The environment of education has changed significantly
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Introduction
In the past decade or
so, the environment of education has changed significantly. There is increased
diversity of students and increased influx of technology in schools and homes
(Seifert & Sutton, 2009). New ideas are being explored, but at the moment,
with the times dominated by covid19, educational technology seems more
prominent than any other space. In this space, the role of technology in
education has taken a prime debate. Hence, I find that I am also forced to open
myself to it and absorb the new learning. So I chose to venture into STEM for
my course term.
STEM
My understanding was
simply that STEM as a curriculum in an integration of science, technology,
engineering and maths. Technology and engineering put me off and hence STEM is
a topic that was largely unfamiliar for me. I always avoided it for I was
focused on math.
When I started this
term, I felt the trepidation that steps in when you do something new. But when
I started with the readings, I felt this is more about building a set of skills
that one can value for life instead of building an engineering structure. For
example, 7 skills that are a must for STEM (Adams, 2017) taught me that the
core of a good STEM program is what is the core of any good education program
and that is a set of skills that one wants to develop through it. I was quite
intrigued by flexibility (Adams, 2017) as I used to keep twisting and turning
my lessons in school for math to make sure that the minds of the students so
not stay in a certain comfort zone.
The discussion
assignment was an eye opener when my professor gave an idea for STEM using
toothpicks and marshmallows and I was like, wow!’ And my curiosity was piqued,
and I wanted to learn more. I realised that at the core STEM focused on skills
that are needed for career and life for they help us reason, think
critically and problem solve (Kaldor, 2017) and can be integrated for any age
group in a way that is developmentally appropriate.
Strategies for
promoting STEM learning and critical thinking?
I analyzed a lesson on
designing a bridge (Zarrinnegar,
13) that seemed as if a student is working alone on it with parents. It was
more of an activity that a proper lesson with lots of students. I was not sure
if this was a proper lesson to take but my unawareness of the topic and
inability to find a good math lesson made me go through with this on.
Initially I was only reading the
readings and trying to somehow mix and match the readings with the lesson. But
after reading the lesson 4 to 5 times, inspiration hit! I found that the lesson
took a student through 4 steps: Design, Ideate, Prototype and Test. And that
gave me a framework to talk about the strategies as well as opportunities for
additional strategies. Using this framework, I was able to discuss strategies
such as curiosity, flexibility and questioning, considered important by (Adams,
2017).
Strategies that are additional came
through my own dissatisfaction with the lesson being for only one student. I
felt the power of collaboration in a STEM lesson could have made this so much
more robust and energized. Brainstorming always improves cooperation in the
group and critical thinking (Mengi, Olgun, Pinar & Pilli, Olga &
Yildirim, 2004).
My growth as a STEM
teacher
As I find in almost
all assignments, when I start, I feel anxious, but halfway through I understand
what the instructor is aiming for and that is a boost for the insights and also
for the thoughts. I find suddenly that pieces fall into place, and I understand.
For this one, I understood that the focus is to learn to build my own
individual thinking process.
When I hit upon using
the framework of the lesson to write about the strategies and skills, I felt a
wow moment in my heart. I did not know that I could do it and the discovery of
my own capacity was thrilling for me. I still am not sure about STEM and have a
long way to go before I can give an assignment that would fetch a similar wow
from the reader, but I am excited to know more, learn more and write more.
My core area stays
math. But what I have learnt from exploring STEM based lesson is that I can
abstract the skills used and bring them into math lessons. The closest that I
can do that is through making the math classes based on teaching through
problem solving (McDougal, & Takahashi, 2014). I can, for example, throw a
problem at the students, ask them to work on it individually or in groups for a
certain amount of time and then collate data about the various solutions.
Without giving them the right or wrong answer, I can ask the groups to analyze
the solutions and check which one are accurate, why and which one is the most
efficient solution. Through this I can touch upon the skills as mentioned in
the STEM program, namely problem solving, inquiry, questioning, curiosity and
collaborative brain storming. I think if I just open to the T and E of STEM, I
may step forward as a teacher soon.
Thank you!
1.
Adams, C. (2017). The 7 most important STEM
skills we should be teaching our kids. Retrieved from https://www.weareteachers.com/important-stem-skills-teaching-kids/
2.
Kaldor, T. (2017). The T in STEM: Creating
play-based experiences that support children’s learning of coding and
higher-order thinking. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/blog/creating-play-based-experiences.
3.
McDougal, T., & Takahashi, A. (2014).
Teaching mathematics through problem-solving. Retrieved from https://www.nais.org/magazine/independent-teacher/fall-2014/teaching-mathematics-through-problem-solving/.
4.
Mengi, B. & Olgun, K., Pinar & Pilli,
Olga & Yildirim, H. (2004). What Are The Major Curriculum Issues?: The Use
Of Mindmapping As A Brainstorming Exercise. Retrieved from
http://cmc.ihmc.us/papers/cmc2004-069.pdf
5.
Seifert, K., & Sutton, R. (2009). Educational psychology (2nd ed.). The Saylor
Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Educational-Psychology.pdf
6.
Zarrinnegar, H. (2020, April 13). Design
Challenge: Building a Bridge: Activity. Retrieved September 14, 2020, from https://www.education.com/activity/article/design-challenge-building-a-bridge/
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