joi, 5 octombrie 2017

Module 4: Gender stereotypes in STEM education

Module Objectives
The learning objectives of Module 4 are: 
  • To understand the concept of the STEM gender gap and learn how to analyse data regarding the situation of girls and women in STEM careers;
  • To learn strategies to further address gender equality in schools and to propel girls into STEM careers;
  • To learn about female scientists (present and past) and about current initiatives promoting girls in STEM.

4.1 Gender equality in STEM careers

While things are gradually changing, the current shortage of girls taking on (some) STEM careers is still alarming. Watch the presentation below to get a glimpse of the present-day situation of girls and women in the STEM fields, and to better understand the data on boys' and girls' performance at the school level, as well as on female presence in tertiary education and in research areas.
You have now seen some data on gender and education. To complete this information, we also want to offer a view on the position of women in STEM industries. In the video below, Gabrielle Ferguson (Human Resources Talent Development at CA Technologies) shares her insight on the motivations and the barriers of girls and women in STEM, and on how companies should start promoting an inclusive culture and work environment. Furthermore, she explains specific measures that can be taken by companies, such as unconscious bias trainings.

Activity 1: In the padlet below, discuss "the gender gap in STEM" in your country. Are your female students interested in STEM areas? Are there many women in research careers? Share your insight!

4.2 Gender equality in STEM studies

While sharing data on female representation in STEM areas is incredibly relevant, it is equally significant to look at the reasons behind this particular situation. In this section, we will show you how different factors influence gender equality in schools with information from the new UNESCO “Cracking the code” report.

1. Girls' and women's achievement and progression within STEM studies
The image below shows how girls’ and women’s achievement and progression within STEM studies is affected by different factors such as (1) society; (2) school; (3) family and peers and (4) learners.
Source: Cracking the code: Girls’ and women’s education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
From the - often-inaccurate - perception of our own abilities (thinking oneself is not gifted enough) to societal perceptions, expectations and cultural norms (such as the common belief that men are natural leaders, while women are intrinsically caregivers), a myriad of different factors will play into a girl’s future in STEM. In this section, we will focus on some of the factors that we can find at the school level:
School-level factors influencing girls’ participation, progression and achievement within STEM education:
  • Teachers: Qualified teachers in science and mathematics can positively influence girls’ performance and engagement in STEM education. Female STEM teachers seem to benefit girls if perceived as role models, while helping to negate stereotypes that link gender with STEM abilities. Overall, teachers’ beliefs, behaviours and interactions with students can effect an equal learning environment for girls and boys in STEM subjects.
  • Curricula and learning materials: These are crucial in stimulating girls’ engagement in STEM subjects. For this reason, it will be very important to incorporate positive images and text about females and to take into account topics that are of interest to both boys and girls. 
  • Informal learning: Real-life experiences with STEM, including hands-on practice, apprenticeships, career counselling and mentoring can expand girls’ understanding of STEM studies and professions which, in turn, can help maintain their interest throughout their learning years. 
  • Assessment: Girls’ learning results in STEM can be compromised by different psychological factors such as “mathematics or test anxiety”, or perceived stereotypes about their ability in STEM. Moreover, gender-biased assessment processes and tools that embrace gender stereotypes may negatively affect girls’ performance in STEM.

2. School-level intervention that helps increase girls’ participation, progression and achievement within STEM education

The same conceptual levels that affect girls’ participation and achievement in STEM can also be used to classify those factors that help increase it (see image below).
Source: Cracking the code: Girls’ and women’s education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
In a similar manner to the previous section, we will focus on school-level intervention. Below you'll find different ways in which to promote girls' participation and success in STEM.
  • Recruiting male and female teachers: Since there are some indications that female teachers can have a decisive impact on female students’ pursuit of STEM studies and careers, some countries are making the recruitment of more female STEM teachers a priority.
  • Building teachers’ capacities: Teachers need to learn how to recognise factors impacting girls’ interest in STEM education paths. Likewise, they should have access to professional development opportunities that promote gender-responsive STEM pedagogies.
  • Strengthening teaching practices: Effective teaching practices can help promote girls’ motivation and engagement in STEM. “A meta-analysis identified five strategies that improve students’ achievement, attitudes and interest in STEM subjects and careers: context-based; inquiry-based; ICT-enriched; collaborative learning and use of extra-curricular activities.”  UNESCO (2017)
  • Strengthening STEM curricula: There are different characteristics that STEM curricula should have if they are to appeal to girls. These include:“a strong conceptual framework, contextualization to real world situations, provisions of varied experience integrating social and scientific issues, provision of opportunities for genuine inquiry, involves real-world experience, as well as opportunities for experimentation, practice, reflection and conceptualization."  (UNESCO, 2017) 
  • Removing gender bias from learning materials: Materials that reinforce stereotyped roles (including not only books but also drawings, pictures or accompanying texts) should be avoided. Stereotyped roles can refer to different things, including traditionally gendered roles (e.g. girls are nurses, boys are mechanics), or assigning productive and active roles to males and relegating passive and supportive roles to females.
  • Promoting a safe and inclusive learning environment: Two specific school characteristics have been found to play an important role in alleviating the effects of gender stereotypes on STEM skills: “(1) a strong science and mathematics curriculum and opportunities for concrete experiences and (2) gender-integrated extra-curricular activities.”  UNESCO (2017)
  • Cultivating learning beyond school walls: There is a wide variety of venues that offer informal STEM learning opportunities for girls (workplaces, museums, exhibitions, museums, science centers, etc). These should be promoted as they contribute to expanding science skills, counter negative stereotypes and increase the understanding of science and its value. 
  • Facilitating access to gender-responsive career counselling: “Gender-responsive counselling and guidance is critical to supporting non-stereotypical education and career pathways and retaining girls in STEM fields.” UNESCO (2017)
    Students should have access to counsellors who are familiar with STEM disciplines and STEM careers, who can instil in girls an interest in choosing them and who know how to address widespread stereotypes about girls’ abilities in STEM. 
  • Linking girls to mentorship opportunities: Mentorship programs can improve girls’ and women’s participation and confidence in STEM studies and careers. In particular, they can help in:
    ◦ Getting girls to acquire specific knowledge related to different career options in order to improve;
    ◦ Providing guidance on scholarships, special programs directed to girls or job opportunities;
    ◦ Learning how to improve their self-confidence, how to deal with gender bias, and how to overcome anxiety about assessments;
    ◦ Expanding access to scholarships: Scholarships (provided by higher-education institutions, the private sector or the government, among others) have been reserved for female students in areas where women are considerably underrepresented.

