On the Chief Scientist’s STEM position paper (September 2014)

The Office of the Chief Scientist has just released recommendations for how to improve uptake and engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics disciplines in Australia (available here). The paper starts with some background statistics that say that while Australia is not doing terribly, we’re not going that well either. I reckon the Chief Scientist is giving us a B-, or an “Australia shows dedication in class but needs to show rapid improvement to succeed in the future”.

Background STEM statistics:

• 75% of the fastest growing occupations now require STEM skills
• Australia is now the only country in the OECD not to have a current national strategy that bears on science and/or technology and/or innovation
• In 2003 only five countries outperformed Australia in school based mathematical literacy tests, by 2012 Australia was outperformed by 12 countries
• Around 40% of of Year 7-10 mathematics classes are taught without a qualified mathematics teacher
• Just 39% of Australians surveyed recently thought that the benefits of science outweighed the risks

The paper outlines four Australian focus areas i) global competitiveness, ii) Education and Training, iii) Research and iv) international engagement. The area I find most immediately interesting is education and training.

 

Education and Training Objectives and Recommendations:

Secure Pipeline of Talent: recognition of the benefits that a STEM education brings to the community and to the individual.

Recommendations: Maintain the pipeline of STEM graduates and increase the recognition of STEM education and careers through i) mechanisms to encourage student uptake of STEM courses, ii) career advice for students that explains the value of study in STEM disciplines and future career pathways and iii) active participation from employers in positioning Australian STEM to be a key to future prosperity.

Inspirational Teaching: strong STEM teaching at all levels, supported by high quality and relevant teacher training and subject-specific professional development. Increased number of subject-qualified STEM teachers in Australian schools.

Recommendations: lift the number of qualified STEM teachers by i) increasing the attractiveness of the career (through promotion of STEM teaching as a career, remuneration and increased support), ii) ensuring pre-service training for teachers reflects demand for STEM teachers and iii) creating incentives for high achieving STEM students to enrol in teacher training.

Inspired Learning: placing STEM alongside numeracy and languages as a core education goal for all students. Flexible sequences of study that allow students to master both STEM and non-STEM disciplines together. Finally, lifting STEM participation rates at senior secondary and post-secondary levels.

Recommendations: develop science literacy in schools by i) ensuring every primary school has at least one teacher with specialist STEM skills, ii) mandating study of scientific method, scientific philosophy and the history of scientific discovery, and iii) helping schools teach STEM as it is practised and link classroom topics to the ‘real-world’.

Skilled Workforce: the goal is to have a high level of STEM literacy, including specialised skill sets, across the workforce. This includes high levels of participation from all Australians including women, Indigenous students and students from disadvantaged and marginalised backgrounds. Consideration of the demand side of the Australian workforce.

Recommendations: ensure that the skills of STEM graduates are aligned with workforce needs through i) fostering partnership between educators, training providers and employers, ii) using these partnerships to identify the required STEM capabilities, iii) identifying the mutual responsibility of industry and government in addressing supply and demand gaps, iv) commencing a review to ensure that STEM students are equipped to work across all sectors of the economy and v) working with educators to identify how required skills can be built into school and post-secondary courses. This section also includes notes on Work-Integrated-Learning (internships) and targeted support to increase participation of women and marginalised students (including Indigenous students).

Engaged Community: widely accessible opportunities for all Australians to explore, participate in and celebrate STEM.

Recommendations: facilitate community engagement through i) initiatives that increase public interest and involvement in STEM on a national scale, ii) new and expanded community science groups and citizen science projects, iii) promoting parental engagement to nurture children’s creativity while fostering an interest and involvement in STEM activities and subjects…. develop an online portal that profiles new discoveries, current projects and career advice.

Additional points: A couple of other points include the need for better information on the development and placement of STEM graduate into the workforce and the projected demand for STEM skilled employees. The paper recognises there is a shortage of skilled STEM teachers and the low levels of STEM participation amongst Australian students (primary through to tertiary). This section also mentions the Australian Industry Group and the Business Council of Australia’s recognition that Industry has a role to play in improving engagement with teachers and education.

My thoughts:

Like all government papers, I curious about the implementation. This position paper argues that case for cross departmental cooperation which can make things complicated as there is no central administrator for the strategy. I’m also keen to hear about the resourcing (financial and workforce) and the delivery timelines that back this up. Another issue with STEM programs is that in science, technology, engineering and mathematics they include four separate but ultimately linked specialisations. They are separate because each has its own champions and industry associations. They are linked because they all rely on the same skills sets and way of thinking. The paper deliberately avoids championing any one area (although at times it defaults to the use of ‘science’ as a catchall term). These four areas can also be difficult to measure with global rankings only tackling numeracy and literacy.

The paper’s strong emphasis on public research, the need for companies to engage in collaborative research and the need for Australia to remain globally competitive are also at odds with the recent cutbacks in public sector research (notably CSIRO). The paper does however emphasise that future research projects should be in areas of Australian strategic interest so maybe new projects will open up under that front.