Stuff this week - Why focus on STE(A)M?
STEM is an abbreviation for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Often it is expanded to STEAM with the A standing for Arts. The acknowlegement of the importance of the Arts is two fold I believe. Firstly, there is a natural degree of creativity in any STEM related activity and it is important to recognise this directly. Secondly, the proponents of STE(A)M education are not suggesting that these fields of study are intrinsically more important than the arts or humanities indeed you can't have one without the other. Sir Ken Robinson gave a fantastic Ted Talk titled “How to escape education’s death valley” in which he challenged everyone to value the skills and desires of every student no matter what their field of endeavour.
Having said that there are students who enjoy learning about the STEM subjects that need to be supported. Furthermore, there is a strong and growing view that the modern technological age needs a population that have strong STEM skills. In my previous two blog posts I concentrated on the area of Technology but this is not more or less important than the other fields.
Also in 2015 PwC produced a report titled “A Smart Move”. In it PwC suggests that up to 44% of existing jobs (5.1 million) will be lost due to “digital disruption”. This is not exactly new as we can all think of many jobs that have disappeared over the last 30 years but the pace of technological change suggests that the rate that jobs will disappear will increase. New jobs will be created of course, however they will be in the technical and creative fields. Salman Khan who created the “Khan Academy” was asked to give his thoughts on how education will look in the future. He also suggests that the breakdown of job types will change as shown in the following graphic.
The Government of Australia agrees with these assessments and has signalled its determination to act by restoring the focus on science and mathematics in the curriculum. In December 2015 a “ National STEM School Education Strategy” was agreed upon by all Australian Education Ministers. The first guiding principle from that strategy is “Create a school culture where the importance of STEM is recognised and valued, and there are high expectations for all students to engage with STEM education opportunities.”
So there is no question that action is required. The challenge is to identify what exactly should be done and how to upskill the teachers to enable it.
Next week I will talk about how globally STEM has come to mean more than just a simplistic focus on the STEM subjects and has become a metaphor for the significant improvements in the education system which are required to provide our children with the skills they will need in the world of the future.
Do you agree that there should there be a focus on STEM in primary school? Can such a shift bring about better outcomes for students and the country?
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