Primary school teaching of STEM and problem-solving skills
2.1
In ‘building’ young minds for the world in which they will work and interact it is important that the knowledge foundation from which they will begin their education is solid. Most of this foundation building will begin at primary school at time when students are, arguably, at their most curious.
2.2
Ms Catherine Eibner, General Manager of Start-ups, Blue Chilli, told the Committee of the importance of harnessing curiosity in students at primary school. She emphasised the importance of parents encouraging children to solve problems in different ways:
Whether you become a lawyer, a nurse or a radiographer, the way that that job is done in five, 10 or 20 years is going to change. You are going to have to be curious and adaptable. You are going to have to be looking for ways to fix the problems and change the way the industry is. It is a matter of harnessing that curiosity early. That is going to come from a parents-down approach, as well. Parents have to be able to encourage children to be interested in these new programs and to try to think about solving things in different ways. The question is not 'What do you want to be?'—it is 'What do you want to do? or 'What problems do you want to solve?' There is a need to change that conversation with children for the next generation.
Box 2.1: Countries strong in STEM – what they do.
While the countries strong in STEM are diverse in their economies, political and social cultures and their educational traditions, certain features recur in common. First, school teachers enjoy high esteem, are better paid and work within more meritocratic career structures than found elsewhere.
Second, these countries have an unbreakable commitment to disciplinary contents. They do not equate teaching with class management and credentialing alone. They focus on knowledge. STEM teachers are expected to be fully qualified in their discipline and to teach in that field and not others. This contrasts sharply with Australia. Professional development is primarily focused on the discipline rather than generic programs, which again contrasts with Australia. Third, the most successful countries have instituted active programs of reform in curriculum and pedagogy that are focused on making science and mathematics more engaging and practical, through problem-based and inquiry-based learning, and emphases on creativity and critical thinking. These themes also run through the best Australian classrooms in STEM. Fourth, many of these countries have developed innovative policies to lift STEM participation among formerly excluded groups.
Finally, STEM-strong countries have developed strategic national STEM policy frameworks which provide favourable conditions for a range of activities: centrally driven and funded programs, including curriculum reform and new teaching standards; world class university programs, the recruitment of foreign science talent and new doctoral cohorts; decentralised program initiatives and partnerships and engagement that link STEM activities in schools, vocational and higher education with industry, business and the professions.
2.3
Ms Katrina Reynen, Associate Director, Product Solutions and ICT, Optus stated that primary school children should be learning coding and robotics. Ms Reynen argued that, once people get to tertiary education without necessary skills in these areas, it is already too late:
I am not sure the issue is necessarily in tertiary education. In a sense, it is too late. They should have been doing coding from primary school and they should have been doing robotics. Data analysis is all about: can you ask the right question of the data? The data is there. It is about: can you drill it? The sort of experience you are talking about is absolutely crucial all the way through. The challenge is how you manage it with a company like ours so that it is sustainable.
2.4
The Committee heard that systems for teaching problem solving skills are often more advanced at primary school level than at secondary school. Associate Professor Jerry Courvisanos of Federation University told the Committee that:
In primary school there is open–ended learning and maths integrated in HASS [Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences] and everything. They go into high school and the closed-loop learning is 'death ville' for everybody.
2.5
The Mitchell Institute at Victoria University argued that the school systems focus on content learning rather than capabilities-focused approach to learning was a problem in developing problem solving:
Children begin their education in an early learning environment, being encouraged to be curious, to experiment and to learn through trial and error. These are inherently scientific traits. However, this approach is replaced once they enter primary school to one driven by a narrowing of focus towards achieving NAPLAN scores and ATAR. Numeracy and literacy is vital for all learners – but it is a beginning, not an end point. The OECD has recognised this and is introducing a collaborative problem solving item within PISA to ensure we measure the right skills young people need for the future.
2.6
Dr Alan Finkel, Australia’s Chief Scientist pointed to the absolute necessity of two subjects; English and mathematics:
…there are two subjects that, as you called it, have a decay curve that, basically, if you get off the tracks it is hard to get back on. They are English—whichever country you are in, I am talking about your mother tongue; and mathematics. English is the tool that we use for expressing our thoughts and communicating with our colleagues; mathematics is the language of science, commerce and so many things. Both of them are really difficult if you have a gap.
