Since then, there has been significant activity underway across the country in schools and education systems to lift student engagement and attainment in STEM and to support teachers to improve student outcomes.
This has been further encouraged by reports which have shown that within 10-15 years, nearly 40% of Australian jobs will be automated.
One organisation focused on helping students prepare for this future is Edumazing, which combines the talent and passion of education and well-being professionals determined to make a positive difference to learners of all ages.
“For years, we have been talking about how we don’t have enough females in STEM related professions and we are still emphasising this problem many years later,” Georgina Pazzi, Edumazing’s founder and director, told The Educator.
“The real issue here is that we need to focus on normalising the girls that are in STEM rather than sensationalising the lack of them in order to change people’s mindset and focus on girl’s abilities and the possibilities available to them in this area.”
Pazzi said if school leaders aim to increase female student engagement in STEM education, they need to shift the focus so that it becomes solution based.
“To do this they should emphasise the successes students have achieved in STEM ensuring girls are prominent in their stories, promote the importance of STEM with parents and work with female teachers to improve their own confidence and leadership in STEM so they become positive role models for girls,” she said.
“All teachers must also be supported to recognise their own bias when it comes to gender within STEM and shifting these if needed.”
Another important focal shift, says Pazzi, is moving from STEM to STEAM by including the Arts as an important component of STEM learning.
“This provides greater opportunities to increase creativity and innovation, moving students from completing STEM experiments to becoming active STEAM learners where they are involved in creating real-world solutions,” Pazzi explained.
Pazzi said schools must ensure that Science, Technology and Engineering are an ongoing learning experience rather than a unit of work within one term of the school year to give girls opportunities to improve their learning, engagement, mindset and interest in these areas of the curriculum.
“We cannot expect anything to change if we don’t change our focus and mindset. School leaders have a strong role to play in changing the paradigm of STEM to STEAM and increasing female engagement in STEAM,” she said.