Enhancing Teachers’ Self-directed Learning and Professional Development through Arts-infused Science Teaching

This study examines how an arts-infused Short Learning Programme (SLP), grounded in STEAM pedagogy, may support South African physical sciences teachers’ self-directed learning (SDL) and professional development. Although STEAM is widely recognised as a transformative educational approach, it is frequently reduced to arts integration, with limited attention given to its transdisciplinary and epistemological dimensions, particularly in teacher professional learning. Situated within a social constructivist paradigm and framed by Warford’s Zone of Proximal Teacher Development (ZPTD), the study conceptualises STEAM pedagogy as a scaffold for teacher learning. A mixed-methods design was employed involving 15 physical sciences teachers from semi-rural schools in Limpopo Province. Data were collected through the pre- and post-SLP administration of the Self-Directed Learning Instrument, classroom observations, interviews and artefact analysis. Findings indicate positive shifts in teachers’ SDL, particularly in the domains of learning motivation and self-monitoring. Changes in instructional practice, including the use of dialogic and creative approaches such as drama and puppetry, are interpreted as observable manifestations of teachers’ developing SDL and ongoing professional learning. Teachers reported that arts-infused STEAM pedagogy broadened their pedagogical repertoires, although implementation remained constrained by limited resources, insufficient curriculum guidance and systemic pressures. These findings suggest that arts-infused STEAM pedagogy can provide a scaffold for teacher learning within the ZPTD while facilitating epistemological border-crossing between science and the arts. The study contributes to STEAM teacher education by positioning arts-infused STEAM pedagogy not merely as an instructional innovation, but as a contextually responsive pathway for fostering self-directed, reflective and professionally adaptive science teachers.