Communications of the ACM
Survey: Educators Aren't Discussing STEM Careers With Students
Credit: iStockPhoto.com
Science and math educators are keeping classes knowledgeable and interesting, but they are not promoting science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, according to most students surveyed by Harris Interactive for the American Society for Quality (ASQ). High school student respondents also say they do not think STEM knowledge is crucial to acquiring a good job.
"We believe that as students get older and begin to diversify their studies and become more aware of the wide range of available career opportunities, they start to think that math and science aren't necessarily critical to their job hunt," says ASQ's Maurice Ghysels. He says that teachers often leave out discussions of career options because of time and budget constraints. One of the challenges is that teachers themselves may have little knowledge of the wide variety of available STEM career options.
Despite these drawbacks, there are ways to kindle interest in STEM careers among students, one of them being to offer hands-on lab activities and real-world examples of STEM applications at an earlier educational level such as elementary school.
From eSchool News
View Full Article – May Require Free Registration
Abstracts Copyright © 2010 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA 
No entries found