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Promoting engagement and more importantly retention of girls in STEM

17 February, 2019 By Sarah Chapman Leave a Comment

To reshape and better up skill the future workforce, the focus must begin with education, as “STEM education underpins innovation and plays a critical role in economic and business growth” (PwC, 2015). Further, education in STEM is recommended as being the key to broadening community understandings of what STEM is saying and doing about the complex problems facing society, now and in the future (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013).

Young people need to be digitally competent, adaptable and adopt core competencies that will enable them to respond to the ever-changing workforce (CEDA, 2015). STEM is a key driver of innovation and entrepreneurship that can significantly impact on the economy (PwC, 2015) and 21st century skills are recognised as a key component within a STEM skills set that enable young people to achieve success in our evolving workforce (World Economic Forum, 2016).

Increasing the engagement of young people in STEM will enable the building of aspirations for a lifelong journey in STEM. There are currently inequities that exist in STEM in Australia. Girls, students from low socio-economic status backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and students from non-metropolitan areas are currently less likely to engage in STEM education and are at higher risk of not developing high capabilities in STEM-related skills (Education Council, 2015). As a result, these groups are more likely to miss out on the opportunities STEM-related occupations can offer.

To increase our STEM workforce, a priority needs to be made to harness the STEM talents within these groups. Currently, only 16% of STEM qualified people in Australia are female (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2016). Besides there being the requirement for equity in the workforce in terms of pay and career progression for women (Prinsley, et.al., 2016), a significant priority needs to made to promote the engagement and retention of underrepresented groups in STEM.

Practical insights for implementing STEM programs: targeting girls

There are a diverse range of barriers and drivers that inhibit or enhance the engagement and retainment of girls in STEM-related pathways. The drivers often vary depending on the barriers that arise. The diversity of these barriers vary from country to country and for girls of different backgrounds. This issue deserves dedicated research to be completed within the Australian context to best identify the specific barriers that exist for girls in this country, and the key drivers for engaging Australian girls. Through the Fellowship research, observations were made around the key challenges and strategies required to engage girls from the perspective of the organisations visited in different countries.

Challenges/Barriers observed for girls engaging with STEM

  • The fear of failure and lack of confidence of young girls in STEM
  • The lack of relevance to everyday life, STEM being an abstract construct
  • Lack of links to the ‘humanness’ around STEM
  • Parents/Caregivers lack of understanding and therefore lack of support towards STEM pathways
  • Misconceptions and stereotypes perceptions around STEM industries and professions
  • Lack of funds to access opportunities for disadvantaged girls
  • Lack of role models in STEM industries and post-secondary education, particularly in leadership positions
  • Challenges around the culture of STEM industries and support for women to thrive
  • Lack of clarity on STEM careers (including job titles) and professional activities.

Messaging: Effective messaging can attract girls to consider STEM and help girls to envision themselves as STEM professionals, as well as help to support their key influencers. This includes the consideration of effective messaging strategies from marketing to role model interactions.

Key tips for effective messaging:

  • Use adjectives to describe and characterise STEM professional roles and activities.
  • Have role models and volunteers share their interests and activities outside of their STEM-related activities.
  • Develop resources for individual STEM fields for targeted messaging and information.
  • Evaluate STEM program and organisation media for unconscious bias, and ensure diverse representation in media.

Girls-only opportunities: Offering girls-only experiences and learning spaces provides the opportunity for girls to be empowered and feel comfortable to question, experiment and lead in STEM. By structuring these safe environments girls are more willing to try and experiment with STEM.

Key tips to design positive girls-only opportunities and spaces:

  • Provide a comfortable and safe learning environment.
  • Create a gender-neutral environment, free of “STEM stereotypes”.
  • Provide opportunities for girls to connect with female mentors in STEM.
  • Ensure the environment supports girls to try, play and fail without judgement.

Family involvement: The involvement of family, especially parents, in STEM learning experiences is invaluable in providing support for girls engaging in STEM experiences. Parents are role models and key influencers of a girl’s career pathway considerations. Involving family in STEM, not only enriches a girl’s experiences, it also connects STEM into the home.

Key tips to promote family involvement:

  • Host orientation and family evenings that family members can be involved in.
  • Provide updates for family members on achievements and opportunities Authentic connections: Connecting with real world experiences that make an impact and diverse female experts for support and inspiration, can provide girls with authentic STEM connections and opportunities that promote sustained engagement.

Authentic Connections: Connecting young people with real world experiences that make an impact and diverse female experts for support and inspiration, can provide girls with authentic STEM connections and opportunities that promote sustained engagement.

Key tips to enable girls to build authentic connections:

  • Industry visits and experiences.
  • STEM projects that solve compelling problems, with real life contexts for ‘social good’.
  • Mentorship programs where girls link with diverse female STEM experts.

