Recommendations for teachers
Come on! Teachers, get involved in projects, feel part of the actions!
GOOD PRACTICES
It is advisable for teachers to participate actively both on a visit and in a meeting between STEM professionals and young people, and not to assume the role of childminder. In some cases taking a back seat may be recommended. At other times, it is advisable not to participate; “disappearing” from some activities may benefit the objectives pursued with young people.
It may be appropriate to:
Speak 5 minutes in advance with the organisation: What is to be done? What role will the teaching staff play? etc.
Prepare the session/activity, give it the importance it deserves.
Encourage the participation of students of immigrant origin.
Etc.
OVERCOMING ROLES: SOCIOECONOMIC ONES, STEREOTYPES, FEARS.
– Pay attention to the roles played by young people!
– Regard science as a transversal part of our culture, do not be afraid of it.
– Science is not exalusively for the best students.
– Scientific culture can act as a social ladder.
GET AHEAD: “get out of your comfort zone”.
– Judge the initiatives honestly.
– Encourage personalised participation.
– Open the way to the creativity of girls. Don’t rush into things, be attentive when the needs of the children arise.
– It can turn young people into the protagonists in the design of projects.
– Collaborate with students in the development of processes.
– Foster the confidence and safety of children and young people.
Related to the PROCESS:
– Focus first on the process and then on the results and responses.
– Reward the attempt.
– Previous preparation of contents, where, with whom, for what, why… To arouse curiosity, ask questions and take into account ALL the interests of young people (including personal interests).
– In the meantime, actively involve, collaborate, be an example, show curiosity.
– Then do the assessment with the students and share it with the school/teachers.
AND AFTER THE EVENTS
– Talk about what was seen/reflected when students return to school.
– Think of “hot” ideas and purposes for the following session.
Ten essential approaches to draw attention to equality, ten ready-to-use ideas:
- Look for expert women in reports, news, interviews and opinion articles as a formula to make better journalism, by having more varied and representative sources of reality in science.
- Highlight whenever possible that science is not for privileged minds, but for normal people, men and women, who like this work.
- Stop attributing female success to work and male success to natural talent.
- Promote new values in the scientific world less associated with the ego and competitiveness. Equality could emerge as a result of this change.
- Encourage diversity in work teams (gender, age, functional diversity) to highlight the fact that this diversity enriches and helps the objective to be achieved with greater success.
- Show feminine references also to children, they also need them.
- Propose good science topics related to women and gender to publishers without fear of being judged.
- Stop underestimating older women as a model of a person without a scientific culture (Higgs boson explained to your grandmother, your grandmother could be a professor of physics).
- Do not confuse feminism with “for women”: including many women in events is not enough if it is just for showing/posing.
- Avoid the narrative of science involving heroes and heroines, people who work and succeed alone, as opposed to collaborative science.
Read here the complete ebook “STEM professionals to inspire young people”
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
danelsolabarrieta (February 28, 2021). Recommendations for teachers. SPOON Open Notebook 🥄 SPOON . Retrieved February 14, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/ujcn