Activity 2: In the box below, read how career counsellors can increase girls’ STEM motivation and engagement:
Source: Cracking the code: Girls’ and women’s education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
Are you applying these measures? Can you think of some other ones? Let us know in the padlet below.

4.3 Women in STEM

Throughout history, women have actively contributed to the development of scientific knowledge and have made groundbreaking discoveries in science. However, too many of them have not been given credit for their achievements, resulting in them falling off the radar of mainstream audiences.
As mentioned in this article, throughout their careers, many female scientists have been denied recognition. “Having had to work as 'volunteer' faculty members, seen credit for significant discoveries they've made assigned to male colleagues, and been written out of textbooks (…) they typically had paltry resources and fought uphill battles to achieve what they did, only to have the credit attributed to their husbands or male colleagues."
Just think about the famous Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934), one of the most iconic scientists of all times. The first female professor at the University of Paris, she was among the first scientists to realize the importance of quantum theory and the first person to win not one but two Nobel Prizes. However, she was denied entrance in the French Academy of Sciences due to her gender.
While nowadays bias against female scientists is not as explicit, it has not gone away entirely. For that reason, in this section we want to honor all those female scientists who have greatly contributed to the history of science.
  • We should start with one of the most notable female scientists of all time: Ada Lovelace (1815 - 1852). Considered the mother of all computer nerds, Ada has been widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer. Even though no functioning computers were built throughout her life, she continuously worked on a general-purpose computer called the Analytical Engine. More specifically, Ada described how this processor was capable of computing general information and insisted on its ability to be programmed. In fact, in recognition of her contribution to software programming, the Ada high-level computer language was named after her.
  • Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943 - present) is one of the biggest names in astronomy. Jocelyn discovered pulsars, the remnants of massive stars gone supernova - and she did it while analysing data printed out on paper from a radio telescope she helped assemble. This finding resulted in a Nobel Prize in Physics, a prize that went to Anthony Hewish (Bell Burnell's supervisor) and Martin Ryle, a radio astronomer at Cambridge University.
  • Rosalind Franklin (1920 - 1958) focused her work on determining the structure of DNA, using x-ray experiments to take a picture of the DNA molecule. This image became pivotal for decoding its structure: Franklin had discovered that DNA consisted of two chains and a phosphate backbone. However, it was James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins who in 1962 received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for a report published with all of Franklin’s findings.
If you want to know more about female scientists that changed the world, check the links below!
However, we should not only focus on historical figures. Many women are currently doing a great job in STEM areas. Watch the following interview with Julie Baxter, Vice President at CA technologies, where she discusses her own experience working in the ICT field while giving tips to ensure gender equality.

Activity 3: In the padlet below, tell us who is your favourite female scientist of all time and why.

4.4 Projects on gender equality in STEM

Public institutions and other organisms have not stayed quiet about the STEM gap. On the contrary, several initiatives and campaigns have been put in place to promote gender-inclusive STEM education and to encourage girls to take on STEM careers. Below we present a few recent initiatives; feel free to explore them and share any others that you may know in the activity at the end.
Stemettes is an award-winning social enterprise that mainly operates across the UK and Ireland to motivate and support young women in STEM careers. Among other things, the project runs panel events, hackathons and the Student to Stemette mentoring programme.
In the Hypatia project, science centres and museums work together with schools, industries and academics to promote gender-inclusive STEM education and communication. The initiative offers an accessible, practical and ready-to-use digital collection of activities for teachers, researchers or informal learning organizations. Moreover, in order to deliver a sustainable basis for these activities to be carried out in different educational systems throughout Europe, the project created national hubs, led by science centres and museums.
The Mind the Gap project works with both STEM teachers and girls between 16 and 18 years old who A) are studying STEM subjects, B) have dropped out, or C) have completed their studies but have not entered STEM jobs. The main aims of the project are:
  • To help teachers in each participating country to recruit and retain more girls in their STEM courses;
  • To support and inspire girls to continue their STEM education and to pursue STEM careers by helping them develop various soft skills needed to work in male-dominated environments.

Activity 4: In the padlet below, share information about any project, awareness campaign or initiative related to STEM and gender equality. If you need any help, you can also search the Scientix project repository.

4.5 Bibliography





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