If you are not taught maths and English well in primary school it is almost inconceivable that you will get back on and do it well with a secondary school start or a tertiary start, and that does not apply to nearly anything else.
2.7
Ms Helen Zimmerman, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of private education provider Navitas Limited, explained that governments have to start thinking about the education system as an ecosystem that begins at primary school. It emphasised the importance of embedding the right skills from the beginning of education:
…Australian governments and we have to start thinking about our education system as an ecosystem that starts at pre-primary and goes all the way through to higher education and graduations there and we have to start looking at how we embed these skills right from the beginning.
What is happening at the moment is that not only are young people coming out of the school system, and in fact the tertiary system, and employers are saying that they do not have a lot of the basic skills — which are the language, literacy and numeracy skills that are needed — but they also do not have any of these enterprise skills or 21st century skills that we are talking about.
2.8
QUT Creative Technologies referred to a UK study which showed that the key point at which student interest in STEM wavered was in the transition from primary to secondary school. The UK Government responded with:
…a series of pilot programs to help young people work on a science project or a STEM project that would transition with them when they made the jump from primary school to secondary school. It was a two-year program and therefore it required the schools to work collaboratively from a curriculum perspective and to also work synergistically.
That was really designed at trying — at that point at which young people's enthusiasm about science and physics and dinosaurs all wavers—to encourage particularly young women to think about those career occupations.
2.9
The Committee is aware that there are some useful STEM projects that currently engage primary and secondary school students:
The NSW Department of Education noted the new Australian Curriculum for Digital Technologies which introduces computational thinking, logic and problem solving capability into school curriculums.
Engineers Australia funds a program called EngQuest which involves primary and secondary school teachers in small engineering projects.
The Ai Group and the office of the Chief Scientist are working together in a new initiative – Strengthening School-Industry STEM Skills Partnership.
Secondary school teaching of STEM subjects
2.10
Secondary school is the time when many students start to think about their education as a pathway to a job. It is also at this level, after Year 10, when students are able to select subjects. Thus, for the first time, students have a degree of choice and control over their own education. This is an important phase in a student’s school education.
2.11
If Australia is to produce school students with an appreciation of and interest in STEM subjects, it is in secondary school where this appreciation and interest should be encouraged and captured. Once students lose a subject in secondary schooling it can be very difficult to pick it up later on. It follows that, fostering appreciation and interest in STEM subjects early in secondary school is likely to contribute to the students’ choice to continue with these subjects beyond year ten.
2.12
In spite of the importance of STEM subjects to students, some evidence provided to the Committee suggests that there is a decline in participation and performance.
2.13
The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science reported that participation in STEM education at the secondary school level has declined significantly over the past two decades, particularly for female students:
The proportion of girls who elect to study no mathematics after Year 10 has tripled from 7.5 per cent in 2001 to 21.5 per cent in 2011. The corresponding proportion of boys also tripled, but from a much lower base level, from 3.1 per cent to 9.8 per cent.
2.14
Witnesses referred to reports from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international organisation which benchmarks the performance of the Australian education system and students against the performance of other countries. PISA’s 2012 comparison found that:
Australian students’ performance in mathematical literacy has declined significantly over time;
there has been a significant decline in the performance of Australia’s most highly mathematically literate students since 2003;
15 per cent of Australian students were top performers in mathematical literacy compared to 56 per cent of students in Shanghai–China and 12 per cent of students across the OECD; and,
Australia’s mean score in scientific literacy remains stable and its average score in scientific literacy was significantly higher than the OECD average.
2.15
A range of submitters suggested that participation in STEM education at the secondary school level may be declining because:
teachers without STEM specific qualifications are teaching STEM subjects, particularly mathematics, poorly because there is a shortage of maths qualified teachers;
students do not perceive the relevance of STEM subjects to their everyday life; and,
students believe they can achieve a higher ATAR score by focussing on other subjects and mathematics is not a prerequisite for most higher education STEM degrees.
2.16
The Office of the Chief Scientist indicated that any decline in STEM education at the secondary school level will limit the number of students obtaining STEM qualifications through tertiary education:
The quantity and quality of our university STEM graduates is dependent on the quality of our STEM education in schools.
2.17
Evidence to the Committee also suggested that the quantitative skills taught in STEM subjects are cumulative. As a result students who give up STEM studies in secondary school find it more difficult to resume them at the higher education level and are therefore less likely to do so. The Committee termed this, the quantitative skills decay curve.
