My courses at Walden have opened my eyes to the importance of STEM education. Each class I’ve taken has provided me with more insight as to how to change my lessons to include more inquiry and teach my students how to rely more on their own knowledge and less on me as they attempt to discover answers for themselves.
Most of the teachers I work with are unfamiliar with the term STEM education. As a leader in my school I take it as my responsibility to take what I have learned here and pass it along to my colleagues. I hope that I can effect change, not just in my own department, but school-wide. I think all teachers would be shocked to learn that U.S. students are falling behind students in places like China and India and this will motivate them to change their curriculum in order to better prepare our students to be globally competitive.
One of the obstacles I have found, as I’ve tried to change my lessons over the past 18 months, is some resistance to old ways of thinking. I work with other teachers who have been teaching for many years and are comfortable keeping their lessons the same year after year. When I’ve approached some of the teachers in my own department about updating our lessons to include more STEM based activities, they have not seemed interested in taking the time to make the often time consuming revisions that are necessary. The best way I’ve found to overcome this resistance is to make significant revisions to at least one lesson per unit of study and implement it myself, reflect on how it went and make any necessary changes to the lesson. I can then approach other teachers and explain the changes I made and ask for input as to how we can improve it even further. This seems to have worked on most occasions and they are becoming more open to making revisions. Next year I will continue to do the same until I feel that most, if not all, of my lessons meet the criteria of true scientific inquiry. When teaching a new lesson, or a revised lesson, I will often tell my students that it is new and ask for their feedback too. I find that many students like to be challenged and appreciate being asked for feedback.
I think that you have a great strategy for slowly incoporating STEM into your classroom, along with inquiry based science. It is also a great idea to share the lessons a little at a time so that the other teachers don't get overwhelmed or turned off to STEM because it seems like a lot of work to them. The gradual approach sounds like it will work for you and your school.
ReplyDeleteI often tell my students that they are guinea pigs and that if something doesn't go according to plan that we will all learn together. This also goes over well in my classroom and the students really like being the first group to try my new activities. It is exciting for both of us. :) I think that it also give the students a sense of importance and makes them want to contribute to the lesson so that you can see how it is working out. It is like an extra motivator.
Keep working hard at being an advocate for STEM. I am hoping that it won't be long before every teacher has some professional development in this area and is expected to incorporate it into their teaching. This is what our country needs to begin to be more competitive globally. You are making history!
Thanks for the encouragement. I also tell my students they are guinea pigs when we try something new, especially my first period class. They love giving me feedback and I tell later classes that they helped so those classes also want to give input.
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