STEAM Curriculum Integration in Middle Schools: Teacher Practices, Student Engagement Dimensions, and Knowledge Transfer Outcomes — A Mixed-Methods Study from Delhi NCR

Abstract

STEAM education — the deliberate integration of Science, Technology,Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics within a shared inquiry and designframework — has emerged as a prominent multidisciplinary school practice in recent years, grounded in the rationale that the artificial disciplinaryseparation of these domains in conventional schooling impedes thedevelopment of the creative, systems-thinking, and design-orientedcompetencies required for 21st-century participation. This mixed-methodsstudy examined STEAM integration practices and outcomes across 24 middleschools in Delhi NCR — 12 implementing structured STEAM programmes and 12 matched comparison schools — through a sequential explanatory design combining student engagement scale data (n = 618 students, Classes 7–8), knowledge transfer assessment, and teacher interviews (n = 48 STEAM teachers). Students in STEAM-integrated schools scored significantly higher on cognitive engagement (4.12 vs 3.24), behavioural engagement (4.28 vs 3.46), and agentic engagement (4.02 vs 3.18) on the validated Student Engagement Instrument, with a smaller but significant difference on emotional engagement (3.96 vs 3.58). Knowledge transfer assessment showed STEAM students performing significantly better on cross-disciplinary application items (mean 64.8 vs 48.2, p < 0.001) than on within-discipline recall items (72.4 vs 68.6, p = 0.048). Teacher interviews identified effective co-planning time, design-challenge structure, and arts integration authenticity as the three most critical implementation enablers. These findings provide evidence for STEAM integration as a school practice that meaningfully advances student engagement and cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer in the Delhi NCR context. KEYWORDS: STEAM education, Multidisciplinary education, Studentengagement, Knowledge transfer, Middle school, Arts integration, Mixed-methods, Delhi NCR, School practices