped classroom, the students also learn how to learn.

In the same deep document of high learning called “Concept to Classroom( 2023),  It is said that constructivist teachers  pose questions and problems and then guide the student to help them find their own answers.  So they use many techniques in the teaching process. For example, in such a classroom teachers may do the following:

1. Prompt students to formulate their own questions (inquiry)

2. Allow multiple interpretations and expressions (multiple )

3. Encourage group work and the use of peers as resources (collaborative learning)

All the aforesaid active classroom activities paint a picture of what is called a flipped learning. According to Arfstrom (2021:3),

Flapped learning is a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.  

Flipped learning is a segment of the teaching technique called flipped classroom which was originated by Jon Bergmann of Woodland Park High School, USA. It is a blended learning  model that combines the digital delivery of contents (asynchronous), with the face to face individual encounter (synchronous) with the learner, in order to bring him or her to the mastery  model or stage of the learning subject.

In this case of flipped learning in STEAM education, the teacher becomes the facilitator and a guide and not a sage on the stage.  Flipped classroom has been acclaimed as a powerful learner-centred technique of teaching and has become a very result effective instructional technique.  With its turnaround from the traditional one cap fits all soloed education, this paper advocates that flipped classroom is a possible and effective instructional technique for STEAM education in secondary schools and k-12 education.  The flipped classroom has such a dynamic and diversified instructional design whose efficacy and flexibility will prove potent in a STEAM learning that will impact on our modern education as whole. According to Panopto (2022), the flipped classroom has the dynamic activities of learning through which it can satisfy the needs of both the learner and society. And this work posits that such infinite possibilities of the flipped classroom technique is highly related to the objectives of the STEAM education. This is because, flipped classroom could be called a standard inverted classroom where the concepts are digitally presented in videos, while the in-class time is reserved for practicing the concepts. It can take the form of a micro flipped classroom when short videos are used to free up an elongated class time for practice. It can be discussion oriented, when after watching the videos, the in-class time is used to explore and for valued discussion. Flipped classroom can be demonstration-based, when after digital consumptions at home, class time is used for practical demonstrations. Flipped classroom can be faux when after watching the video in school, a guided interaction is used as a tool to clarify all doubts. It can be called group-based, when after the digital consumption, group learning is chosen afterwards to further clarifications and improve retention. Again flipped classroom can be virtual, when the learning management system (LMS) is used both for the content presentation and for assignments and guidance. The flipped classroom be called flipping the teacher, when students make their own videos and send to the teacher to show understanding. All these are the diverse models of the flipped classroom which touch on the absolute flexibility of this pedagogy and on the infinite possibilities of its instructional designs, in order to meet the diverse learning styles and effect an efficient curriculum implementation, targeted in STEAM education. It must be added that the flipped classroom is a high technology in education because it makes people to learn through technology and must emphasize the instructional factum  that media design is part and parcel of instructional design, especially in STEAM education.

STEAM AS INNOVATIVE EDUCATION

Secondary education has been beset by so many instructional challenges  which result to societal problems. Loss of interest in schooling has grown in Nigeria  and other places as schooling seems to lose relevance. As mentioned earlier, those who finish secondary school in Nigeria find it difficult to get fixed up in life or have a life they cherish. Those who move forward the  University education experience job scarcity afterwards and lack of fulfilment, which lead to rampant search for for visas to travel abroad. In Europe and America the stories are not too exciting, as animation, robotics and artificial intelligence take over many workplaces leaving many unemployed at times. All these call for more need for innovation and better creativities in the educational enterprise.

According to Nasseri and Vichos (2021:3).

A radical change approach is recommended. Increasingly students will need to be able to respond to a job market that values creativity, collaborations, social intelligence and empathy, the teaching pedagogy of constructivism and STEAM are evidence based methodologies that may offer a higher success rate in meeting existential challenges of the climate change.

As mentioned earlier, the flipped classroom is a likely the pedagogical approach, up to date in efficacy, which can liberate the world from this quagmire of educational drawbacks, through STEAM learning. Flipped Classroom is a veritable toolkit for STEAM education especially in secondary schools. It is a potent constructivist approach which when combined with an accurate design thinking procedures will leverage on education meaningfully.  Some Educators agree that a design thinking process is a set of structured strategies that can identify challenges, gather information, generate potential solutions, refine ideas and test solutions. It builds a creative and innovative mind-set in the student. As Shulman (2018:4) said, design innovative thinking pattern has five phases which both students and teachers can follow in the classroom:

1. I have a challenge, how do I approach it?
2. I learned something now, how do I interpret it?
3. I see an opportunity, what can I create?
4. I have an idea. How can I build it?
5. I tried something new. How do I make it evolve?

The flipped learning is such a great pedagogical approach that turns the Blooms’ Taxonomy upside down putting “to create” at the epicentre of every learning experience. It is a good and fertile ground to foster the spirit of innovation, design thinking and creativity in the child. A mind-set that has the power to learn and to create through STEAM education can face the challenges of our time.

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) in STEAM Education

The Flipped classroom is one instructional technique that places the challenge-based learning at the forefront, and this will favour STEAM education. According to Lockwood (2023), challenge-based learning(CBL) is practiced when teachers challenge students to solve a specific open ended problem. It is a part of problem based learning(PBL), which includes introducing students to a big idea, asking them the essential question or questions (EQ), on a topic and presenting students with a challenge to solve. As Lockwood (2022:1) said,

Many researchers have demonstrated that in CBL, students are more motivated at a deeper level of learning with increased collaborations which showed learning experiences, positive attitude increase in class, and the practice of using a growth mind-set. Those researches on CBL are more related to improving STEAM education than the traditional school education.

