Digital Learning and Sustainable STEAM Education
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 14 August 2026 | Viewed by 18
Special Issue Editor
Interests: physics education research and physics teacher education
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue will bring together research and scholarship that examines novel strategies and approaches in digital learning and sustainable STEAM education. A key feature of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) education is using real-world contexts that encourage learners to increase their understanding and awareness of the everyday applications of STEAM knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. Several studies have promoted STEAM education as a transdisciplinary approach to education, as it promotes inclusive pedagogies and the development of key competencies and literacies that are essential for 21st-century learners.
Researchers have raised concerns about the quality of the approaches used for blended, hybrid and online learning following the eregemcy reponse to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp) provides a common understanding to identify and describe essential outcomes of digital learning. Digital competence involves the 'confident, critical and responsible use of, and engagement with, digital technologies for learning, at work, and for participation in society. It is defined as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes' (EU Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Life-long Learning, 2018). The concept of digital competence is a multifaceted paradigm, encapsulating technical proficiency, critical evaluation, and motivated engagement with digital technologies (Deak and Kumar, 2024). Past research highlights the urgent need for teachers to undergo professional learning and upskilling to develop understanding and awareness of suitable contexts that promote their engagement with and interest in sustainable STEAM education and utilize the flexibility provided by digital technologies.
We invite high-quality original research that addresses issues relating to the following:
- Innovative pedagogies and curricula regarding the use of digitial technologies that foster sutainable STEAM education in formal education, e.g. schools, colleges and universities;
- Challenges and opportunties for developing learners’ digital competence and literacy, including in informal and non-formal contexts;
- Pre-service teacher education and professional learning opportunities for increasing the use of digitial technologies to foster sutainable STEAM education;
- Policies that promote digital Learning and sustainable STEAM education.
Dr. Eilish McLoughlin
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- digitial learning
- digital competence
- STEAM education
- sustainability
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