Invited contribution to Science and the Parliament 2023
Published: 13 December 2023
Dr Lauren Boath presented “’STEM’ education: what’s the problem, what’s the solution?” at the 23rd Science and the Parliament event in Edinburgh, hosted at Dynamic Earth, on 22 November 2023.
Dr Lauren Boath presented “’STEM’ education: what’s the problem, what’s the solution?” at the 23rd Science and the Parliament event in Edinburgh, hosted at Dynamic Earth, on 22 November 2023.
Dr Lauren Boath was invited to join a panel, comprising four presentations and Q&A from an audience of around 200 members including keynote speakers, the President of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Minister for Higher and Further Education, Graeme Dey. Panel members Professor Martin Hendry, Headteacher Bruce Robertson, Chair of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Education Committee (and formerly Chief Executive of the SQA) Dr Janet Brown, spoke to the theme of STEM Education. In her contribution, Lauren presented thinking on the direction of travel of education in sciences, technologies, engineering and mathematics, and the impact of policy pursuit of STEM, lacking an evidence base or pedagogical meaning, on learning and teaching in schools which meets the needs of diverse learners. Challenging the view of a ‘pipeline’ for developing the workforce, Lauren questioned the privileging of STEM subjects and whether our attempts to promote may be doing more harm than good, in schools and in building the right skills and dispositions for future citizens, and beginning teachers. Lauren thanks colleagues Dr Ismail Zembat, Dr Clare Smith, Dr Cristina Mio and Nicola Jones for their ongoing contributions to thinking in this area which underpinned this presentation.
First published: 13 December 2023