STEAM EDUCATION AND STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF LIFE.

While the entire world complains of child delinquency and student tantrums, it is important to note that STEAM education could be the solution. This work proposes such type of STEAM that can happens in a flipped classroom. Flipped learning as a classic example of Progressive Education makes students learn by doing and are encouraged to make sense of the world around them by entering it and engaging with it.

An online document on Progressive education(n.d:3  ) says it better,

Through deep connections with teachers and peers, children develop an appreciation for human differences that enable them to work collaboratively and effectively, towards common solutions to shared challenge.

This work is of the opinion that with such deep seated inter-disciplinary STEAM education anchored on the virile teaching technique as the flipped classroom, which considers growth mind-set and emotional intelligence; there would be a great and favourable change in education. This is because the meaning of life and success will expand for the human person, at one and the same time when the labour markets will become more viable. Invariably there will be a possible decrease in the rate of wickedness on earth as life becomes more and more meaningful for many. Thus, there will be a true accountability in education.

Conclusion

Many years ago, President Abraham Lincoln may have  envisioned the negative effects of the separate handling of STEM and Art subjects, and so he chose to write a memorable letter to the teacher of his child. No doubt Abraham Lincoln was in quest for a more comprehensive learning like in STEAM education. He wrote, indicating that more subjects should have been included in the curriculum of his child as recorded thus; Team( 2021:1),

Teach him to learn to lose and also to enjoy winning. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him that they are wrong. Teach him to listen to all men, but teach him also to filter all  that he learnt on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.

The issues on ground here is that a straightjacket type of learning cannot suffice again because of the complexity of life and the world. According to Nasseri and Vichos(2021),using a meta analysis, they said that today’s education should work out designing a curricular informed by latest research, engage learners in research-based activities and still encourage creativity or creative thinking. It should build learning communities that foster inclusive learning environments  that are active, blended, where teachers and students work as collaborators or partner.

Finally, the case of the child of Abraham Lincoln could be the same case with all our students today. So, while what the child requires to have faith in his ideas  may come from art, what he/she requires the filter the varieties of what he/she observes may come from the sciences. It is like saying, while what he/she requires to have a positive mind-set for a meaningful courageous life is found within the arts, he/she requires the STEM subjects to find real, technological solutions to his many day to day dilemmas. Hence this work advocates that STEAM education found through the flipped classroom technique is richer than mere Art or pure STEM learning, especially for our secondary school students. STEAM education is more comprehensive and better for our students; to enable them do well in the workplace and still have a better understanding of themselves and a meaningful life in general.

Refe rences

Arfistrom, K.M.  (2021). An introduction to flipped learning. Retrieved from Lesley.edu.article/,on 5/11/2023

Ayushi (n.d).  What is the Relationship of Art and Science and Technology? Retrieved from medium.com/,                       on 2/11/23.

Concept to Classroom Construction As paradigm to Teaching and Learning(2014). Retrieved from thirteen.org.endol ine/, on 1/11/2023.

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York, NY: Collies

Lockwood .D. (2023). Challenge Based learning & steam Curriculum. Retrieved from scholarship.claremont. edu/, On 30/10/23.

Medivisit (2020). Technology in Schools. Retrieved from medvisit.io/, on  6/1/2023

Nasseri D. & Vichos .R. (2021). Construction and STEAM, working with learners  as partners to explore perceptions and attitudes towards innovative pedagogies. Retrieved from pure.sruc.uk/, on 28/10/23

Panopt o (2022). 7 Unique Flipped Classroom Models which are Best for you. Retrieved from Panopto.com/on 21/11/2023

Rufai, A.R. (2023). Federal Republic of Nigeria, National Policy on Education, Nigeria; NCRDC press.

Shulman, D.R. (2018). 10 Ways Educators Can Make Classrooms More Innovative. Retrieved from www. Forbes.com/on 2/11/23

Team (2021). A must Read letter Written by Abraham Lincolyn to His son’s teacher. Retrieved from www. Heritage times on 3/11/23

Trach (2023). A beginner’s Guide to flipped Classroom. Retrieved from www. Schoology.com/,on 3/11/23

What is Progressive education (n.d). Retrieved from school.bank.streets.edu/, on  1/11/23

What is STEAM Education?, The definitive Guide For k-12 Schools.(n.d) Retrieved from www.artsintegration.com/, on 03/11/2023

3^RD

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

THEME:

PROMOTING STEAM EDUCATION THROUGH RESEARCH                      AND INNOVATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE

 TOPIC:  RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SECONDARY          EDUCATION

BY

ALOZIE EUGENE IHEANYI

17/PG/PhD/Edu-Tech/5772

AT

GREGORY UNIVERSITY, UTURU

ABIA STATE

DATE: 08/11/

  Abstract

This paper examines the idea of promoting Steam Education through research and innovation in the digital age. Its attention is on research and innovation in Secondary education. It has a comprehensive review of 14 studies which revealed a lot of key themes like: Steam Education as varied from Stem, Edtech and Steam as an innovative research, Flipped Classroom and Steam learning. The study concludes that flipped classroom is a vast active learning experience that can leverage the expected impact of Steam education on the 21^st century students. Keywords:  Steam Education,  Edtech, and Flipped Classroom.

Introduction

The world is large and life itself is complex. So, education (Rufai,2014), as an effective means of developing the full capacities and potentials of the human resource”, cannot achieve its objective if teachers continue to teach students with a unidirectional curriculum like STEM. STEM stands for Science, Technology,  Engineering and Mathematics.

What is meant here is that though the educational curriculum needs to be selective, it also needs to be comprehensive.  Educational Technology is able to do its work as a potent problem solving educational tool because it is characteristically eclectic. This implies that EdTech is open to accept ideas and becomes an interdisciplinary science.

