What would you expect that your teaching would need to look like with students who have such a full, varied background in STEM?
Students who have come from a flipped classroom setup would be immersed in tasks that are focused on building life skills in a playful manner. In order not to destroy the spirit with which they would come to me, I would need to have some best practices ready for my classes. These would be:
- Flipped classes model, where students would be in charge of their learning and classrooms can be used for discussions.
- Questioning in the class, as when students come with initial work done, they would be probed to think deeper through questioning.
- Play and investigation-based projects. To give students a problem to be solved in a playful manner ensuring that there is space for making mistakes.
- Collaboration of work to ensure that students learn to work together.
How does this vision compare with teaching that you have seen when teachers traditionally teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics?
STEM calls on parents and educators to give children chances to investigate an idea in a variety of settings. For example, in addition to math worksheets to help practice counting, we can take students outside to practice counting real objects that they find, such as rocks, acorns, or leaves. Their learning is strengthened when they learn the same skills, ideas, and concepts in different contexts. (Hudson, English, King, & Baker, 2015).
Children need to be presented opportunities to learn the same material in different settings and through different lenses. The traditional approach of teaching topics in isolation does not support the ways that children learn best. (Hudson, English, King, & Baker, 2015). Unfortunately, in most academic instruction, children are in a passive or receptive mode instead of a more active, or even interactive, mode.
If you are not currently teaching, think about how you could help facilitate STEM teaching for teachers who have not done much STEM instruction.
We now understand that success in learning requires the learner to be at the centre of the experience, making connections across disciplines and also across contextual settings. (Hudson, English, King, & Baker, 2015).
I would initiate professional development for the teachers in three significant areas:
- Flipped classroom as a teaching strategy (Kelly, & Denson, 2017). This is something that would have to be under a scaffold initially for the teachers to feel comfortable with the same. This would be entailed through peer observation, group discussions and formal training.
- Asking “what” questions rather than “why” questions. ‘What’ questions are exploratory as students are asked to observe, for example, ‘what do you think is happening?’ and that leads to open-minded thinking, communication and clarity of expression (Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.).
- Assessment as a teaching strategy that would entail conducting diagnostic assessments, formative assessment and end of the task summative assessment (Hudson, English, King, & Baker, 2015). Formative especially would have a special focus as every moment is an open-ended class that gives an opportunity for an informal assessment for the students.
References1. Boston Children’s Museum (n.d.) STEM sprouts: Science, technology, engineering, and math teaching guide.
http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/STEMGuide.pdf2. Hudson, P., English, L., King, D., & Baker, S. (2015). Exploring links between pedagogical knowledge practices and student outcomes in STEM education for primary schools. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(6). Retrieved from
http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2704&context=ajte3. Kelly, D., & Denson, C. (2017). STEM teacher efficacy in flipped classrooms. Journal of STEM Education, 18(4), 43-50. Retrieved from
https://jstem.org/index.php/JSTEM/article/view/2188/1884
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