2.18
STEM media company, Refraction Media argued that STEM role models would assist secondary school students to understand the range of careers which STEM education can lead to and encourage students to continue these studies at the higher education level.
I think it is really important to create some superheroes in this space, in business and in technology, and really celebrate them the way we celebrate our sports stars and our celebrities, make it a desirable outcome for kids to work towards, and just really put these stories out there.
2.19
Professor Michael Aitken, Chief Scientist and Chief Executive Officer, Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre, observed that career advisors play a critical role in encouraging students to pursue STEM and in creating a culture which values vocational educational training:
One of the big challenges that we have seen in relation to one of the big policy proposals we have put forward is around improving careers advice in schools. I know a lot of people have been talking about it. It is very, very challenging for a kid to get the message that going to TAFE is not a bad idea when all the careers adviser has done is go to university and become a careers adviser. It is hard when your parents might be that way as well. I have seen some stats around kids coming out of university.
After six months around 40 per cent of new graduates are employed full-time. For someone coming out of the VET sector, I think it is up to about 80 or 85 per cent who are in fulltime employment after that.
2.20
Ms Kate Hynes, Chief Legal Officer, Halfbrick Studios Pty Ltd, argued that Australia could foster a broader innovation-orientated culture by increasing the focus on developing entrepreneurial and STEM skills prior to tertiary education:
…innovation starts much earlier than in tertiary education. What we see is that someone graduates from school; they are very bright and enthusiastic; and at that point of time they may go into a course in which they are then expected to build skills that result in them becoming an entrepreneur within the next six months, because it does move that quickly. What is happening at university is that they are building the foundation text skills that they should already have had right back in school, in terms of both text skills and attitude.
A lack of fear of failure or awareness of failure is a success, in the sense that you can then move on to something greater after learning from that failure. An ability to see opportunity, to be hungry for that and to talk about those opportunities amongst your cohort is also something that we should be encouraging much earlier.
STEM teachers
2.21
As discussed earlier in this report, the ‘quantity and quality of our university STEM graduates is dependent on the quality of our STEM education in schools.’
2.22
However, in some schools, STEM subjects, particularly maths, are not taught by teachers who have a specific proficiency in those subjects. For example, referring to STEM teachers, the Office of the Chief Scientist’s Position Paper on STEM teaching in primary schools give the following figures:
Currently only a minority of Australia’s primary school teachers have an educational background in a STEM discipline. In 2011, only 16 per cent of Year 4 students were taught science by a teacher who specialised or majored in science and only 20 per cent had a teacher who specialised in mathematics. Fewer than one in three primary teachers has completed any tertiary study in computing or information technology.
2.23
This is of concern to the Committee because, although such teachers may be able to provide a technical delivery of these subjects, they are less likely to be able to teach STEM as:
An individual’s knowledge and academic background in STEM is strongly linked to their capacity to teach it Teaching is an intellectual activity that requires academic capacity.
2.24
However, the Committee is of the view that the stumbling block is the lack of adequate incentive for teachers to teach in specialty STEM subjects. A number of witnesses and submitters provided evidence about this issue.
2.25
Professor Geoff Prince, Director, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI), noted that ‘40 per cent of Year 7 who attend math classes around Australia are taught by somebody other than a maths teacher’ and that in regional and remote areas there are many schools where there are no qualified maths teachers.’
2.26
Professor Prince further noted that state governments report the number of teachers graduating overall, but not the number of maths teachers:
The vast majority of our school teachers go through a standard three-year degree plus two year MTeach or a one-year Dip. Ed. or whatever it is. The content knowledge happens inside a science degree, for maths, and the pedagogy happens inside an educational faculty. The pedagogy is what labels you as being a maths teacher or whatever and that is not reported at a discipline level to the Commonwealth. So the Commonwealth does not know how many maths teachers have graduated, basically.
2.27
Asked if enough maths and science specialty teachers were coming out of education faculties Mr Luke Kerr of Real Time Learning stated:
We do not believe so. That is a problem here. But I think it is the context. I think the reason that kids are disengaging from those STEM subjects is that they are not being given an opportunity to see how it works interdisciplinary. They need to see the application, and they are choosing to seek application outside of school. That is where we really need that partnership with industry, not to take over but to utilise the teachers' skills to collaborate.
