The STEM education revolution

DARCELLE DOODNATH

Covid19 has forced over one billion students out of school, activating the world’s largest educational technology implementation in history, almost overnight. While schools around the world are adjusting to the drastic changes in delivering instruction, the situation offers a unique opportunity to rethink the way learning takes place in the 21st century.

Covid19 and the importance of scientific literacy

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is accelerating at breakneck speed – jobs that were non-existent five or ten years ago are now the most in-demand. And, according to the World Economic Forum, up to 65 per cent of students entering school today will have a job that has not yet been created. Our world is increasingly driven by disruptive scientific and technological advances, yet our education systems have been failing to prepare students for such a world in which science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are critical to its future. Case in point: the immediate imperative for understanding science in the wake of a global pandemic could not be clearer.

Before covid19, most people outside of STEM field specialisms may not have known the difference between a virus and bacteria, let alone antigen and antibody, or DNA vs RNA. Now, these concepts make newspaper headlines, with previously obscure scientists appearing on primetime television, and social media newsfeeds flooded with research articles from the latest clinical trials and vaccine rollouts. We have unknowingly become witnesses to an emerging collective consciousness of how understanding science serves to have a real practical application to our everyday lives. Here lies the case for STEM skills to be included in the basic definition of literacy, so that the next generation is empowered to face planetary challenges as varied as climate change, health epidemics, global poverty, global economic recessions and trade imbalances, assaults on human rights, political instability and international conflicts.

STEM education and global competitiveness

Nisha Somai is a local geophysicist at a major energy company, working in the field for the past 13 years. Having fallen in love with math and physics during her secondary school days at Naparima Girls’ High School, she enjoys solving problems in different ways. At an all-girls school, she felt supported in her interest in math and science, being encouraged to participate in international competitions by her teachers and celebrated for her successes. Fast forward over a decade, working in a male-dominated field for a company that she maintains encourages diversity and equality, she recalls the boardroom situations as a young professional where she often felt underestimated, and the respect she gained by first seeing herself as an equal. “Your ideas are what grow the field,” she says, “and your opinions and ideas are just as important as the most experienced person in that room, that’s the beauty about STEM.”

It is this mindset that lends itself to the essence of STEM education, credited for the creation of critical-thinkers and problem-solvers, for nurturing curiosity and fostering innovation to drive advancements in science and technology. Many of today’s most impactful organisations and extensive world pursuits ¬– space exploration, artificial intelligence, vaccine development, renewable energy, cancer research – are rooted in STEM fields. STEM workers play a critical role in the sustained growth and stability of national economies, and according to the National Academies of Science Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy in the US, students are increasingly expected to be literate in STEM fields to be able to compete successfully in the global economy.

STEM education, therefore, is a mechanism for improving a nation’s global competitiveness and ensuring its economic future. Countries such as China and India top the list in producing the highest numbers of STEM graduates in the world, with Australia, Chile and the United Arab Emirates all leading their regions in gaining technology-related skills. In Australia, the need for students to develop STEM knowledge and skills correlates to meeting the needs of the country’s developing industries; this means cultivating a STEM skill set that includes adaptability, non-routine problem-solving, and systems-thinking, as well as complex communication skills and self-development. STEM knowledge is no longer regarded as stable content, but a STEM education must now equip students to source, interpret and apply understandings as they evolve.

STEM, the acronym, has multiple interpretations. Most often it represents four intertwined but separate disciplines, usually associated with structured academic learning, complex theoretical content and students who are high achievers. For researchers at the University of Cincinnati who acknowledge the diversity of student populations and the underlying roles and symbiotic nature of STEM in a modern and global society, STEM education is an interdisciplinary (or transdisciplinary) approach that integrates knowledge across academic disciplines into authentic problem/project-based learning experiences born out of instruction in STEM content areas. Its purpose? To develop 21st century problem-solvers – global citizens with expertise in STEM fields needed to tackle global challenges in contexts such as health, environment, energy, technology and natural resources.

STEM education for economic diversification

Education in STEM fields produces workers who are able to meet the growing science- and technology-based innovation that lies at the core of modern economic growth. Here in TT, improving and promoting STEM programmes could boost a shift from oil and gas dependency to creative STEM-related industries. This means taking a vested interest in building high-end STEM skills, linked to research and development as well as industry innovation. Technology has revolutionised every sector, and developing tech-related industries would stimulate the creation of jobs of the future – from ethical hackers to robotics engineers, virtual world creators to climatologists, sustainability experts to artificial intelligence trainers – with the potential for massive macroeconomic returns on human capital investment.

STEM for all

The Incheon Declaration for Education 2030, which constitutes the commitment of the education community to Sustainable Development Goal #4 (quality education) under the recognition of the importance of education as a main driver of development, recommends the reinforcement of STEM education as a key strategy for meeting its sustainable development goals. The challenge that arises is operationalising STEM education for all, including those with disabilities and diverse learning needs, to achieve meaningful STEM education. It goes without saying that covid19 has exacerbated inequalities, not only by means of the digital divide, but in terms of those students who have the capacity for self-directed learning and the parental involvement to support it. Access to the kind of inquiry-based learning that characterises STEM education must now be supported at home, and students of low socioeconomic status are at a considerable disadvantage. Addressing this barrier to experiential STEM education requires creative ways for young people to experience immersion in the hands-on process of scientific experimentation, problem-based and inquiry-based learning, for example, through the use of mobile phone-enabled STEM education tools (smartphone penetration is increasing among mobile-first families in low-income communities, according to the WEF).

The importance of teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematical skills for the real world is undeniable, given the challenges we are facing as a global society. Above all, students of today need a global education, which demands an outright re-imagination of outdated systems of education, broader teacher development reforms to ensure the uptake of new citizenship skills, and an alignment of public policies and investments in education, science and technology to develop 21st century skills in order for them to thrive in a rapidly-changing world.

Darcelle Doodnath is an educator specialising in modern foreign language pedagogy. She holds a postgraduate diploma in education from the University of the West Indies, a diploma in methodologies of teaching Spanish as a second language from Universidad de Chile and an undergraduate degree in Hispanic language and linguistics from Brown University.