A Letter to advocate for Integrated STEM in Preschool.
Dear colleagues,
We have long since entered the 21st century. And the expectations set for the future of our society by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, remain unmet. Regarding the past half century of dismal STEM achievement in the K-12 system, I would like to express my interest in a novel approach founded in developmental neurobiology. As a Masters level researcher in advanced teaching concepts, I believe that introducing STEM in pre-school, when mental plasticity and innate curiosity are at their peak, may hold the key to imparting in children a lifelong desire to understand our universe. This pilot program would entail a participatory approach between educational researchers, students, parents, pre-K instructors, and their administrators. With the intention being to access more fully the inborn potential of each child. Bringing them to a place of familiarity with and confidence in the rational approach to life. Leaving them better prepared for the rigors of K-12 schooling. Due to differences in familial circumstances, too many of our children have already been left behind before entering formal curriculum-based schooling.
Our methods focus on guiding curiosity through play. These would be documented using technology and shared with researchers around the world. Your students would understand that what they are doing, day in and day out, at the beginning of their educational journeys, is of the highest importance to those who have taken on education past the doctoral level.
We believe all that strive to understand the world around them, deserve collegial respect. Whatever stage of the journey they happen to be at. Because learning is lifelong.
We think it would beneficial for your pre-school students to see teaching as means of working to understand the unique learning styles we all possess. We believe that early in-depth analysis of individuals learning styles can identify children who learn differently. Our methods can help them find creative ways to express their understanding of the natural world more fully, even though these methods may resist easy quantitative measurement. It is our hope that children will be able to advocate for themselves, to educate their teachers, as to how to best reach their young minds. We as teachers must strive to experts on or charges, as individuals to the extent that is practicable. Our research project will help to broker this back-and-forth relationship in such a way that is creative, and not disruptive.
Ways that teachers could prepare to teach STEM areas in preschool.
“STEM is full to the brim with drama”:
My approach is perhaps best characterized by this expression that I found while reading this article by Elisabeth McClure, and her colleagues. It (2017a) elicits how dramatic storytelling is an integral part of STEM learning. She insists that “STEM learning should feel like the unfolding drama of a well- told story; it should be near-impossible to walk away” (p.13). In other words, I want to emphasize the excitement of unimagined discovery which so often accompanies scientific investigation. I wish to highlight the awe-inspiring power over the natural world that flows from the disciplined proficiency in STEM. I wish to make STEM second nature to children. Thus even in during unstructured moments of play and disvcovery, McClure and her colleagues (2017b) suggest that teachers point out engineering style words that fit into what children are doing, such as “troubleshoot or test or run it”, which can be helpful for raising more awareness of STEM related methodologies (p.14).
STEM must be integrated.
In my milieu, the current curricular STEM guidelines that we are teaching in the states of California are very compartmentalized and disconnected across STEM subjects. In recent research of Becker and Park (2011) explains that integrative approaches are “approaches that explore teaching and learning between any two or more of the STEM subject areas” (p.24). It is why that American students are not interested in STEM fields. So how can we design a STEM integrative approach that could potentially engage students' curiosity and interests? I encourage you to find the answers with me.
From 1997 to 2002, there was a 3% drop from 9% to 6%, of college students who held the goal of career attainment in Science and Engineering according to the Becker and Park’s article, (2011) and this pattern of decline created major policy changes, that have remained controversial and largely unpopular throughout the educational profession Educators, I speak with frequently bemoan that the bright young spirits we receive from pre-school, are quickly bored to tears by our testing focused curriculum. In my view, scientifically derived, psychometrically appropriate testing is essential to let us teachers know how we are doing. But I believe that children should not be aiming to render their knowledge within the confines of such a limited format. Quantitative testing fails to capture so many parts of the learning experience. Is a loquacious child with eagerness and charm, doomed to failure due to a learning disability? Whereas a studious but silent and socially stilted child destined for greatness? We cannot judge students by the limitations of our methods. We must judge them by what they can express, and we the qualitative experts must be allowed to assess their work.
But we must always allow our own teaching methods and qualitative abilities to be scrutinized. And that is what I am preparing myself for in asking for you consent to begin a STEM program at your preschool. I wish to bring my scholastic training as a K-6 teacher, to preschool to better understand the limitations and advantages of our respective methods, so that we can better serve those of all ages. I wish to document my work and share it with my colleagues. And then follow-up with children once they begin STEM train in the K-6 environment.
The classroom of the 21st century will not look the same:
Innovation and experimentation are required to usefully apply knowledge, for the purpose of creation. Conventional schooling takes little notice of these skills. And when it does, the associated number grade is typically given more credibility than the inherent satisfaction of achievement, that comes from completing a meaningful or practical task from start to finish. Many students enter the adult world without ever having been asked what they are uniquely good at. And yet there are many thousands of jobs, for which a single curriculum is expected to prepare students to pursue them. In conclusion, I believe that if we can rearrange both the long-term and short-term learning schedules in accordance with the personal interests of students, we would see greater improvements in learning.
I believe this can be done without significant risk, through the careful examination of experimental schooling models as implemented in the charter school and Montessori style framework. These project-based learning approaches will fit very well with the impending “metaverse” which will be immersively accessible through “smart glasses” technology. Imagine if you will, the physical world accurately rendered as code, with students exploring its properties through organic experimentation. In the same way that a language can, be naturally learned without effort through early childhood exposure, STEM reasoning may also become intrinsic second nature through proper exposure. But in the same way that adults take special care to speak to children on their level, we must meet children where they are at developmentally as it pertains to STEM learning.
Recommended STEM strategies for preschool teachers:
The Guided Improvisation approach is a teaching technique that does not focus heavily on the details of lesson planning, but it shifts teachers’ focus towards improvisation in lessons, so as to allow students to explore their own ideas through experimentation and iteration. Because real-life problems do not come at us on a linear path, what happens next is unpredictable. Hence, this approach gives teachers the autonomy to “extend, modify, and adjust their plans creatively, in an improvisational response to each unique situation” (Brandford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Sprio, Feltovich, Jacobson, & Coulson, 1991, as cited in Sawyer, 2019, p. 35).
This methodology is mirrored in the famous quote of Dewey (1916) "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself" (p.239). Dewey’s latter phrase emphasizes that knowledge does not just simply come in isolation, it is connected in rich conceptual networks (Sawyer, 2019). These continually branching, recursive connections make meaning out of previously disparate pieces of knowledge in response to new demands placed on the brain. It is in this process that we can learn to exercise our own essential abilities, which no received wisdom from the experts can fully prepare us for. All the accumulated knowledge of the world, cannot predict the challenges of the future with complete accuracy. Therefore, the ability to improvise in response to novel situations is essential. The more we exercise our brain’s ability to quickly generate solutions from disorganized pieces of knowledge, the better we will be able to anticipate, cope and even turn to our advantage the ever-shifting variables of the real world.
Will you join resources with us to ensure that your pre-school students become STEM natives?
Sincerely and with regard,
Your fellow educator
References
Becker, K., & Park, K. (2011). Effects of integrative approaches among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects on students’ learning: A preliminary meta-analysis. Journal of STEM Education, 12(5), 23-37. https://www.jstem.org/jstem/index.php/JSTEM/article/download/1509/1394
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education. Project Gutenberg ebook. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/852/852-h/852-h.htm
McClure, E., Guernsey, L., & Ashbrook, P. (2017). Where’s Spot? Finding STEM opportunities for young children in moments of dramatic tension. American Educator, 41(3), 12-15. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1156381.pdf
Sawyer, K. (2019). The Creative Classroom. Innovative teaching for 21st-century learners. Teachers college press. New York.