Table 1 Implementation strategies for gender inclusive STEM instruction
From: Motivating youth to learn STEM through a gender inclusive digital forensic science program
Design feature | Principle of gender inclusive instruction | Implementation guidance |
|---|---|---|
Gamification | Engage and Empower, Immerse | Create missions that pose personally meaningful problems to help others solve (giving girls a reason to care), using dramatic narrative structure, with defined clues to find and tasks to accomplish in realistic settings, with increasing levels of difficulty |
Gamification | Engage and Empower | Cast students in the active positive role of investigator or problem-solver |
Gamification | Engage and Empower, Immerse | Create a learning environment that enables girls to form a sense of belonging (inclusive and inviting look-and-feel) |
Gamification | Engage, Guide | Make progress visible to teachers and students with live learning analytics, and have students keep track of their own progress using this information (keeping score) |
Inquiry-based pedagogical model | Engage and immerse, practice and iterate, synthesize, communicate, and reflect | Embed structure and support for following scientific practices of discovery, inquiry, documentation, evidence evaluation, and communication (present, report, reflect) |
Inquiry-based pedagogical model | Immerse, Guide, Enculturate | Integrate STEM core concepts and practices throughout the missions, including considering alternative hypotheses, testing theories, evaluating evidence objectively, documenting examinations and results, and formulating conclusions |
Inquiry-based pedagogical model | Guide | Provide robust structured supports for major goals performed together in class |
Inquiry-based pedagogical model | Guide, Practice and Iterate | Give students instructions to perform a task (guide), then let them try the task in a structured learning environment (practice), then demonstrate the task (guide), and then let them try the task again (iterate) |
Inquiry-based pedagogical model | Collaborate and Communicate | Encourage group work and peer-learning for all activities |
Inquiry-based pedagogical model | Collaborate and Communicate, Synthesize | Unplugged activities that require students to consolidate and convey what they learned, such as investigative reports and mock trials. It is important to give students the means and opportunity to prepare and refine their communication skills, guiding each other, such as students reviewing each other's reports to incorporate peer learning and writing revision, and recording oral presentations for teachers to provide feedback (practice). Ultimately, having students give presentations in class reinforces communication skills and peer-learning (observing similar others succeed). Unplugged activities must be built into the program, both for learning and to reduce student fatigue in immersive learning environments |
Inquiry-based pedagogical model | Reflect | Create opportunities for students to discuss with teachers and role models how the skills they learned could be applied to real world problems, including current local events where forensic science helped solve societal problems |
Inquiry-based pedagogical model | Enculturate, Reflect | Create opportunities for students to interact with role models (students or professionals in the field) to gain real world context, practical insights, career examples, further learning opportunities, and a sense of belonging |