VIEWS & OPINION
Achieving an open and flexible approach to STEM Comment by SIMON DAVENPORT, LEGO® Education
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) has become recognised as an acronym that represents the future of our country’s economic stability, yet the National STEM Centre states that 42 per cent of UK employers are finding it difficult to recruit skilled individuals. However, what we also know is that 98 per
cent of children are deemed creative geniuses at the age of five, but that number radically decreases to only two per cent by the time they reach the age of 25! So surely, between the ages of five and 25, we
need to encourage, support and nurture STEM skills, to not only prepare today’s students for the workforces of the future, but also to ensure our country has the highly skilled individuals needed for the ever-evolving and growing STEM industry. If we take the aims of the maths national
curriculum as an example, ‘using’ and ‘applying’ are at the heart of maths teaching and learning. Teachers now have to work to develop each child’s conceptual understanding, rather than teaching children how ‘to do’ the maths. Once they have the understanding to get underneath what is going on and can ‘see’ the structures
underpinning the mathematics, only then can they use and apply their insight to problem solving. To a certain extent, the same theory applies in
the other STEM subjects: science, technology and engineering. While the current economic demand for people
in the STEM subjects shouldn’t be our only consideration, if a child has the skills at the age of five and is led into a specialism that they find engaging and exciting, it’s a win win! The challenge lies in the fact that most primary
school teachers will not have specialised in the STEM subjects at university, and yet they are expected to have this in-depth knowledge to teach these subjects to the new required levels. We therefore have to give them the resources to enable children to explore and learn. For example, pupils could be tasked to build a
space robot and programme it to launch a satellite into the air; it is through hands-on learning that pupils become inspired to actively explore topics and devise solutions to problems. There are, of course, resources from which teachers can follow a step-by-step process to
deliver STEM lessons, but what these often lack is the flexibility and autonomy that children need to let them approach tasks with their own creativity and ideas. We should be encouraging pupils to think
outside the box, and allow them to realise that STEM subjects don’t necessarily have one right answer, but require perseverance, resilience and problem-solving skills. And, rather than giving a pupil a set task, teachers should be increasingly taking a step back and becoming mediators, rather than instructors, encouraging pupils to use their imagination and creativity to solve a given problem. And STEM resources should offer an ‘open learning’ approach, so pupils can operate at their own level and create their own solution to a problem based on their ideas and level of understanding. We need to be igniting a passion for STEM in among pupils during primary school, and maintaining their enthusiasm for these subjects during secondary school to ensure that they develop the skills needed for their future. The best way to do this? Make learning fun and hands-on, and capture their imaginations.
Diversity: pushing the boundaries of comfort Comment by FELICIA JACKSON, chair of The Learn2Think Foundation
One of the challenges for many educators is working out how to introduce concepts of difference into education. There are a number of different resources out there which can help, including a new character from Go-Givers. To celebrate LGBT History Month, and
marking 50 years since the decriminalisation of male homosexuality, the Citizenship Foundation introduced its new Go-Givers character, an elegant giraffe named Alba. Alba lives with her Mum and Mummy and the character was inspired by the children of Glebe Primary School in Southwick near Brighton, who helped to create her. The character has a number of lesson plans
associated with her for both KS1 and KS2. For KS1, an exploration of different types of families - each one unique and special - teaches that all families are groups of people who care for each other. For KS2 there are two options: an exploration of how laws change over time to reflect changes in society, with particular reference to the criminalisation of gay men until the law was changed in 1967; another addresses the issue of homophobic bullying, and explores different kinds of families. The lessons are clearly set within such contexts
to assist teachers, who can be anxious about the reactions of parents. The ‘school gate’
community can be a powerful lobby, and head/teachers (who are rightly, in many respects, mindful of parents’ views) are often risk averse. Marguerite Heath, Programmes Director - Go-
Givers & Primary at the Citizenship Foundation says, “When I first started teaching, teachers tended to avoid tackling race issues for similar reasons. I think teachers need a lot of help and support when challenging issues on the edge of the cultural comfort zone. They are tested in so many ways these days! However, we cannot let prejudices get in the way of children’s wellbeing or learning.” Yet the challenges our children face, and the
world they will experience when they leave school, are very different from even ten years ago. Today, there is a sense that binary divides are getting stronger, in politics, society and communications. Educators are responsible for ensuring that the boundaries of comfort are being pushed, which means that we need not just resources but also role models. It is widely accepted that the UK suffers from
a lack on interest in STEM subjects among children and it’s important that this is tackled. One way to do this might be to explore different role models and how they can play into developing children’s expectation. At the Guardian, the paper marked LGBT
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History Month with an internal campaign. Susie Colman, Anne Byrne and Frank Hulley-Jones put together series of posters with LGBT role models from the world of tech in order to encourage people to explore the possibilities of the tech world. Susie says, “We need to be proactive if we’re
going to change the tech industry and for many within the LGBT community, we don’t have role models outside entertainment.” One of the posters celebrates Lynn Conway, an American computer scientist, electrical engineer, inventor, and transgender activist. She is also a famed pioneer of microelectronics chip design who once said, “If you want to change the future, start living as if you’re already there.” While the Guardian project was aimed at educating adults, we need to start the conversation with our children when they are young enough to be open and flexibly minded. If we are to support children’s understanding
of changes already taking place within civil society, as educators we need to look beyond what makes us comfortable and address uncomfortable new frontiers.
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http://www.gogivers.org u
https://www.theguardian.com/ gnmeducationcentre
April 2017
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