Communications of the ACM
Strategy for Women in STEM
Credit: Go College
Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields might benefit from a project-based curriculum, based on evidence from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) surveys of project-based program graduates. WPI dean Richard F. Vaz says the school has "a lot of evidence showing that this is a curriculum that is appealing to students, that it doesn't turn them off, it doesn't drive them away." Project-based learning enables students to solve real-life, open-ended problems outside of the classroom.
WPI students complete two projects in the project-based curriculum: one focused on an interdisciplinary problem, and another based on a problem within their major. Women seem to benefit more from the project-based curriculum than their male counterparts in terms of personal and professional development. For example, 63 percent of women, but only 50 percent of men, said the program contributed "much" or "very much" to allowing them to understand the connections between technology and society. Among women, 66 percent said the curriculum helped them "be an effective leader," compared with 54 percent of men. More than 70 percent of women and 62 percent of men said the program taught them to function effectively in the real world. Men and women reported similar benefits from the technical skills typically learned through traditional course work.
The findings are consistent with previous research suggesting that social context and collaboration play a larger role in motivating women than men.
From Inside Higher Ed
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2013 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found