So one of the initiatives from RMIT was, 'Let's bring an education student who's studying to be a teacher in with an engineering student or a coding student doing IT and have them together, one studying how it is communicated and the other one coming in with the subject knowledge.' So the pressure is not on a teacher to have to know it all. It is how we go on the journey together.
2.28
Professor Prince gave a vivid example of the low rate of interest in becoming a teacher:
Two years ago, at the University of Melbourne, which has the largest first year mathematics enrolment in the country—they have to run the courses in parallel for one of the subjects—a lecture group of 300 were asked in first year, 'How many of you are interested in going on to maths teaching?' and three of them put up their hands.
2.29
Part of the problem with attracting STEM teachers appear to be issues that many teachers face, and which contribute to disincentivise teachers from specialising in STEM subjects. Mr Christopher Watts, Social Policy Advisor, Australian Council of Trade Unions, explained the employment realities that many teachers face:
Not only are they paid less in real terms than they were years ago but the hours are usually longer, contracts are usually for a year and they roll over for about eight or 10 years. Maybe you might have a job next year; you might not.
It is not just about teachers not being paid enough—and they are not. It is also about their being exposed to conditions which actively erode their ability to engage in the system. They cannot do long-term planning for their class, because they might not teach it next year. They are being pushed into roles where they may not have that specific qualification, because there are not enough resources to fund a teacher that does.
2.30
Similarly, Mr Luke Kerr of Real Time Learning, opined:
For the same reason that kids are engaged by having a purpose, it is teachers understanding their purpose, feeling like they are making a difference and—we talked about it before—feeling empowered. If it is not going to be remuneration, it has to be some other form of meeting a need in the individual in terms of making a difference. That is where we feel that teachers are largely feeling disempowered.
2.31
The Office of the Chief Scientist’s Position Paper on STEM teaching in primary schools echoes this:
Great teachers are intellectually capable, passionate and knowledgeable about their subjects, rigorously prepared and well supported and resourced. They inspire students to learn and to immerse themselves in a topic. Great education systems develop and retain these teachers, by making teaching the attractive and prestigious profession it ought to be.
2.32
This evidence suggests a disconnect between the employment realities of being a teacher and expectations about the ability of non-specialist teachers to adequately teach STEM subjects in schools. It paints a picture of a system that is out of balance and exhibiting signs of stress because non-specialist teachers are unable to keep pace with the need for STEM teaching in schools. This could lead to less than optimal educational outcomes for student, and put undue pressure on the teachers.
2.33
The Committee wishes to make it clear that this is not a criticism of teachers, but rather, an observation about an educational system which places a heavy burden on non-specialist STEM teachers to teach those subjects, whilst failing to incentivise STEM teaching.
2.34
The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (AATE) suggested that the trend of decreasing STEM participation in secondary school could be reversed, arguing that:
The development of world-leading, inspirational teachers is essential to increase the participation in STEM studies.
2.35
This focus on teachers being the key to transforming STEM participation is borne out by the Office of the Chief Scientist’s list of steps that can be taken ‘to make great teaching of science, technology and mathematics the norm in Australian schools, and teaching a profession of choice for our high achievers.’
1. Raise the prestige and preparedness of teachers, by
(i) Attracting high achievers in STEM to primary school teaching.
(ii) Boosting the science, technology and mathematics in pre-service teaching and increasing the rigour of pre-service courses.
2. Transform STEM education in primary schools, by
(iii) Ensuring teachers in every school are supported by specialist teachers in STEM disciplines.
(iv) Creating a national professional development program in science, technology and mathematics.
(v) Educating principals to be leaders in STEM.
3. Think bold, collaborate and lead change.
STEM or STEAM?
2.37
Much of the evidence received by the Committee during this inquiry was focussed on STEM skills. However the Committee also received evidence on the idea of STEAM being Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths.
2.38
Ms Lorraine White-Hancock’s submission details some of the research from 2010 in this area:
There is plentiful evidence that the arts generate innovation in both science and business (Nissley, 2010). The last decade has seen increasing research interest in an emerging field of collaborative cross-disciplinary work between artists and scientists, and where artists are increasingly sought to work with businesses to help promote creativity and innovation, particularly in Europe and the USA. Arts-based methods have been used as a pedagogical approach to build learning capacity at individual and organisational levels in companies such as Airbus and GlaxcoSmithKlein (Nissley, 2010).