In general, this work is of the view that no single learning experience or subject can answer all the questions of the human person; especially as life becomes more complex in this digital age. This is why STEAM education has become necessary for our students and comes to us through research as a timely educational innovation. Evidently, STEAM is more comprehensive than STEM.

An online document on STEAM education (n.d), says that it is “an approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Art and Mathematics as access point for guiding students’ enquiry, dialogue and critical thinking”.

Teaching a child with STEM curriculum alone is like teaching  only in view of the workforce, without  considering  the child as a human person. At a secondary school level, the student requires a strong comprehensive and diversified curriculum that will give a strong foundation required to establish and stabilize the learner as a human being preparing to live in the 21st century environment. Such comprehensive STEAM curriculum will also require to anchor on a dynamic instructional technique which can elicit the powers in STEAM education and impact beneficially on both the students and the society of our digital age.

STEAM:  A Practical Experience

Last two years, in an educational expedition, I met a secondary school superintendent who told all his Arts students to remain in class whenever the science students had lessons, which was contrary to tradition.  I pondered over it for a while and felt that something was at the offing. I could not wait. Immediately, I climbed up to the apartment of the school Principal to ask why.  The explanation I got for such innovative school initiative sparked off a fire of information in me, which I prefer to describe as unforgettable.  The issue is that the world is so vast and complex that teaching science to students, totally apart from Art in secondary school, remains a big question mark, over the efficiency of curriculum implementation today.

The Link Between Art, Science And Technology         

There is no such effective education where only art offers what the learner requires to live in the world.  At the same time there is no such effective learning where science alone offers what is expected for a balanced life in a young school leaver.  While science tries to understand the world as method, observations, experimentation and analytic process there is always need for that effective communication skills and powers of self-expression which only art offers abundantly. More so, in this digital age, we have many cases where artists are now employing the computer science technology to produce very awesome digital artworks. As Ayushi (n.d:1) has put it,

Overall, even if art and science have different methods and objectives they both have significant social contributions to make and when combined can enhance one another.

EDTECH AND STEAM EDUCATION

Looking at the afore-said, Educational Technology as the potent educational tool that resolves problems inherent in teaching and learning, has recently evolved STEAM education as a remedy to clear gaps. This is because the clear-cut separation of STEAM from Arts has caused a wide gap in education both in Africa and beyond.  At the three levels of curriculum development – macro, meso and micro level, these problems are noticed clearly  in our traditional instructional design.  In Nigeria and beyond, schooling loses its value as students finish and cannot get a job commensurate to the energy and resources expended in education.

It is evident that many people finish secondary education and continue to stagger about because they are not sure of the next step forward or what to do next in life. Apart from those who go straight to the University, a good number who finish secondary education remain stagnant and confused almost until those who were in JSS III when they were in school, come out of school as well. What it means is that the traditional curriculum and teaching methods are far away from the realities  on ground.  This should not be so because, school is noted as the microcosm of the society.  Looking at these challenges, Medvisit (2020) noted that “ clearly there is something missing in our world which are: communication, understanding, tolerance and emotional education”. Amid these outcries to fill the yawning gaps, some educationists admit that the needs of our school children in this 21st century are similar the above catalogue of needs.   In addition to that, the required 4cs of the 21st century education are noted to include: collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication.  In an online document on STEAM Education(n.d:2),  the educator said , “They  are critical components to students’ success in a rapidly changing workforce and society.   Luckily these are easily  woven into quality STEAM lessons” .

Such quality STEAM lesson of the 21st century seems to be better unearthed and elicited in a very tactical and dynamic instructional technique known as the flipped classroom.

According to Trach (2023:2),

The flipped classroom is a blended learning model in which traditional ideas about classroom activities and homework are reverted or flipped. In this model, instructors have students interact with new material for homework first.  They then use class time to discuss the new information and put those ideas into practice.

It is like saying that a STEAM education absolutely requires an up to date instructional technique to leverage its quality impact. No doubt the flipped classroom is a powerful teaching technique that draws force from the age-old theory of Constructivism of John Dewey and Brunner. According to them, “constructivism is a learning theory that says that people try to construct their own ideas through experiencing things and having a reflection over the experience they have had.  In a digital document captioned “Concept to Classroom” (2023), it was made clear that in constructivism, When we encounter something new, we begin to try to reconcile it with the previous ideas.  If it works out well, we may eventually adjust or change what we believed previously or even discard the new idea if it lacks relevance in our lives”. In order to do this, we must engage in active thinking of asking questions, try to explore, and access what we know.

In a constructivist classroom, teachers encourage students to constantly access how the activity is helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the constructivist classroom ideally become expert learners. This gives them the over broadening tools to keep learning. And with a well planned classroom environment like the flipped classroom, the students also learn how to learn.

In the same deep document of high learning called “Concept to Classroom( 2023),  It is said that constructivist teachers  pose questions and problems and then guide the student to help them find their own answers.  So they use many techniques in the teaching process. For example, in such a classroom teachers may do the following:

1. Prompt students to formulate their own questions (inquiry)

2. Allow multiple interpretations and expressions (multiple )

3. Encourage group work and the use of peers as resources (collaborative learning)

All the aforesaid active classroom activities paint a picture of what is called a flipped learning. According to Arfstrom (2021:3),

Flapped learning is a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.  

Flipped learning is a segment of the teaching technique called flipped classroom which was originated by Jon Bergmann of Woodland Park High School, USA. It is a blended learning  model that combines the digital delivery of contents (asynchronous), with the face to face individual encounter (synchronous) with the learner, in order to bring him or her to the mastery  model or stage of the learning subject.

