STEM and STEAM education promotes the integration between science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the arts. The latter aims at favoring deep and collaborative learning on students, through curricular integration in K-12 science education. The enactive and ecological psychology approach to education puts attention on the role of the teacher, learning context and socio-cultural environment in shaping lived learning experiences. The approach describes education as a process of embodied cognitive assemblage of guided perception and action. The latter process depends on the interaction of learners with digital and/or analogue learning affordances existing within the socio-technological environment. This article proposes that the scope of an enactive-ecological approach can be extended to the domain of learning science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM), especially when it comes to understanding deep roots of the learning process. We first present an exhaustive literature review regarding the foundations of both the enactive and the ecological learning theories, along with their differences and key similarities. We then describe the fundamentals and latest research advances of an integrated STEAM pedagogy, followed by the notion of mixed reality (XR) as an emerging educational technology approach, offering an understanding of its current foundations and general disposition on how to understand digital immersion from ecological psychology. Next, we propose a systems theoretical approach to integrate the enactive-ecological approach in STEAM pedagogy, framed in the Santiago school of cognition attending to the interactive dynamics occurring between learners and their interaction with learning affordances existing within their educational medium, establishing that sensorimotor contingencies and attentional anchors are important to restrict sensory variety and stabilize learning concepts. Finally, we consider two empirical studies, one from Chile and the other from New Zealand, in which we demonstrate how the enactive-ecological approach built upon a systems theory perspective can contribute to understanding the roots of STEAM learning and inform its learning design.

Current global challenges of the 21st century promote STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education and digitalization as a means for humans to be the central actors in the construction of a sustainable society that favors a sense of worth and global wellbeing. In this scenario, new educational technology tools and immersive learning affordances (possibilities), offer unprecedented potential for the design of smart and dynamic learning systems and contexts that can enhance learning processes across varied audiences and educational settings. However, current STEAM education practice lacks attention to equipping all citizens with the necessary skills to use digital technologies in an ethical, critical and creative way. This gap calls for attention in design processes, principles and practices that are attentive to ethical considerations and values-based approaches. On the other hand, in its formulation STEAM as an educational approach is framed in four fundamental pillars: creativity, inclusion, citizenship and emerging technologies, which also put attention on the inclusion of disadvantaged and underrepresented social groups during STEAM education design. Following an apparent need to explore ethical and inclusive design in STEAM education, and inspired in the 4E cognition framework, ethical enactivism and embodied and ecosomaesthetics experience design, here we propose a theoretical framework grounded on systems thinking for the design of smart and dynamic STEAM learning systems and settings. The framework is aimed at STEAM educational psychologists, educational technologists, learning designers and educational practitioners who wish to address the global challenges of 21st century education by means of creative, innovative and inclusive education design.

One of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been restrictions on mobility and thus the closure of schools. This has had consequences on the teaching strategies of primary mathematics educators who were not familiar with online education. Most schools in Chile have adopted virtual and hybrid classes to continue educational processes. From a quantitative approach with a sample of n = 105 primary school educators and through an online survey, we analyzed how educators implemented the mathematics curriculum during the pandemic using various didactic strategies and educational resources, as well as their respective contexts. The results show that there is a relationship between the level of technical knowledge of teachers, the years of experience, and the types of teaching strategies they use. Likewise, differences were found between educators in rural and urban sectors according to the use of teaching strategies and the types of educational resources used. Regarding the didactic strategies, it is shown that the emerging strategies most used are metaphorical and analogical, whereas in traditional strategies the automation of procedures is imposed. The implications for practice include suggestions and guidelines for improving the training and professional development of mathematics teachers including increasing and strengthening the number and quality of teachers’ didactic strategies and online pedagogical management skills and promoting metacognition through virtual forums. Finally, we discuss the context of the use of didactic strategies in mathematics during the pandemic, analyzing its challenges and opportunities.

Immersive learning environments in education provide a set of rich and diverse learning affordances (possibilities). Cognition in such environments can be considered as embodied, enacted, embedded, and extended (the 4Es of cognition). During such cognitive happenings, we assume and live as valid everything we experience. Yet in this enactive structural coupling between individuals and their experiential world, another phenomenon occurs. We become a behaviorally inseparable entity with the virtual/immersive world. We become entangled with that virtual/immersive world. Here we propose that, within the framework of the 4Es of cognition, a recognizable lived experience phenomena occurs when learners engage with virtual or immersive learning environments. That is, cognition becomes entangled in immersive environments with alternative realities. Coming from the Santiago school of cognition, and building from ideas from immersive learning, 4E cognition, and quantum entanglement inspired in quantum cognition, we attempt to describe the process of entangled cognition happening in immersive learning environments. We recognize at least two levels of entanglement from the same recursive phenomenology: one we call a local entanglement, related to perception and sense-making; and a second we call a global entanglement, connected to the process and phenomena of human consciousness and meaning-making, accessible when conceived as a whole. We see the benefits for such a theoretical framework to ultimately guide, justify, and encourage the emergence of an epistemology shift in educational technology towards design principles that account for entangled cognition in immersive learning (and beyond), and the associated possibilities offered by new immersive technologies in education.

The concept of neurodiversity has gained strength in the last years to highlight the value of individual differences based on relevant variations in brain functioning. Inclusive education has embraced neurodiversity to promote a culture centered on valuing diversity, in response to clinical models based on deficits or disorders. This theoretical-critical article argues for the need to complement the current foundations of neurodiversity with post-cognitivist perspectives that reaffirm the brain-body-environment continuum, in order to enrich inclusive educational practices for autistic individuals. We begin by reviewing and discussing the concept of neurodiversity and neurocentric arguments in light of post-cognitivism. We then explore the potential of the 3E Cognition approach (embodied, enacted, and environmentally scaffolded) for addressing autism, aiming to provide a holistic understanding that contributes to the practical application of cognitive neuroscience findings in inclusive education. Finally, we present some guidelines and practical cases for creating inclusive educational environments based on digital technologies that enhance agency and sensory multimodality for autistic students.

Advances in embodied design highlight the interconnection between the brain, body, and environment in shaping learning experiences, emphasizing the potential of multimodal perception in enriched sociomaterial and technological contexts. Despite growing evidence in this area, traditional educational systems remain anchored in transmissive and cognitivist models, perpetuating barriers to equitable learning, particularly for students with special educational needs (SEN), such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). In response to these challenges, post-cognitivist frameworks, including embodied, enactive, and environmentally scaffolded cognition (3E) as well as SpEED (Special Education Embodied Design), provide essential foundations for rethinking inclusive educational design. This perspective article explores the role of active teaching methodologies and innovative technologies in shaping a holistic framework to support inclusive learning design. This framework leverages immersive technologies, mobile applications, and artificial intelligence to scaffold multimodal learning experiences that meet the diverse needs of students with SEN. Through a proof-of-concept based on illustrative cases, this article presents a theoretical contribution to guide the design of inclusive and technology-supported learning environments aligned with the 3E approach, fostering engagement, equity, and personalized learning for students with SEN.