2.39
The National Association for Visual Arts (NAVA) quotes Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, Minister for Arts and Communication, as follows:
If we want to have a real culture of innovation then we need to have creativity at the heart of (the STEM) agenda and what we need to do is to put an A into STEM. We need to start talking about STEAM. Science, Technology, Education, the Arts and Mathematics. Because if we want to have a culture of innovation, a culture of creativity feeds directly into that.
2.40
The argument for STEAM has been that adding arts to the traditional STEM subjects can be a way for disengaged students to engage with those subjects and is also the way in which companies and individuals can engage with an increasingly complex society.
2.41
As Theatre Network Australia state:
If we include the Arts in the STEAM approach, we will capitalise on the arts’ inherent capacity to inspire creative thinking – crucial for the complex needs of the future workforce and new economy.
2.42
Professor John Joseph Fitzgerald, President, Australian Academy of the Humanities, told the Committee that:
…every country is undertaking enquiries of this kind at the present time and that some which we might think are well in advance of us in regard to science, technology, engineering and maths, such as Korea and Japan, are saying that the new skill set required going forward will be a combination of STEM plus arts, humanities, creative thinking. They have come up with the term 'STEAM', which includes the arts. That has not yet made its way into Australia in the mainstream …
2.43
The Australian Academy of the Humanities’ submission notes that:
If the STEM disciplines contribute numeracy and technological proficiency, it is the humanities disciplines – together with arts and social sciences – that deliver Australia’s creativity, literacy and communications skills, and knowledge of social systems, governance structures, community habits, beliefs and behaviours.
2.44
La Trobe University told the Committee that:
A singular focus on STEM capabilities, as compared to STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Mathematics) or STEM +, is less likely to balance the diverse skills and competencies that are necessary to understand and respond to the changing structure of the Australian economy.
2.45
Additionally Mr John Saunders, Education Manager, Sydney Theatre Company, spoke about the importance of the four Cs, ‘communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity’ and highlighted that:
…the Frey and Osborne University of Oxford study is saying that—with a study of 702 occupations—that 47 per cent are susceptible to computerisation. For the areas that are not susceptible, where workers are going to have to move to, the skills that they need to acquire are creative and social skills. They are not going to get those skills through a STEM-only focus. It would absolutely be through STEAM.
2.46
Halfbrick Studios Pty Ltd, as a games development company marrying technological innovation to creativity, placed themselves very much in the STEAM category:
We as a company are very multidisciplinary. We are defined as STEAM. We have musicians, programmers, artists, accountants and lawyers. It is a very multidisciplinary team but a small team.
2.47
As the late Steve Jobs observed:
… technology alone is not enough – it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing.
2.48
Sister City Partners, noted that there is ‘some sense to turning STEM into STEAM; the "A" being "arts"’.
2.49
In the same vein Adobe’s submission states:
There is arguably little formal recognition of the role that creative digital technologies can play in the education system. The current emphasis is on coding, STEM and computer sciences as the basis for technology education and driving skills for the new economy. Creative digital technologies include devices and applications that create digital content, construct learning and enable people to evaluate, reflect, use and share information and knowledge.
Examples of creative digital technologies include graphic design, video editing, photography and web development - software applications which are all included in Adobe’s suite of products. However, creative digital technologies have not yet received the same recognition for the essential role they play in strengthening long-term employability. Adobe believes that creative digital skills should be considered a core component of digital literacy.
2.50
Adobe’s call for ‘creative digital skills’ shows that STEM skills, such as those used for coding, cannot be divorced from the creativity needed to create content. As Mr Tony Katsabaris from Adobe argued:
At no point in this planet's history has there ever been a more insatiable demand for content. There are so many different versions of content being created. The performance of that content is being analysed. Algorithms are crawling across it to figure out, 'It worked with Andrew. Will it work with Ken?' or 'Anne's different, because she's a different demographic.'