In this case of flipped learning in STEAM education, the teacher becomes the facilitator and a guide and not a sage on the stage.  Flipped classroom has been acclaimed as a powerful learner-centred technique of teaching and has become a very result effective instructional technique.  With its turnaround from the traditional one cap fits all soloed education, this paper advocates that flipped classroom is a possible and effective instructional technique for STEAM education in secondary schools and k-12 education.  The flipped classroom has such a dynamic and diversified instructional design whose efficacy and flexibility will prove potent in a STEAM learning that will impact on our modern education as whole. According to Panopto (2022), the flipped classroom has the dynamic activities of learning through which it can satisfy the needs of both the learner and society. And this work posits that such infinite possibilities of the flipped classroom technique is highly related to the objectives of the STEAM education. This is because, flipped classroom could be called a standard inverted classroom where the concepts are digitally presented in videos, while the in-class time is reserved for practicing the concepts. It can take the form of a micro flipped classroom when short videos are used to free up an elongated class time for practice. It can be discussion oriented, when after watching the videos, the in-class time is used to explore and for valued discussion. Flipped classroom can be demonstration-based, when after digital consumptions at home, class time is used for practical demonstrations. Flipped classroom can be faux when after watching the video in school, a guided interaction is used as a tool to clarify all doubts. It can be called group-based, when after the digital consumption, group learning is chosen afterwards to further clarifications and improve retention. Again flipped classroom can be virtual, when the learning management system (LMS) is used both for the content presentation and for assignments and guidance. The flipped classroom be called flipping the teacher, when students make their own videos and send to the teacher to show understanding. All these are the diverse models of the flipped classroom which touch on the absolute flexibility of this pedagogy and on the infinite possibilities of its instructional designs, in order to meet the diverse learning styles and effect an efficient curriculum implementation, targeted in STEAM education. It must be added that the flipped classroom is a high technology in education because it makes people to learn through technology and must emphasize the instructional factum  that media design is part and parcel of instructional design, especially in STEAM education.

STEAM AS INNOVATIVE EDUCATION

Secondary education has been beset by so many instructional challenges  which result to societal problems. Loss of interest in schooling has grown in Nigeria  and other places as schooling seems to lose relevance. As mentioned earlier, those who finish secondary school in Nigeria find it difficult to get fixed up in life or have a life they cherish. Those who move forward the  University education experience job scarcity afterwards and lack of fulfilment, which lead to rampant search for for visas to travel abroad. In Europe and America the stories are not too exciting, as animation, robotics and artificial intelligence take over many workplaces leaving many unemployed at times. All these call for more need for innovation and better creativities in the educational enterprise.

According to Nasseri and Vichos (2021:3).

A radical change approach is recommended. Increasingly students will need to be able to respond to a job market that values creativity, collaborations, social intelligence and empathy, the teaching pedagogy of constructivism and STEAM are evidence based methodologies that may offer a higher success rate in meeting existential challenges of the climate change.

As mentioned earlier, the flipped classroom is a likely the pedagogical approach, up to date in efficacy, which can liberate the world from this quagmire of educational drawbacks, through STEAM learning. Flipped Classroom is a veritable toolkit for STEAM education especially in secondary schools. It is a potent constructivist approach which when combined with an accurate design thinking procedures will leverage on education meaningfully.  Some Educators agree that a design thinking process is a set of structured strategies that can identify challenges, gather information, generate potential solutions, refine ideas and test solutions. It builds a creative and innovative mind-set in the student. As Shulman (2018:4) said, design innovative thinking pattern has five phases which both students and teachers can follow in the classroom:

1. I have a challenge, how do I approach it?
2. I learned something now, how do I interpret it?
3. I see an opportunity, what can I create?
4. I have an idea. How can I build it?
5. I tried something new. How do I make it evolve?

The flipped learning is such a great pedagogical approach that turns the Blooms’ Taxonomy upside down putting “to create” at the epicentre of every learning experience. It is a good and fertile ground to foster the spirit of innovation, design thinking and creativity in the child. A mind-set that has the power to learn and to create through STEAM education can face the challenges of our time.

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) in STEAM Education

The Flipped classroom is one instructional technique that places the challenge-based learning at the forefront, and this will favour STEAM education. According to Lockwood (2023), challenge-based learning(CBL) is practiced when teachers challenge students to solve a specific open ended problem. It is a part of problem based learning(PBL), which includes introducing students to a big idea, asking them the essential question or questions (EQ), on a topic and presenting students with a challenge to solve. As Lockwood (2022:1) said,

Many researchers have demonstrated that in CBL, students are more motivated at a deeper level of learning with increased collaborations which showed learning experiences, positive attitude increase in class, and the practice of using a growth mind-set. Those researches on CBL are more related to improving STEAM education than the traditional school education.

STEAM EDUCATION AND STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF LIFE.

While the entire world complains of child delinquency and student tantrums, it is important to note that STEAM education could be the solution. This work proposes such type of STEAM that can happens in a flipped classroom. Flipped learning as a classic example of Progressive Education makes students learn by doing and are encouraged to make sense of the world around them by entering it and engaging with it.

An online document on Progressive education(n.d:3  ) says it better,

Through deep connections with teachers and peers, children develop an appreciation for human differences that enable them to work collaboratively and effectively, towards common solutions to shared challenge.

This work is of the opinion that with such deep seated inter-disciplinary STEAM education anchored on the virile teaching technique as the flipped classroom, which considers growth mind-set and emotional intelligence; there would be a great and favourable change in education. This is because the meaning of life and success will expand for the human person, at one and the same time when the labour markets will become more viable. Invariably there will be a possible decrease in the rate of wickedness on earth as life becomes more and more meaningful for many. Thus, there will be a true accountability in education.

