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880 26 AUGUST 2016 • VOL 353 ISSUE 6302
By Michaela Jarvis
New Tech High School teacher Ben Woodford lives and breathes
mathematics, and every day before class, he asks each of his students
to send him a text. Their messages, however, may have nothing to
do with equations or diagrams. Instead, they answer the question,
what’s going on that’s most meaningful in your life?
Answers vary from the trivial to the tragic, the third-year teacher
reported at the 2016 Noyce Summit education conference, but most
importantly, the messages give Woodford an opportunity to know
his students, to convey that he cares, to help out if he can, or at least
to talk with a student facing a challenge. He said that his digital
“daily check-in” is a crucial part of being an effective STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and math) teacher in his high-need school
district in Nipomo, California. “I don’t know how I could do what I’m
doing without it,” said Woodford. “Being able to bond with students
and create a trusting relationship helps us to overcome psychological
hurdles that could prevent them from learning math.”
Woodford’s strategy is an example of a new current in education
that advocates learning who your students are in order to teach
them effectively. Presented at the 20 to 22 July summit, which was
co-hosted by the AAAS Education and Human Resources Program
and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Under-
graduate Education, the approach represented just one idea of
potential value to the 500-plus attendees at the conference, among
them, college and university faculty and researchers, students
training to be teachers and researchers, and current K-12 teachers.
The NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program helps talented STEM majors and professionals to become K-12 science and
math teachers. While building a community and giving teachers
a venue where they can share ideas is among the important goals
of the yearly Noyce Summit, this year’s event also advanced a $3.7
million AAAS initiative, funded by NSF, to help stimulate research
and foster evidence-based innovations in the preparation of STEM
teachers for high-need schools.
“What we want to do is provide a guide for researchers who want
to investigate STEM preservice education,” said Yolanda George,
Responding to this country’s critical need for STEM teachers, and
for teaching that supports students all the way to graduation and
employment in ever-expanding STEM fields, education researchers
and practitioners have fought hard to build effective approaches,
and AAAS has helped to spearhead those efforts, said Rush Holt,
AAAS CEO and executive publisher of the Science family of journals.
“The STEM education reform movement—hands-on, inquiry-based,
standards-based—grew out of AAAS activities, meetings we con-
vened,” said Holt, who spoke at the conference, adding that STEM
education is important, not only to provide the workforce needed
in the 21st century, but also to ensure that citizens understand the
importance of basing policy decisions that determine our future on
sound evidence.
“You’re the centerpiece of the national effort to give America
the STEM education that we need, so there’s a lot riding on your
shoulders,” Holt told the Noyce Summit attendees. “I don’t think it’s
an overstatement to say it’s the most important challenge facing the
country right now.”
The challenge of training enough effective STEM teachers in
this country is complicated by persistent problems. For decades,
experts have referred to a “leaky pipeline” in STEM education. “Of
every 100 people who walk in [to earn a bachelor’s degree], we have
about eight who stay through getting a bachelor’s degree in STEM
and actually working in STEM. And for minority students, it’s even
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