Useful Teaching Strategies in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the world continue. These impacts influence many aspects of life, work, healthcare, and education in the U.S., which are drastically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, a considerable challenge to tertiary-level education has been how to adapt our teaching styles and modalities to keep all stakeholders (students, faculty, teaching assistants, and staff) safe in lectures and labs. This viewpoint presents 15 teaching lessons and tips for undergraduate and graduate STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) education for face-to-face, hybrid, and distance learning. The goal was to describe teaching strategies that could be adaptable to most STEMM courses, independent of the classroom size, which is valuable for those educational settings capable of migrating from a classroom to either a hybrid or strictly online teaching environment. Although some of these teaching tips were straightforward, we believe collectively that they (1) provide safety and stability to the students and the instructors; (2) help to improve communications between faculty and students that the pandemic had strained; (3) strengthen student attention; (4) facilitate the transition from the classroom to online teaching; (5) enable the use of new technologies; and (6) offer teaching practices we imagined for educational scenarios post-SARS-CoV-2. Finally, we hope these teaching strategies offer valuable insight as we continue to navigate STEMM education during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Modelling Teachers’ Perceptions Towards Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) among Secondary School in Kota Bharu

In an era of Education 5.0 where technology is advancing, Science Technology Engineering Mathematics education (STEM) is one of the important aspects. Teachers play an important role to support students in developing better awareness towards the importance of STEM education. Unfortunately, recent statistics show that there is a lack of students’ participation in choosing STEM education. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine the teacher’s perception on factors which might influence students’ lack of interest towards Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) in secondary schools located in Kota Bharu. There are several factors that affect students’ interest in STEM education which are attitude, management policy, learning method and gender of students. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 290 secondary school teachers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. A combination of stratified sampling and cluster sampling technique was applied to collect data. Pearson Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression revealed that management policy and learning methods were significantly associated with teachers’ perception. Findings from this study indicated that it may be effective to increase the students’ interest towards STEM education by improving the management policies and learning method.

SAGE Ltd: Continuing the Journey to Transform Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Australia’s Higher Education and Research Sector

Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) began as a Pilot program in 2015. It was modelled on the UK’s Athena Swan Charter (Advance HE), a framework for improving gender equity and diversity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM); specifically, within higher education and research.

Las mujeres STEM y sus apreciaciones sobre su transitar por la carrera universitaria

El acceso a la educación de calidad para las mujeres permite alejarlas de la pobreza e incrementa sus posibilidades de incorporarse al mercado laboral; además, coadyuva a la disminución de la brecha de género y aporta al crecimiento, desarrollo e innovación de los países. Sin embargo, su presencia en los campos STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) es un reto, pues se enfrentan en ocasiones con ambientes académicos poco favorables. Por lo anterior, el objetivo de este artículo es estudiar las percepciones de las mujeres STEM de alto rendimiento académico (en educación superior) con relación a las motivaciones que las llevaron a elegir esas carreras, sus creencias sobre la mayor presencia masculina en esos campos y su sentir sobre los posibles actos de discriminación. Además, se propone indagar sus puntos de vista con relación a la actual enseñanza de las matemáticas que reciben las niñas. Lo anterior para conocer la realidad de las mujeres STEM, con el fin de identificar áreas de oportunidad y, de esa forma, proponer acciones que permitan contribuir al crecimiento de las jóvenes que actualmente estudian carreras STEM o están por elegir lo que estudiarán. Método: Se trata de un estudio cualitativo para el que se realizaron trece entrevistas semiestructuradas a universitarias. El análisis se llevó a cabo con el software ATLAS.ti. Resultados: Se encontró que ellas, desde edades tempranas, mostraron un gusto por las matemáticas; además, reciben el apoyo de su familia, pero se mantiene la preocupación sobre el futuro de las mujeres en esos campos. Igualmente se halló que ellas consideran que hay más varones en estos campos porque a las mujeres les dan miedo las áreas STEM por los conocimientos que se requieren, aunado a que se tiene la creencia de que las ingenierías son para los varones; asimismo han recibido actos discriminatorios. Discusión o Conclusión: Se concluye que las instituciones de educación superior todavía tienen el reto de trabajar para eliminar los ambientes hostiles que se producen hacia ellas. También es necesario incrementar el número de profesoras, realizar un estudio de egresadas para trazar su trayectoria laboral, trabajar sobre un programa de becas dirigido a estudiantes de estratos socioeconómicos bajos e impulsar las estancias en los sectores productivos para que conozcan los ambientes laborales relacionados con su carrera.