– Teachers and students alike believe that having predominately women STEEM teachers, coupled with the fact these teachers set high standards and “push” the girls, has led to growth in the girls’ confidence.
– Teachers’ promotion of active learning, hands-on activities and critical thinking, and their active promotion of STEEM careers are all clear strategies used by teachers across the STEEM departments at CDS. These practices appear to have increased the girls’ engagement in STEEM, and possibly to have reinforced the idea that they might pursue STEEM careers.
– By adding entrepreneurship to STEM, CDS has seen a positive impact on girls’ and their involvement in the STEEM initiative at CDS. Furthermore, not only have teachers noticed interest in these areas increasing among girls, the girls who participated in this study were clear that they connect with STEEM and see career opportunities in STEM through the inclusion of entrepreneurship.
– Even while discussing their efforts to increase girls’ engagement with STEM, many teachers celebrate gender blindness.
– These findings raised a number issues that should be important educators and (especially) school leaders. These include the importance of high standards for girls in STEEM classes, the value of including real world experiences in STEEM lessons, the success of expanding STEM with a less traditionally academic area and the challenges that gender blindness can perpetuate for educators and their students.
2017 - An Exploration of STEM, Entrepreneurship, and Impact on Girls in an Independent Day School
The theory of action guiding the school is that female STEEM teachers and the inclusion of entrepreneurship skills and projects can improve girls’ perceptions of the STEM classroom, helping them to view STEM as less gender-oriented (i.e., male-oriented), and thereby make these classes feel more welcoming to girls. This is aimed at increasing their adoption of STEM majors in college and STEM careers after they graduate.
This is a mixed-methods study. Qualitative data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews with individual Carrollwood Day School (CDS) STEEM teachers and focus group interviews with CDS girls in grades six through twelve. The focus groups’ purpose was to gather information about students’ experiences with STEM and entrepreneurship education in fifth grade through tenth grade. 40 girls agreed to take part of the study’s focus groups.
Quantitative data was collected as a survey that was sent to all female students in grades five through eleven. Survey on attitudes and beliefs around their experience in math and science, and around adding entrepreneurship to STEM.The survey had 32 questions, spread across seven topics: Inclusiveness/role models (3 questions), Intrinsic motivation (8 questions), Perceived confidence (3 questions), Positive classroom environment (4 questions), Real world applications (5 questions), Active learning/critical thinking (5 questions), and Perceived teacher support (4 questions).
107 girls in grades 5 through 11 responded to the survey.