Conclusion

Many years ago, President Abraham Lincoln may have  envisioned the negative effects of the separate handling of STEM and Art subjects, and so he chose to write a memorable letter to the teacher of his child. No doubt Abraham Lincoln was in quest for a more comprehensive learning like in STEAM education. He wrote, indicating that more subjects should have been included in the curriculum of his child as recorded thus; Team( 2021:1),

Teach him to learn to lose and also to enjoy winning. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him that they are wrong. Teach him to listen to all men, but teach him also to filter all  that he learnt on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.

The issues on ground here is that a straightjacket type of learning cannot suffice again because of the complexity of life and the world. According to Nasseri and Vichos(2021),using a meta analysis, they said that today’s education should work out designing a curricular informed by latest research, engage learners in research-based activities and still encourage creativity or creative thinking. It should build learning communities that foster inclusive learning environments  that are active, blended, where teachers and students work as collaborators or partner.

Finally, the case of the child of Abraham Lincoln could be the same case with all our students today. So, while what the child requires to have faith in his ideas  may come from art, what he/she requires the filter the varieties of what he/she observes may come from the sciences. It is like saying, while what he/she requires to have a positive mind-set for a meaningful courageous life is found within the arts, he/she requires the STEM subjects to find real, technological solutions to his many day to day dilemmas. Hence this work advocates that STEAM education found through the flipped classroom technique is richer than mere Art or pure STEM learning, especially for our secondary school students. STEAM education is more comprehensive and better for our students; to enable them do well in the workplace and still have a better understanding of themselves and a meaningful life in general.

                                         References

Arfistrom, K.M.  (2021). An introduction to flipped learning. Retrieved from Lesley.edu.article/,on 5/11/2023

Ayushi (n.d).  What is the Relationship of Art and Science and Technology? Retrieved from medium.com/,                       on 2/11/23.

Concept to Classroom Construction As paradigm to Teaching and Learning(2014). Retrieved from thirteen.org.endol ine/, on 1/11/2023.

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York, NY: Collies

Lockwood .D. (2023). Challenge Based learning & steam Curriculum. Retrieved from scholarship.claremont. edu/, On 30/10/23.

Medivisit (2020). Technology in Schools. Retrieved from medvisit.io/, on  6/1/2023

Nasseri D. & Vichos .R. (2021). Construction and STEAM, working with learners  as partners to explore perceptions and attitudes towards innovative pedagogies. Retrieved from pure.sruc.uk/, on 28/10/23

Panopt o (2022). 7 Unique Flipped Classroom Models which are Best for you. Retrieved from Panopto.com/on 21/11/2023

Rufai, A.R. (2023). Federal Republic of Nigeria, National Policy on Education, Nigeria; NCRDC press.

Shulman, D.R. (2018). 10 Ways Educators Can Make Classrooms More Innovative. Retrieved from www. Forbes.com/on 2/11/23

Team (2021). A must Read letter Written by Abraham Lincolyn to His son’s teacher. Retrieved from www. Heritage times on 3/11/23

Trach (2023). A beginner’s Guide to flipped Classroom. Retrieved from www. Schoology.com/,on 3/11/23

What is Progressive education (n.d). Retrieved from school.bank.streets.edu/, on  1/11/23

What is STEAM Education?, The definitive Guide For k-12 Schools.(n.d) Retrieved from www.artsintegration.com/, on 03/11/2023

BISHOP, MILD AND KIND

We had a Bishop very meek and mild at heart

Was gifted with two hair textures white and black

Front white hair for wisdom and the black showing origin

A bishop known for a prestigious awe, speaking classics

Do you recall his three voice tones varying greatly

The high tone to stress a point, a soft one for exhorting

There was another strong base for explaining and reproofing

At times he unveiled annoyance for no double living

But stayed with priests at their deep moments of sorrow

Made mistakes especially when they came manipulating

Ezeonyia built Catholic Schools as many as forty four

Schools that made Ngwa kids lose former Catholic phobia

Simply because now their own school head is Rev. Father

Vincent was always found in our smaller churches visiting

Led many young priests to a diversification of talents

Indeed, a mixture of Aba Ngwa and Anambra talents

Valentine always bears the staff as first Bishop of Aba

Bishop Egwu was a name without much publicity, yes

Yet remaining a big icon of known emotional intelligence

Loved God praying before the Blessed Sacrament, hours

Loved to celebrate mass with unction and solemnity

Instructed that Priests must follow the Roman rubrics

And houses are not more important than faith for him

Rather that faith builds big houses for God Almighty

Intoto he looks like a child of God, God help him be!

Thanks a bunch my Lord and goodbye, praying for us.

By Fr. Dr. Alozie Eugene I

(Eugenic anthology 2015)

MY BABY

You have a mild and a kind baby

The child you saw the day you were born

Now has grown as if no more a baby

Since God sent you to this world as a child

Fully grown, now we ask, where is your baby

Hope the sweet baby is still alive

Then never mind to let go like a child at times

And to giggle and play awhile like a baby

Then mind not to chat and laugh child-like

And to sing and hum awhile like a child

Is your young chap still alive and new

To know, visit your true friend far or nigh

Only your lover can awake the baby in you

There you joke and play like your child

And awhile rest or sleep off like a baby

By all means do not kill that little kid

Hates not work is toxic to your child

Or even tends to bring out the beast

Your baby lives very close to the beast

But only care can keep your fragile child

So see whether love can work at first

Since for humans only love works aright

Try to wash the baby and throw the dirty water

Throw not the baby and the dirty water away

The baby is your baby; dirty water is dirty water.