2.51
These skills are important to the Australian economy. The Interactive Games & Entertainment Association’s submission informed the Committee that:
Australia’s interactive games industry reached a total value of AUD $2.83 billion in 2015, a 15% increase from its previous year.6 This figure incorporates traditional retail sales of AUD $1.243 billion and digital sales of AUD $1.589 billion, increasing by 2% and 27% year - on‐year respectively. Mobile games, digital downloads and subscriptions also continued to grow significantly in 2015, with sales increasing to AUD $870 million (up 24%), AUD $603 million (up 33%) and AUD $116 million (up 29%).
2.52
The Academy of Interactive Entertainment’s submission informed the Committee that:
In Australia, the video game industry is centered in Victoria, which accounts for approximately 48 per cent of the national gaming industry. Smaller industry clusters are located in NSW (19%), Queensland (18%), South Australia (8%) and Western Australia (7%). Victoria’s relative success in video game development may be due to the Victorian Government’s support for the industry through, for example, the Film Victoria Games Development Fund. The Australian video game industry is now dominated by independent development studios. In spite of the relative size of the local industry,
Australian game developers can and do punch above their weight. For example the studio Halfbrick in Brisbane has developed one game called Fruit Ninja which by 2015 had 1 billion downloads, making it one of the most successful games of all time.
2.53
As part of its inspection of the University of the Sunshine Coast on 16 March 2017 the Committee were briefed on the university’s Bachelor of Serious Games. It should not be assumed that the term ‘games’ refers only to entertainment. As Mr Jonathan Roses, of Interactive Games and Entertainment, pointed out to the Committee that games can be used to educate and in the health sector:
We have seen games being used for an educative purpose. There are many instances. For example, the National Museum of Australia developed an interactive robot game where kids can learn about Australia's history.
Neuroscience Research Australia developed an exercising game to help people with multiple sclerosis to improve balance and mental skills. We also have examples with the University of Western Australia developing a game to improve health outcomes for children with autism. So there are examples of games being used in the health sector.
2.54
Going further than inclusion of Arts one submitter suggested that:
Another important set of skills for Australians competing in a global labour market are cross-cultural competence and, more specifically, Asia capability.
2.55
There has been a binary view of the arts and STEM:
…in Australia, we are still seeing the arts being pushed to the periphery in our classrooms, being pushed and siloed. I think that is the danger with STEM, that STEM and STEAM are not in opposition to each other. As Peter Charles Taylor, a professor of STEAM education at Murdoch University—a science academic and the first professor of STEAM education—has said that it actually is not this binary; it is actually that the arts just add on and create a really holistic environment for learning to occur, particularly project based learning, which is really what we are talking about when we talking STEM.
2.56
To break down this siloing ‘co-mingling of cross-disciplinary skills’ is what academics say lead to success.
2.57
Some submitters suggested that creativity can be used as a helpful way to develop other skills. For example:
The work that we do is using drama in English classrooms, helping primary teachers use drama pedagogy. Drama is a teaching approach to improve student literacy, so it is not art for art's sake; it is about transferrable skills from the art form. We have seen from that increased academic outcomes through their literacy scores and teachers feeling more creative but also things like increased student confidence, student collaboration and shifts in student empathy.
2.58
It is often suggested that creativity or the impact of creativity cannot be measured. Ms Linda Lorenza, Director, Learning and Engagement, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, explained that this is not the case:
2.59
In terms of trying to measure creativity, it is the same as trying to measure science or maths or anything else: you have to have a common starting point.
…With the Sydney Symphony Orchestra recently we had an external evaluation done of our teacher training program, looking at primary teachers and training them in how to use music in the primary classroom. We used a scale with those teachers, getting them to assess from one to five how engaged they felt in the training and how they measured their own confidence, and they scaled that at 4.5 out of five.
We then compared that to a previous study from 2012 that found that teachers rated their general professional development at around 3.3. It is by developing simple scales like that that wecan look at the development of creativity from the bottom up, if you like, from those early years of education through.
2.60
It was suggested that most of the humanities are not aware that, in order for policy development to be inclusive and move from STEM to STEAM, government needs to be provided with figures such as return on investment dollars.
2.61
Ms Julieanne Campbell, General Manager, Urban Theatre Projects pointed out that such figures are available:
There are some fantastic initiatives to be run by the Information and Cultural Exchange in Parramatta and they are showing real results. It was an initiative through the department of education, but they were working in Auburn girls and Granville boys high school, and they used working artists—active, professional artists—going into schools and engaging with otherwise quite disenfranchised youth. Their retention rates, if you want to talk percentages, were phenomenal…it was in excess of a 30 per cent increase in retention of those kids that were otherwise going to leave the education system.
