Aligning STEM and the Humanities: Standards, Writing, and Workforce Preparation

What Did the Participants Say?

Q&A Discussion:

• Alli: I would argue that they are never actually separate and that the  skills are artificially separated in our education system.
• Michael M: They don't think they need them and haven't had to use them in the past.
• Carol P: Our college students come from underperforming urban high schools. They don't read the book, they see the movie.
• Alice C: In a first year science course focusing on scholary writing, we help students improve through term, and they do.
• Cindy T: In California, nearly all classes, except for A through G, have been cut from curriculum, especially technology skills(computer applications, programming, hands-on learning in woodshop & metalshop)
• Mary T (Canada): One word: credentialism!
• Christina K: I teach dual enrollment students who come to freshman comp. with poor grammar and critical thinking skills. I spend the first five weeks teaching them things they should be bringing in with them. As a program director, I stand behind instructors who hold students accountable and grade them appropriately on grammar. But I also teach technical and professional professional writing classes. It's only in these courses that students see the importance of writing well  because it affects their careers while they feel basic humanities classes do not. I incorporate team work in all classes to help students learn to cooperate and produce work with others.
• jdesanta: Problem observed:  Greater interest in and time spent with visual media and less interest in reading; a de-emphasis in skills and the craft of writing; greater emphasis in creative writing or memoir writing with a de-emphasis of expository writing and rhetoric; students/parents interested in 'end' not necessarily 'means'; growing emphasis on a 'show me the money' attitude so less patience seen with time spent in humanities (soft?) studies
• Joanna C: Too much rote learning, learn for the test! Too much emphasis on Math and Science (cutting back programs like language , art, and music)
• DeShea S: I would love to do some research on this!
• Alli: YES:  WE can create these conditions, but businesses need to commit to be part of this and invest in the system.  
• Terri T: Societal norms that it is OK to pull out and use cell phones anywhere
• Mary T (Canada): Standarized testing is a component of credentialism
• Mary S: Students don't read enough outside of the classroom and they definitely don't write.
• Alli: Yes.  It is being done, just not on a large scale.  
• DeShea S: At the college level, we are still stuck on teaching theory rather than creating simulations.
• Loretta S: I teach a course "professional Communications & Career Development where students role-play a variety of workplace situations.
• Mary T (Canada): Yes.  Co-op programs contribute, use experiential exercises in classroom.
• Susan B: Most of the decisions we must make in life require value judgements.
• Joy H: I'd say that to some degree that a lack of confidence in your own teaching skills, leading to teaching to the test is a big part of the problem. I've met teachers who do both, and there's a big difference in the confidence they place in how well they do their jobs. And then I've found that often there are low expectations for the students so the kind of work they give them is far less difficult than it should be.
• Loretta S: This course provides students with experiences they don't often get in other class or in the first year courses.
• Javier P: I notice that most students coming in from high school have a short attention span, which makes it difficult to encourage critical thinking skills.
• Rachel G: I do not care if they read it or listen to it, etc. I want them to read carefully and follow directions such as in the prompt and rubric.. Freshman through seniors seem to need to learn how to follow the prompt.
• Shanti: There is also a sense among students that the 'soft skills' require extra energy and time to learn. In a time where education has become more and more rigorous and expensive, students just want to get by the courses and get good grades.
• Alli: Absolutely:  Also, language( second language)  is also a terrific way to understand learning programming concepts.  
• Leslie D: My colleagues and I offer free professional tutoring services at the university level--to both undergraduate and graduate students.  Part of our mission is to foster independence in them as writers, thinkers, revisers. . . .
• Pamela S:  I think it is imperative for all educators to focus on employability skills at all levels in education
• Rachel G: i Keep telling them it is like simple math or use the scientific hypothesis to solve a simple issue. This is a thinking and creative skills issue.
• Ashley: "Standard English" will differ from one person to another. There is no one, monolithic "Standard English."
• Leslie D: There's also a myth that writing is a "solo act," but we see a lot of people (including ourselves) experiencing it as collaborative.  I'm wondering what other participants and you feel about writing as collaborative.
• Leslie: I like your point about "a lot of wrong answers."  This is so much about the learning, thinking, problem-solving, creative process.
• Christina K: A difference exists between academic and technical writing styles. Critical thinking can be a part of both, but how the message is presented is necessarily different. Students are often dismayed once they get into a technical writing course to learn that their sentences need to be more concise and to the point -- that they have to relearn how to write.
• Alli: Yes:  In most of the tech needs, there actually is no manual to go to. Doing your  daily job requires being able to put together a puzzle
• Terri T: PLTW curriculum in High Schools  Documented effective programs
• Victoria A. R: writing a journal as a group
• John: How do you think we can get STEM to partner with the humanities?
• Alli: Relevance is key. This is based upon research.  
• Alli: Yes.  You can simulate these workplaces. It is being done.
• Leslie D: It also seems important for use as educators not to be afraid of the topics students are interested in thinking, writing, reading, and talking about.  
• Alli: Idea:  How about the  businesses support their new hires and mentor them through the in-between phase.  I see lip service given to this, but it is anemic in practice, for the most part.  