Never a good thing not to feel a baby at all

No matter who you are, first you’re a baby

When you’re sick, you return to a baby

When old or weak you turn to a baby again

And become the child of your children then

Since God made you first a baby

At times pray, learn and like a child cry

Do not be a bad child, the teacher’s worry

Beware, the beast is a man of this world

While the baby is the sweet chap of heaven

BY FR. DR. ALOZIE EUGENE I.

(Eugenic Anthology)

This year 2025, the Mothering Sunday theme in our country is; A Hopeful Mother Walks and Works with Faith. This has reminded me of the rare courageous force with which mothers take care of their child at the training, growing stage. That  was when the  world of the child was the  world of the mother in the most part.

Now that we are grown,  we have come to see how hard it is. It is really a time to turn to our various powerful mothers to say  words like: KUDOS!!!. Whether alive or dead, may God bless our worthy mothers today and always, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

BY

FR. DR. ALOZIE EUGENE.I

(Mothering Sunday, 2025)

TOPIC: THE PLACE OF TEACHING IN THE SOCIETY

                                                           BY

                              FR. DR. ALOZIE EUGENE. I

                                       NOVEMBER, 2023

THE PLACE OF TEACHING IN THE SOCIETY

INTRODUCTION

In a short page dedicated to teachers, a question was posited who is a teacher? Immediately many descriptions and qualifications followed as follows; “some say a good man or woman, fun loving, passionate and very curious. Another group says a rock star and game changer anywhere anytime. Others say awesome and goofy. And for many other folk, an artist and an engaging magician etc” (Alozie, 2015). The writer ended by saying that teachers are world builders, which directly catches a glimpse of the link between teaching and the society.as another author put it; “if you think that you can work alone and achieve success in your life without needing the help of anybody, then you are wrong. That is because when you are stuck in the middle of something, you look up to that one person who can guide your way (Ievedshedid, 2017). And that one person is no other but your teacher.

MEANING AND NATURE OF TEACHING

In education (Infoscipedia2013), teaching is described as the concerted sharing of knowledge and experience which is usually organized within a discipline, and more generally the provision of a stimulus to the psychological and intellectual growth of a person by another person or an artifact.

In the real sense, educating is wide than teaching, almost in the same way that student-based learning is wider than teacher- based learning. That is why every teacher should aspire towards being an educator. According to Rufai(2023) education is an effective means of developing the full capacities and potentials of the human resource, as well as the development of the competent workforce, through the acquisition of practical life skills relevant to the world of work; as a veritable means of developing sound, intelligent, learning societies, fit and relevant in the 21^stcentury. As already indicated, teaching is related to a learning which invariably can influence the society. According to Pushkaragarwa(2023),”teaching and learning are a process through which the teacher, the learner, the curriculum and other variables are organized in a systematic manner in orders to attain the pre-set goals”.

Bothering about this interlink between teaching and learning, some educators have affirmed that teaching and learning are vital processes in survival as the both comprise the foundations of growth in the society. Teaching and learning are the methods which are necessary to achieve development by seeking to actualize significant change in behaviour. Teaching and learning are so interconnected that you have to learn something before you can teach it, and that the act of teaching can make you learn something as well. Whether we teach or learn, the end goal is always the behavioural and a positive societal change. That is why the curriculum for teaching must continue to be relevant by being able to achieve the national policy of education in the nation. Where this is not possible for whatever reason, there comes the need for curriculum improvement or development. The most practical part of any curriculum development is its implementation or teaching, which is the medium through which it impacts on the society.

Finally STEAM education which comprises: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics, has come in vogue as an improvement on STEM by an inclusion of Art into the sciences. STEM ever excluded it till now. Putting this into practice and trying to bridge the gap between society and education, the Nigerian educational system has brought in a concrete measure recently, to see that teaching and learning have direct link with the society. it is understandable that these emerging improvements need to anchor on a more practical, modern and dynamic instructional pedagogy like the flipped classroom, in order to yield all the expected maximal result in our society.

      THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING IN THE SOCIETY

Teaching uses curriculum development as a tool for societal development and for the development of the individuals within the society. Curriculum has been described as a “planned and guided learning experience provided by the school to help the learner to develop” (Mkpa(1988). Another author added the word a systematic reconstruction of knowledge and experience, under the auspices of the school for the learner’s continuous growth and personal competences. (Onwuka, 1981).Usually the word used her ‘personal competence’ is naturally related to an ability to perform effectively in the satiety. The word here ‘systematic reconstruction’ naturally implies that curriculum is not a dogma. It is not static. The question is why is curriculum not static? It is because the society always undergoes some changes every now and then, changes that arise from within and from without. an example of such change is the recent explosion of digital gadgets in all spheres of our human endeavors, from banking, transportation to communication etc. what it means is that schools and teaching will become inadequate if it fails to recognize that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has to be integrated in teaching and learning in order to produce graduates who can fit into the society of today. On the other way round when a society and her citizens become incompetent to measure up with the global or the environmental challenges and expectations, such ripples are well addressed through the enterprise of teaching and learning. This is done through an adjustment of teaching curriculum called curriculum review. In most case there would be need for a paradigm shift in what is taught in schools to meet up. In general every nation has educational goals. Such goals are expected to correspond with the global educational expectations. However, all these goals of nations automatically have to be re-adjusted as problems arise either for the individual or for the society in question. The last 10^th International Conference held in the Abia State University Uturu, Nigeria was titled: Revitalization of Education in a Distressed Economy. This important international conference held in the faculty of education already unveils the close relationship between education and her society and how each affects the other either positively or negatively.