I think it was a direct example of the arts as a way in for some people and then staying on. So I think you are absolutely right: we need to get down to the metrics, but I also believe that those metrics of there; it is a matter of channelling that information through.
2.62
One witness suggested ESTEAM, including entrepreneurship and arts, rather than STEM is the key to employment:
When you look at the notion of innovation and at companies who have been recognised for innovative programs in, for instance, The Australian Financial Review's '50 most innovative companies' for last year, quite a number of them are in the education and creative domains. So, if we are on about promoting innovation and creativity, we need to recognise that those innovations usually come out of combinations. Often that might rely on scientific understandings, but it is also about artistic, creative, communicative understandings and about entrepreneurship.
We believe programs really need to be broadened to at least STEAM, but more likely 'ESTEAM', getting in the entrepreneurship and the artistic, creative communicative capacities.
Committee comment
2.63
The Committee is very cognisant of the benefits of teaching and encouraging STEM and problem solving skills in children at as young an age as possible. It is a concern to the Committee that systems for teaching problem solving skills are often more advanced at primary school level than at secondary school. However, the Committee notes this is a function of how the Australian education system has evolved rather than a particular criticism of the system in general.
2.64
The Committee is drawn to the idea, put forward by Navitas Pty Ltd, that governments have to start thinking about the education system as an ecosystem that begins at primary school.
2.65
The Committee is concerned that participation in STEM education at the secondary school level has declined significantly over the past two decades, particularly for female students and is equally concerned that Australian students’ mathematical literacy skills have been in general decline.
2.66
The Committee views this lack of engagement with STEM as a decay curve—from the point at which a student drops out of quantitative study it becomes very hard for a student to go back to it. That is, the notion that a student who is taught maths poorly once at some point at school results in that student deciding they are no good at maths—so that student is lost to maths forever.
2.67
It is not uncommon to see people undertaking quantitative undergraduate degrees who are capable of doing subsequent degrees that are less quantitative, but it is rare to see people becoming more quantitative with subsequent degrees.
2.68
This decay curve emphasises the importance of retaining STEM subjects at school and ensuring that universities set the right signals for secondary school students by requiring or strongly recommending mathematics pre-requisites. As noted earlier, however, the trend is a decline in the number of Year 12 students studying science and mathematics.
2.69
The Committee believes that a strategy over time to prevent this decay curve is needed — because once these students are lost from quantitative study they are usually lost forever.
2.70
Important work in this area has already been done by the Chief Scientist in the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) Report STEM Country Comparisons whose recommendations were as follows:
Analyse and evaluate cross-portfolio and cross government STEM education initiatives;
Grow the pool of STEM informed people in the Australian community;
Increase the quantity and improve the quality of the STEM cohort in higher education;
Improve STEM education and awareness through development, streamlining and implementation of better teacher training and resources;
Facilitate a national approach to STEM teaching and learning that meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students;
Identify the skill base that employers require from STEM graduates in the workforce now and in the future; and,
Develop a STEM Reference Panel reporting to the relevant Federal portfolio ministers, through the Chief Scientist, to report on STEM provision and participation in Australia.
2.71
These recommendations, presented to the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council, are endorsed by the Committee and recommended with some slight changes.
2.72
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government:
Analyse and evaluate cross-portfolio and cross government STEM education initiatives;
Work with higher education providers to increase the quantity and quality of the STEM graduates from higher education;
Improve STEM education and awareness through development, streamlining and implementation of better teacher training and resources;
Facilitate a national approach to STEM teaching and learning that meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students;
Identify the skill base that employers require from STEM graduates in the workforce now and in the future; and,
Develop a STEM Reference Panel reporting to the relevant Federal portfolio ministers, through the Chief Scientist, to drive strategies for strengthening STEM at all levels of education.
2.73
The Committee believes there should be clearer jurisdictional reporting about STEM in schools. The Committee therefore recommends that the Australian Department of Education and Training identify metrics and report on outcomes regarding STEM teaching in schools.
2.74
The Committee recommends that the Australian Department of Education and Training identify metrics and report on outcomes regarding STEM teaching in schools.