This blog includes excerpts from Engaging the Future of STEM. Authors: Ms Sarah Chapman & Dr Rebecca Vivian. A study of international best practice for promoting the participation of young people, particularly girls, in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). This research was conducted as part of the 2016 Barbara Cail STEM Fellowship and funded by the Australian Government (Office for Women, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet), in partnership with the Chief Executive Women (CEW) Ltd.

Come and meet me at the Leading a Digital School Conference where I will be providing authentic international and national examples that exemplify the promotion of engagement and retention of girls in STEM.

For reference list please refer to: Engaging the Future of STEM
 

Filed Under: Advancing Cultures of Innovation, Community, Innovation, Leadership, Learning Spaces, Personalised Learning, STEM Tagged With: Authentic, Change, collaboration, culture, culture of innovation, Education, engagement, Future, girlsinstem, research, retention, STEM, teaching

Innovation and Creativity…IMO

21 November, 2018 By Matt Zarb and Jon Roberts Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but I have seen this before. I have been this before. It’s an easy trap to fall into. You unwrap the bright and shiny new ‘thing’ that will transform your classroom. The solution to a problem we never knew we had. And the gateway to a whole range of new and exciting problems that didn’t exist before but now do. If only it did what we wanted it to do or even delivered some of the expected outcomes?!

Design has many names. Many ruses. So many different acronyms.  At its heart, though, it seeks to do the same thing, whatever the label. Design is about solving problems. It is about solutions. Testing solutions. Improving solutions. “Design is the link between innovation and creativity, taking thoughts and exploring the possibilities and constraints associated with products or systems, allowing designers to redefine and manage the generation of further thought through prototyping, experimentation and adaptation. It is human-centred and focuses on the needs, wants and limitations of the end user.” (IB Design Guide 2015, p. 4) Once we scratch below the surface and take away the shiny things, Design is problem solving methodology and technology is useful, only if it too, solves a problem.

“Why?” before “What?” If I had a mantra, it would be this. ‘Why’ am I doing this has to come before the ‘what’ do I need to make it happen. I cannot solve a problem without knowing what I am trying to solve.

I see Innovation as the output of creativity. The product of creativity. If creativity is the noun…then the act of this creativity finds its place through innovative thinking and doing. At times we blame lack of resources on our ability to innovate when in fact it’s the constraints that inspire innovation. It is not about what I have, but what I do not have that inspires innovation. And this drives our learning. To be innovative sometimes we need to limit what we have, what we get and what we give. We challenge our students to think. When you break that down. Challenging students to think shouldn’t be outside the realms of what we do, but it often is. And here is the response.

The five cogs of innovation

“Tell me how to do it?” is the cry of the student who is stuck.

“Well I could. Or you could just try something different. Have a go at solving the problem yourself. It doesn’t matter if you get it wrong. You just need to attempt something different to what you have already done.”

And at times they do. While others will not even budge. Fear of getting it wrong has been smashed into them so many times that the thought of not getting it right the first time overrides any natural curiosity. Some students would prefer getting in trouble for not trying, not even attempting to get it right, because its beats the shame of getting it wrong. And that says something about our schools. Our system.

Something needs to change.

Innovation as a classroom subject pushes our students to think they can, rather than believe they cannot and then asks them to attempt things they may not have otherwise tried to do. And the results are things we could not have imagined. Every class is different. New leaders emerge. Students in control of what they learn and how they learn. Our dream is students develop a mindset that they will attempt anything. No matter what they have been told in the past and no matter what others might think they can do. It’s the mindset I want our Design teachers to have. To take risks. To be different. To try something outrageous. And who knows what might happen?

Looking forward to talking more about this at the Leading a Digital School Conference….. And moving forward together.

Matt Zarb

Reference:

IB Design Guide © International Baccalaureate Organization, 2015

Filed Under: Advancing Cultures of Innovation, Innovation, Personalised Learning Tagged With: Change, culture, design, Innovation, mindset, problems, thinking

The Ever Changing Role in Digital Leadership (Kotter Model unpacked)

26 March, 2018 By Rick Noack 2 Comments

The Ever Changing Role in Digital Leadership cont’d

8 Steps to Accelerate Change

This blog continues on from the Overview – https://www.iwb.net.au/the-ever-changing-role-in-digital-leadership/