NIGERIAN EDUCATION  AND THE PROBLEMS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

Educational challenges are not limited to the Nigerian society. It is a global matter. This is because change can happen so fast in the society and school is a microcosm of the society. The ripples of any change may begin to affect the society at large. What it means is that something has to change in the school too. As Nigeria schools grapple with the problems of integration of technology in education in order to meet the requirements of the digital age, many other rifts seem to existbetween the education and the society at large. After graduation many educated ones cannot find jobs about which they have been tarrying the schools. Those who stop at the secondary school level find it very difficult to fit into any particular sector of the society for job opportunities and or for self-fulfillment. The nation cannot give enough financial support either to her school institutions nor give job opportunity for her mammoth crowd of graduating students. Nigerian schools are full of highly certified professors and teachers, as well as students who could have filed at a high wavelength, had there been a good remuneration and rewarding employment. The society wobbles with a distressed economy and students graduate and begin with cueing up around the foreign embassies in order to escape from hopelessness and seek greener pastures with their highly valued education. However, there is still life in Nigeria. It is not as if everything has failed. In the most part rather, there seems to be a gap between teaching and learning,the national education goals and the reality on ground. As Elekwaand Eze(2012) pointed out, problems of this nature can arise “whenever the curriculum of an educational system fails to satisfy the current reeds of the society and, of the individual within the society” and this brings us to recall once again a nexus that exists between educational technology and curriculum improvement.

Being at the epicenter of the learning sciences that resolves educational problems, EdTechemploys systems approach to troubleshoot and spot out whatever must have gone wrong in the educational system and proffer the accurate solutions. In such case, it is now time to recline once again to the expertise of the science of the EdTech since it has the powers to analyze, and identify problems, then to deconstruct, reconstruct and update teaching curriculum whenever there is need. As pointed out already, a need such as this arises whenever there is an unsuspected societal evolution in philosophy and or life in general. Coming back to our real problems globally today, an educator said, no doubt “our children want to live in atechnological world; what we need to ask ourselves is, what do they really need to be taught” clearly, there is something missing in our world which are: communication, understanding, tolerance and emotional education (Madvisit, 2020).

GAP BETWEEN SOCIETY AND TEACHING; A PEDAGOGICAL SOLUTION.
All forms of curriculum planning or organization has no effect until it reaches its goal in curriculum implementation. Curriculum implementation is the classroom instruction or teaching proper. It is this memorable learning experience between the educator and the learner that leverages its impact on the society. However, curriculum improvement comes in varied forms. When curriculum development bothers about finding out whether the national policy on education mirrors what is expected in the society, it is called curriculum improvement at the macro level. When it bothers about if the school modules punctuate adequately what is slated on the national policy in education, this is called curriculum improvement at the mezzo level. And whencurriculum instructional systems designers are at work finding out whether the instructional techniques and efficacy are all at par with the overall school curriculum description and if the objective of teaching are met in the classroom of learning, this is called curriculum development at the micro level. It is at this level of curriculum implementation or teaching proper that the positive objectives of teaching are felt by the society at large and for her citizens. It is important to note here that curriculumimplementation cannot work well if it stands alone. It must have an eye at the macro and mezzo level just as the macro and mezzo level must have an eye on the micro level. In actual fact, instructional system design is made of cyclic functions that make it to function effectively.
The basic and most common flow chat of instructional systems design in educational technology is the ADDIE model. ADDIE is an acronym that represents: Analyse, Develop, Design, Implement and Evaluate. In the practical sense what it means is that while you analyze the objective of teaching, you must watch the efficacy of the teaching materials, you must at the same time beevaluating what you are indeed doing to make sure it is in line with the four elements of curriculum improvement: objectives of the lesson, content or learning experiences, media, and the general evaluation. Curriculum at every stage of its development has an obligation to undergo evaluative assessment at each stage. Practically, in analyzing objectives and goals, you have to
evaluate, in developing, you have to re-evaluate, in designing the media/techniques, you have to constantly re-evaluate and in
implementing, you have to evaluate. All these constant evaluations can have their effect either in the formative or in the summative assessments. In the implementation stage which is teaching proper, you have to constantly re-evaluate what you are doing until there is the expected behavioural change in the learner as well as the society following the core curriculum. This is why it is better for any teacher to as well be an educator to be more abreast. This looks like recasting and re-printing in our mind the ancient poetic dictum which says “let us never rest, until our good is better and our better, best”. Evidently, teaching work can imply this and so, calls for a continuous cyclic process.

        TEACHING IN DIVERSE AREAS OF THE SOCIETY

It has been strongly noted by many educators that though the primary idea of teaching remains constant, it can acquire new connotations and implications when applied to diverse areas of the society and disciplines like Religion, Health, Politics, Business and Entrepreneurship etc. While the basic ideas of the meaning of teaching revolves around conveying knowledge, facilitating learning and so on, the methods and areas of emphasis may vary when applied to varied disciplines that influence the society. According to ……

1. Teaching and Religion:

In the area of Religion, teaching could have special implications and involvements like interpreting sacred texts, promoting adherence to accepted doctrines, or principally guiding individuals in their spiritual growth. In the areas of Religion teaching could be preoccupied with shaping people in moral values and beliefs. In most cases great teachings in the area of Religion, teaching can influence the society by modifying some cultural practices and traditions adequately.

1. Teaching and Health:

In an important area of health or healthcare, the concept of teaching can entail some varied efforts like promoting healthy behaviours, educating patients, training Professionals like Nurses and Medical Doctors etc. In the aspect of having some influence in the society, teaching can really empower citizens on how to take control of their health and safeguard them from upcoming disease.

1. Teaching and Politics

In our very sensitive area of Politics, teaching can actually be a tool that shape public opinion, education of citizens in the aspects of their political rights like franchise and so on. Teaching in Politics can really be a tool towards influencing policy decisions. In the areas of how teaching of Politics can affect the society, it is evident that teaching can impact on voter turnout and some civic engagements. Teaching in this area can also influence social justice amid the populace and be a veritable instrument of enlightenment on the general human rights.

