We can define it through four distinct lenses:

1. The Shift from Consumption to Construction

Traditional pedagogy is transmissive (teacher -> student). Innovative pedagogy is constructivist. It treats students as "knowledge creators." This is where building models and painting come in—not as hobbies, but as ways to physically construct an understanding of abstract Math or Science.

2. The Integration Lens (Breaking the Silos)

Innovation in STEAM isn't just teaching Science and then teaching Art. It is transdisciplinary. It’s the belief that real-world problems don't come labeled as "Physics" or "Economics." Innovative pedagogy creates a learning environment where different disciplines are integrated to solve a single human-centered challenge.

3. The "Process over Product" Mindset

In a traditional class, the "Innovation" is the final project. In innovative pedagogy, the Inquiry Process is the goal.

• Traditional: "Learn these 5 facts about gravity."

• Innovative: "Here are different objects; explore how they fall, record your data, and propose a rule for why they fall that way" (The 5Es).

4. The Hybridization of Domains (Head, Heart, Hand)

As usually discussed as Design Thinking, innovative pedagogy intentionally balances:

• The Head (Cognitive): Critical thinking and inquiry.

• The Heart (Affective): Empathy for the user or the environment.

• The Hand (Psychomotor): The technical skill of building, coding, or painting.

If the curriculum (the content) is the destination, then innovative pedagogy is the engine and chassis that actually moves the learner from point A to point B.

1. It Drives Active Construction

In a traditional classroom, learning is often static—like a student sitting at a bus stop waiting for the "knowledge bus" (the teacher) to arrive. In innovative pedagogy, the student is the driver. Through Inquiry-based learning, the student steers the vehicle by asking questions and exploring, while the teacher acts as the Navigator/GPS, providing the 5E framework to keep the journey on track.

2. It Provides the "All-Terrain" Capability

Traditional teaching often struggles with "Wicked Problems" because it stays on the "paved road" of textbooks. Innovative pedagogy is an all-terrain vehicle. By integrating Art and Technology, it allows learners to go "off-road" to explore complex, real-world issues in Nepal that don't have clear-cut paths, using models and creative prototypes to navigate the terrain.

3. It Powers the Head, Heart, and Hand

A vehicle needs a fuel system, an engine, and wheels to function. In learning courses:

• The Heart (Empathy/Affective) is the fuel that motivates the journey.

• The Head (Inquiry/Cognitive) is the engine that processes information and makes decisions.

• The Hand (Psychomotor/Making) is the wheels that turn abstract ideas into tangible movement (prototypes/models).

4. It Moves from Theory to Constructivist Reality

Learners explore how their needs are facilitated using Constructivist learning theory. The "vehicle" of innovative pedagogy is what makes that theory move. Without the 5Es or arts-integration, constructivism is just a parked car; with them, it becomes a journey of discovery.

• STEAM Education/Pedagogy/Innovative Pedagogy

• Inquiry-based teaching and learning

• 5Es: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate

• Art and technology integration in inquiry-based teaching learning

• Constructivism theory

Based on the paper by Duran and Duran, the 5E Instructional Model is a learning cycle approach rooted in constructivist principles. It is designed to facilitate inquiry-based teaching by allowing students to build on prior knowledge and engage in hands-on exploration before formal explanations are provided. Duran and Duran emphasize that this model is non-linear and iterative. It forces a shift from "teaching as telling" to "teaching as facilitating," 

Here is a summary of the five phases as detailed in the paper:

1. Engagement (The Hook)

• Purpose: To pique student interest and uncover prior knowledge.

• Action: The teacher provides a "Mystery Object" or a provocative question. Students make observations and inferences without being given the answer or the scientific name of the object immediately. This stage creates a "need to know."

2. Exploration (Hands-on Experience)

• Purpose: To provide students with a common base of experiences.

• Action: Students work in teams to design and conduct their own experiments. In Duran's example, students investigate variables affecting the hatching of "Mystery Objects" (brine shrimp eggs). They record data and identify patterns through direct experience.

3. Explanation (Concept Introduction)

• Purpose: To connect student experiences to formal scientific definitions and concepts.

• Action: This is teacher-facilitated. After students have explored, the teacher leads a discussion to help students "explain" their findings using scientific terms. The focus is on using student-generated evidence to back up conclusions.

4. Elaboration (Expansion of Knowledge)

• Purpose: To apply learned concepts to new and related situations.

• Action: Students use their new understanding to solve a different problem or design a new experiment. This reinforces the concept and helps students see its broader application (e.g., exploring a different variable in the shrimp experiment).

5. Evaluation (Assessment)

• Purpose: To assess student understanding and the effectiveness of the learning process.

• Action: Evaluation is both formal and informal. It occurs throughout the cycle via checklists and rubrics, but culminates in students sharing their findings (e.g., through a newsletter or presentation) to demonstrate what they have constructed.

In a constructivist classroom, we move away from the "transmission" model where a teacher simply gives facts. Instead, we treat the learner as an active builder of their own understanding. This aligns perfectly with our "vehicle" metaphor: the theory provides the framework (the chassis), while the pedagogy is the movement system (the engine).

Constructivism in Practice

Applying this theory to innovative pedagogy involves three main shifts:

1. From Passive to Active: Students don't just "receive" the 5E model; they live it. By starting with Engagement and Exploration, we force the brain to grapple with a problem before being given a formal "Explanation."