2.75
The Committee sees Australian Government organisation such as the CSIRO and ANSTO as being able to provide STEM role models for schools who assist secondary school students to understand the range of careers which STEM education can lead to and encourage students to continue these studies at the higher education level.
2.76
The Committee recommends that the CSIRO and ANSTO develop a pilot STEM role model program; assess its impact and report to the Minister for Education and Training.
2.77
It is concerning to the Committee that careers advisers are, sometimes, not encouraging students to pursue STEM and not creating a culture which values vocational educational training. The Committee would like to see an improvement in careers advice in schools. The Committee therefore recommends that Australian Government, through COAG, develop a systematic approach to career advice, which can be externally and independently assessed.
2.78
The Committee recommends that Australian Government, through COAG, develop a systematic approach to career advice, which can be externally and independently assessed.
2.79
The Committee are concerned that, in some schools, STEM subjects, particularly maths, are not taught by teachers who have a specific proficiency in those subjects. The Committee therefore recommends that the Australian Government, through COAG, require jurisdictions to develop strategies to phase out the teaching of STEM subjects by teachers without a proficiency in STEM over a five year period.
2.80
The Committee also notes evidence that support for STEM teachers is not just about teachers’ salaries but also about their being exposed to conditions which actively erode their ability to engage in the system. Evidence to the Committee pointed out that teachers cannot do long-term planning for their class, because they might not teach it next year. They are being pushed into roles where they may not have that specific qualification, because there are not enough resources to fund a teacher that does.
2.81
The Committee therefore recommends that Australian Government funding for schools include funding for STEM teachers.
2.82
The Committee recommends that Australian Government funding for schools require reporting on funding for:
Proportions of teachers with STEM qualifications; and,
Mismatch; where STEM teaching is performed by non-STEM trained teachers.
2.83
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, through COAG, require jurisdictions to develop and submit strategies which phase out the teaching of STEM subjects by non-STEM trained teachers over a five year period.
2.84
In addition to the above the Committee recommends that the Australian Government develop online credentialing and incentives for teachers to enhance and update STEM knowledge.
2.85
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government develop online credentialing and incentives for teachers to enhance and update STEM knowledge.
2.86
The Committee further recommends that university education faculties:
work with State jurisdictions and non-state schools to produce workforce estimates for STEM teaching needs and report them publicly;
provide to TEQSA the size of student teaching specialisation streams annually;
develop specific STEM enhancement strategies for pre-service coursework; and,
collect statistics on how many maths teachers have graduated.
2.87
The Committee further recommends that university education faculties, collectively or individually as appropriate:
work with State jurisdictions and non-state schools to produce workforce estimates for STEM teaching needs and report them publicly;
provide to TEQSA the size of student teaching specialisation streams annually;
develop specific STEM enhancement strategies for pre-service coursework; and,
collect statistics on how many maths teachers have graduated.
2.88
In relation to individual jurisdictions the Committee recommends that the Australian Government, through COAG, require jurisdictions to:
ensure every school has a STEM specialist, responsible for driving STEM as a priority among staff and students;
report their STEM professional development programs for teaching staff; and,
guide principals on being leaders in STEM.
2.89
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, through COAG, require jurisdictions to:
ensure every school has a STEM specialist, responsible for driving STEM as a priority among staff and students;
report their STEM professional development programs for teaching staff; and,
guide principals on being leaders in STEM.
2.90
The Committee heard evidence from employers that new employees do not have the mathematical skills or, indeed, the core social skills required to stay in gainful employment. These skills should be taught in secondary schools but the Committee notes that some people, particularly from low socio economic backgrounds may not have gained these skills by the end of secondary school. This is where schools reform and foundational skills courses are important.
2.91
The Committee would like to see discussion around STEM versus STEAM move into mainstream discussion, particularly in government policy circles, because, as evidence showed, this is already happening in various industry sectors already.
2.92
It is clear that including arts or creativity in STEM stimulates learning, and adds to a person’s confidence to learn and do a job.
2.93
The Committee specifically notes that someone highly proficient in STEM skills is not inconsistent with being skilled in arts or creative areas. One well-known example of this is game developers, but creativity goes hand in hand with STEM skills in many occupations.
2.94
The Committee recommends that the National Innovation and Science Agenda explicitly recognise the importance of STEAM, creative digital skills, the creative industries and the arts more generally.