1. Teaching and Business.

In Edtech, teaching is understood as something that extends to the areas of business and industry. Here teaching comes in form of training. It is an extension of teaching to the wider society just because the word learning is also necessary in the area of business as well. Industries and small scale businesses often have the need to train their workers especially when new skills have become necessary. Managerial trainings come up every once in a while and all trying to serve the need of the society as one or two changes emerge. Such training could come in the form of sales and marketing education as well as financial literacy at times.

1. Teaching in Entrepreneurship

Once some aspects of entrepreneurship involves learning, then teaching becomes involved too. Such teachings may come in the form of business mentorship. In the Eastern part of Nigeria called Igbo, there is a powerful form of business mentorship called Igba boi. It has been regarded as a world class idea in Entrepreneurship teaching or training in Africa but useful globally.  It is a kind of business startups incubation. Teaching or training in entrepreneurship could lead to entrepreneurial new ideas and accelerate growth in the society.

In the final analysis teaching in these aforementioned areas of the society can furnish individuals with the knowledge, skills and mindsets required to effect a societal positive change. In these facets as well, teaching could come in form of coaching, training sessions, workshops or online courses. It is notable here that teaching in these areas can successfully lead to influencing government policies and important decisions, business best practices as well as job creations and economic growths in the society. Robinson(2011) is one of those popular Edtech authors who have been profusely quoted as saying that teaching must be a broad concept encompassing creativity, critical thinking and personal growth.

CONCLUSION
This work agrees with Medvisit(2020) who said that, “clearly there is something missing in our world of teaching today which include: communication, understanding. Tolerance and emotional education”.In Nigeria and beyond, we observe a number of young people who can simply say yes to you without really thinking of any commitment to those words in action. A polite ‘no’ could be better. We observe a number of girls who talk down and look down on those who approach them for friendship in our African world where non marriage can cause a lot of distress on the life of a woman. A better flavor of effective communication principles can handle such dilemma that can result to a violent psychological malady. In Nigeria and beyond, we observe young students who practice a superfluity of obeisance, without a commensurate decision to learn the skills that can bring them to the expected, similar, self-efficacy that can earn them such competences for the workforce. In actual fact, many of the non-employment syndromes among graduate youths arise as a result of lack of emotional skill, understanding, that is required to click well with some business tycoons and entrepreneurs. In Nigeria and beyond we notice an unruly and impersonal use of phones among youths, which detach them from the favorable assessments of others, who desire to rather enjoy free warmth of sharing of their gifted social life. at times quality heart to heart discussion with a fellow humans can be richer, more collaborative and can earn someone a soft spot in the hearts of other quality persons. Such effective communications can become gainful immediately of later. In Nigeria and beyond, we have so many learned men and women who have no respect for a sense of time, which can deny them their own personal goal accomplishment as well as the required inter-personal considerations that can fuel a very quality and gainful relationship. In general, this work thinks that an update in the training of attitude or soft skills are required today in our teaching, in order to harmonize the students improved behavior with the constantly emerging modern realities of our digital civilization.

Good enough,recently in Nigerian education, an intervention has been made to ameliorate these challenges and disparities between education and society. The most resent of such interventions is called CCMAS. It implies core curriculum academic standard. In the practical sense, from September, 2023, it is required in Nigerian education that 30% of the teaching curriculum must evolve from the background of the learner, at least in the tertiary education for now. The objective is for the students to have a deeper understanding of the sociocultural environment where they find themselves and make it part and parcel of their learning. as an online document captioned CCMAS education (2022) outlined, overall, such curriculum improvement will include “a competence in computer literacy skills, quantitative skills, communication skills, information technology skills and entrepreneurship”. Based on this,this work recommends that an applicability of real CCMAS in Nigeria can only be achieved with a positive or growth mindset. There must be an addendum of the required solution oriented mind frame; otherwise we may end up fixated in the perpetual syndrome of recounting Nigerian innumerable problems and blame-shooting them on the political hijackers, which has always dissuaded so many talents around to uplift Nigeria and the world. At the mention of the need for entrepreneurship skills by CCMAS, this work adds the need to look into “Igba-boi” in Nigerian Igbo land, as a place of special attention. Igbaboi which is a recently acclaimed, but age-old method of Nigerian entrepreneurship, has to be upgraded with some bits of personal and professional development curriculum. Igbaboi, an Igbo world class entrepreneurship development for raising younger stars has succeeded over the years in Nigeria. in an impotent online document captioned Igbo Apprenticeship System (2023),it was said that Igbaboi which originated from Eastern Nigeria has been described worldwide as “a spur of economic of growth and stability; and a sustainable level of financing and investing on the human resource through vocational trainings”. However, it is important that those young boys who involve in it could be assisted with some form of formal or non-formal instructional resources rather than rely only on what their master has to tell them. Some audio books, simple business guides or constant soft-skill seminars could be good for a beginning for them. This is important today as business takes a new turn in the digital world.

Finally, as STEAM education has evolved, it is another great power to enhance teaching efficacy and curriculum implementation. STEAM education with its evolving inclusion of arts and science can anchor on a dynamic teaching technique like the flipped classroom in order to delve into the new problems of the modern education and resolve them. In the real sense, education and teaching do not need to be detached from the society. This is because teachers teach for the society while learners learn about the realities of the society and life, in order to build the society and enrich their own lives through their quality contributions. This is the rightful place of teaching in the society.

REFERENCES

Alozie E.I (2015). Be a Modern Teacher with Emotional Intelligence..United Kingdom; Author House Press.

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