  1. Create – sense of urgency  The Digital World surrounds us all and as our students enter our sites they have already been exposed to a vast array of digital tools. The students come to school with this background swell of digital access and in some instances are forced to leave the digital tools behind as they begin their educational learning journey. It is with this dilemma that I “Create the sense of Urgency” for staff at my site. I provide my staff with short current articles which support the movement of Digital Tools to enhance student learning and teacher pedagogy. This simple approach allows staff to see that the way in which we have taught in the past must change to support the students of now.
  2. Build – a guiding coalition With the realisation that the digital world is within our reach and that our students are at risk of ‘missing out’ a select few staff began to seize the moment and begin to question the changes needed in teacher pedagogy to employ digital tools to enhance the learning outcomes for all, including themselves as educators. This is the group I turned my focus to. We began with small group meetings (2-3) staff to share early thoughts and potential possibilities using digital tools in their classrooms. The group was able to pose important questions in a non-judgemental environment where no one had the answers but instead posed more questions. This group was provided time to explore possible solutions, investigate possible site directions and implications, dabble in their classrooms and enlist the most resource at their disposal – their students! This group was my guiding coalition! This was the first group of teachers to attend the IWB Leading a Digital School with me and not just my leadership team!
  3. Form – a strategic vision So we have the urgency created, a guiding coalition but that was not enough to lead the digital ‘revolution’ at my site. The energies were high and new found learning being trialled, but what for, where was this going to head, what were the intentions, and how will we know we were making a difference for our students? This was the defining moment for me as a leader in my site. Through the careful planning and ‘planting of seeds’ the digital leadership had begun to sprout. It was clear that a purpose and vision had to be defined and had to be embraced by those willing to guide the digital change required. Through the small group meetings, I was able to support the group to identify what a digital school would look like, sound like and feel like. At this point, it was time to dream big and set a vision for our site. We broke the vision down into 3 parts; our 10-year vision, 5-year vision, 1-year vision! From this point the group had defined the strategic vision for our site, no bars hold!
  4. Enlist – a volunteer army This is the time, as the leader, to engage with the staff who are willing to ‘have a go’, be the risk takers. The guiding coalition formed the initial wave of change agents with a few extra staff who had now been enticed into the, as stated by them, “the digital secrecy group!!!” As the leader I sat alongside each staff member learning, exploring, creating and developing an understanding with them and their students but always providing the guiding questions of “How will this improve student learning outcomes?” and “What are the implications for improving teacher pedagogical practice with digital tools?” This was the exciting time within our digital ‘revolution’ as staff and students flourished, failed, tried, created, explored, designed, embraced, even discarded digital technologies. This was the wheel beginning to turn and many more passengers began to climb on board and explore the digital train!
  5. Enable – action by removing barriers  With the staff and students actively embracing the new digital change, as the leader, it was key to remove any barriers in order for staff to truly see that the change was possible. School budgets were scrutinised to open up funding for the exploration and creativity to increase digital tool access to staff and students. Control over app installation, filtering, software settings and installation all handed over to the teachers. No longer did my staff need to wait for the IT guy to install a program, unblock a website or online program. My leadership in this supported staff to understand that there was nothing to break and that all would be good because we had a backup copy!!!! Not only enabling the staff and students to be the thoughtful risk takers but providing time for staff to meet with one another and explore, share and dialogue the effect the digital tools were having on their teaching practice and student learning outcomes gave rise to the second wave of wannabes!
  6. Generate – short term wins  Any good digital leader knows that short term gains support the continued growth towards the big audacious goals. It is this momentum and recognition which unleashed the fire in many of the staff at my site. Sending my staff to the Leading a Digital School Conferences over many years has supported staff to come to the realisation that their dabbling, experimenting and implementing digital technologies within their pedagogy provide their students with a deeply enhanced curriculum. Staff were encouraged to celebrate their successes with their peers, share their achievements and presented their best pedagogical practises which had embedded digital ICTs.
  7. Sustain – acceleration   As the digital leader of my site and through the empowerment and ownership of staff, digital technologies & pedagogies became embedded within our site improvement plan, leading to whole staff engagement with digital tools specifically tailored to the individual needs of each staff member. Staff planned and ran their own professional learning sessions and included targeted pedagogical practice sharing where digital technologies had enhanced student learning. The focus questions now became how do you use digital technologies and how does it enhance the learning for all your students? This continued to create excitement and commitment from all staff to embrace digital technologies within their classroom programs in order to challenge and engage students in a rich and meaningful global curriculum.
  8. Institute – change    From the initial spark grew the ever burning flame increasing in intensity over time. The digital change had arrived and as the Digital Leader at my site, it was important for the focus of digital tools and technology to be embedded within all aspects of our school and community where it is seen as part of the culture of the site and an expectation that the students are globally connected learners. This remains the paramount focus in digital leadership to further enhance student learning outcomes in a global digital world at my site. This supports the drive to maintain the effective change cycle.
John Kotter Model, 8 Steps to Accelerate Change

Given that this is one of many change models, as a leader of a digital school, this model provides a useful holistic approach to moving forward with digital leadership and digital technologies at any point within your own site’s journey. For me, the digital school leadership story begins once again as I embark on a change journey in a new site where the dinosaurs still roam! So join me at the Leading a Digital School Conference on the Sunshine Coast where I will present my journeys both past and present in my workshop……OMG I’m Back in the Dark Ages. Again!!

Filed Under: Digital Technologies, Leadership Tagged With: Change, digital, Digital Leadership, John Kotter

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