2. Social Meaning-Making: As we explored in our group projects for Construction Management, students learn best when they negotiate ideas with peers. This is Social Constructivism, where the "Heart" (collaboration) helps the "Head" (logic).

3. Real-World Application: Using arts and technology to solve "Wicked Problems" (like house safety) ensures that the knowledge constructed is not just academic, but useful.

Connection with our previous example applications:

• The Construction Site Project: By identifying tasks and sketching equipment, students weren't just memorizing a list. They were constructing a mental model of a working site.

• The Building Design Project: Measuring a real house forced students to reconcile their theoretical math with physical reality. This is Cognitive Constructivism—adjusting their internal "schema" to fit the real world.

• Design thinking

• Learning through latest technology

• Hands-on activity

• Social Constructivism

The learner and his environment (Andrea Acheer 2011)

1. Review of Scheer Noweski Meinel's Article

2. Case study on social constructivism [Reference Document]

3. Reflection in Module 2:

My reflection: Design thinking module helped us to integrate design thinking in solving classroom problems. Social constructivism blended in design thinking helped to bind necessary empathy, and linkage of real-life problems with educational process.

In Module 3: Remixing Pedagogy, we reach the "synthesis" stage of our journey. If Module 1 was the engine (Inquiry) and Module 2 was the workshop (Design Thinking), Module 3 is where we become the DJ of our own classroom.

"Remixing" means you don't just follow one model. Instead, we copy, adapt, and merge different techniques—like 5E, Design Thinking, and Storytelling—to create a "new track" that fits our specific students (Meidi, 2011). The following approaches can be the key techniques for remixing.

1. The Three Domains of Learning: Head, Heart, and Hand

2. Storytelling as Pedagogy 

3. Game-Based Pedagogy 

4. Soft Skills and Professional Transformation 

To truly "remix" pedagogy, we must understand the three "gears" that drive student growth. These are the Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor domains. In STEAM education, we often refer to these as the Head, the Heart, and the Hand.

1. The Cognitive Domain (The Head)

This domain focuses on mental skills and the acquisition of knowledge. Following Bloom’s Taxonomy, it moves from simple recall to complex creation. In, say a construction projects example, students calculate the volume of a room or analyze which heavy machinery is needed for a specific soil type.

• Key levels: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating.

• Goal: To develop intellectual capability and critical thinking.

2. The Affective Domain (The Heart)

This is the most overlooked domain but the most important for "Innovative Pedagogy." It deals with feelings, values, appreciation, and motivations. In, say "Bidding War" game, the excitement, the teamwork, and the ethical responsibility of building a safe hospital fall into this category.

• Key levels: Receiving (listening), Responding (participating), Valuing (finding worth in the lesson), Organizing, and Internalizing values.

• Goal: To shift the student's attitude and increase their emotional engagement with the subject.

3. The Psychomotor Domain (The Hand)

This domain involves physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. In, say a building measurement lesson, the physical act of using a measuring tape accurately, or using a 3D pen to build a prototype, is the psychomotor domain in action.

• Key levels: Perception, Set (readiness), Guided Response (imitation), Mechanism (habit), and Complex Overt Response (expert movement).

• Goal: To develop technical precision and manual dexterity.

A successful lesson must touch all three. If we only teach the Cognitive, students get bored. If we only do Psychomotor, they might be active but they don't know why they are doing it. By "Remixing", we can say use Storytelling to trigger the Heart, Design Thinking to engage the Hand, and Inquiry to challenge the Head.

In Module 4: Participatory Pedagogy, we move to the final stage of our journey: shifting the power from the teacher to the learner. Participatory Pedagogy is a teaching approach where students are not just participants, but co-designers of their own education. It values the unique "Funds of Knowledge" each student brings, including their Indigenous Knowledge and personal life experiences. Instead of a fixed curriculum, students collaborate with instructors to reinvent classroom instruction, helping to determine the flow and organization of their modules. This process is deeply tied to Transformative Learning Theory, which uses critical reflection to challenge our long-held assumptions and beliefs. By integrating perspectives like gender and local traditions, participatory pedagogy transforms the classroom into a space for identity building and collaborative knowledge creation, ensuring that learning is a process of personal and social change rather than just a final product. Here we explore:

1. Individualized Learning Paths: Students are encouraged to explore their own needs and interests. Students analyze and evaluate their own progress to create a learning journey that is unique to them.

2. Indigenous Knowledge and Gender: This module emphasizes that local wisdom and diverse gender perspectives are not "extras"—they are essential parts of the educational process.

3. Critical Reflection: There are three types of reflection: Content (what we learn), Process (how we learn), and Premise (why we believe what we do). Premise reflection is the deepest, leading to a "Transformation" of our teaching mindset.

4. Identity Building: Through this participatory process, we don't just learn new facts; we build a new Core Identity, say as a STEAM educator, who values collaborative and inclusive learning.

My Previous knowledge/attitude/practice of teaching: 

• • Previously, I was more focused on delivery of content, and teacher dominated class.

Transformation in my knowledge/attitude/practice

• • I realized that learning process is more important for internalization of learnt knowledge or content. So now, I make my class more engaging and participation of students. Providing too many content is not as effective as making students realize why the piece of lesson is important that help them to explore them to wider context.

  • Providing open-ended questions help them explore content in interesting and active way.