• Jeanette G: How do you support STEM educators as they learn how to teach/grade writing and public speaking for the first time?
• Janice T: How can we assess personal and people skills?
• Steve - National Univ. (San Diego): This was an excellent talk.  Very academic but "down-to-earth."
• Javier P: In some schools, STEM has become STEAM with the addition of the Arts.
• Mimi T: Are there some good books on this topic that you can recommend.
• Mary T (Canada): My university faculty of management often partnered with other disciplines - it has to be part of the institution's culture.
• Alli: STEAM3 just had an entire conference at GSU with GA Tech, businesses an d educators for this very exchange.  
• Ashley: Students are extremely resistant to group projects. They all have a learned aversion to trusting their classmates with group work. Do you have any suggestions for structuring group work to improve student "buy in"?
• Sanfrenà: Many of my students feel that if  they are proficient in their areas they do not need soft skills. They say that they have chosen these fields specifically because they do not possess humanistic interactive types of social skills. How do I justify leading them down this road?
• Shirley H: Technical writing is only an elective at  my university. How can your organization be an advocate for technical writing courses as requirements rather than electives for junior and senior undergraduates students?
• Sarah W: Communications majors have, in many school, been viewed as the red-headed stepchildren.  This seems to argue that communications majors who have a broad background might be highly sought-after employees.  Correct?
• Rachel G: Dear speaker, where do you think Romans got their cement from?
• Laura: I am a PhD chemist with a BA in Literature who holds this topic near and dear to my heart.  As a college professor, I find it hard to make these collaborations happen.  I would like to have access to colleges who have successfully created interdisciplinary humanities + STEM courses and programs.  I would specifically like to know how they have solved the logistical issues of load and course development and student learning outcomes.
• Rachel G: Reading the classics still relates to engineering. Their cement worked under the water due to the special soil from around the volcano of Mt. Vesuvius.
• Vandana N: I would like to make comment about the inclusion of art in engineering and the science classes- one should not forget that design is art - all artists also need to have basic knowledge chemistry and physics and math when creating a work of art- I notice that people tend to forget this . Not sure why. Every engineering design is a "work of art"
• Gina L: Our school has something like that called Scholars Studio.
• Gina L: Its very strange to me that we see the world so compartmentalized.  Some of the most talented scientists I know are also very creative people.
• Roselyn C: How can we make parents understand the foundational value of the humanities in developing their children for life and work success?  Vs. "skills" customer-based approach that has failed us so far.
• BMW: One answer: Transmedia storytelling - linked tightly with visual tools
• Mimi T: Develop a rubric?
• Gina L: One of the beauties of a Liberal Arts education is that it addresses the whole human being.  Not just technical skill, but creative and critical thinking, and an understanding of what it means to be human.
• Laura: Employers have tools to assess personal and people skills.  360 tools do this.  We can develop academic tools that mimic these kinds of industry tools.
• Michael M: I'm getting the feeling that BA grads get into their entry level major job--somewhere along the line they realize they need the soft skills, they go for their MA to get the soft skills and to further their career expertise.
• Dr. Angela P: How do I encourage my STEM college to incorporate more active writing to include grammar/APA. My masters students have indicated to me the basic information is not taught and that professors expect them to know APA/grammar at their level. Those masters students have to take workshops outside of courses to learn how to incorporate correct writing skills.
• Carol P: Critical thinking: My final modern physics exam, long ago, posed a problem involving a unique environment, with no quantified details. We were expected to write about the process by which the question might be answered.
• Steve - National Univ. (San Diego): I have never seen employers demand overall respect.  Is this an indicator that people skills are not a requirement for hire?
• Russell J: While composition skills are ready bridges from language studies towards STEM studies, reading skills are often overlooked. What would you sugget to encourage critical reading skills in the STEM classroom?
• Lyn F: You could utilize workforce development professionals to convince those students that employers in all fields require these soft skills.
• Veronica W: I find it interesting how Communications courses haven't been mentioned yet. At the high school level, they are not mandated, but considered an elective in the state of Texas. At the college level, they are considered a "humanities" course, which can be filled by alternate courses.
• Loretta S: In my school, we offer externships, internships, and work-study opportunities that really help students to gain real-world work experience.
• Michael M: Whimiscal: Are the robots coming in the future to take the jobs built with the soft skills??
• Christina K: We have a presentation rubric that grades students as a whole on certain aspects but also individually on other areas like stage presence and knowledge.
• Laura: Re Group Work - you have to assess the quality of the group work as well as the product of the group work.  Few people do this.  If group skills are important - they HAVE to be assessed.  I can share tools for this.
• CindiT: Group work requires practice. Developing a skill set to be successful is part of the process.
• CindiT: Research supports the fact that music students do better in math.
• Christina K: Team projects done as presentations
• Sandra Lakey: I just want to stress how important it is to teach the students how to write and speck before you ask them to do these things in a STEM class. Otherwise all they will do is write bad papers or give bad speeches and inadvertently reinforce bad habits.
• Roselyn C: Please provide  the Q & A recording link  so this wonderful seminar can be complete. Thank you so much!!