2

Goals for the Future: Changing Purposes of Undergraduate STEM Education

What purposes does undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education currently serve? How is it likely to change, and how should it change? Four panelists were asked to consider the role of STEM education in helping students to become effective citizens of a democracy and prepared to contribute to the workforce (see Box 2-1). Panelists were chosen to provide perspectives on the purpose of undergraduate STEM education from their view points in industry, and at a Community College, a liberal arts college, and a research university. They were asked to consider the diverse contributions that STEM fields make to society and how those contributions might shape priorities for STEM education.

GOALS OF UNDERGRADUATE STEM EDUCATION

University of South Carolina provost William Tate opened the panel by calling on higher education to democratize access to information and knowledge, including increasing opportunities for access to the best teachers and to evidence-based learning experiences. He particularly pointed out the need to pay attention to the realm of “computational tools and artificial intelligence as it relates to the very fabric of our society.” He observed that these tools affect both legal, health, and medicine systems, and that a key function of STEM education is to provide all students the opportunity to understand these tools and their role in a democracy. All students need access to the very best programming and teachers, accessed using whatever platform works best.

Oakley drew on his experience as chancellor of the California Community College system, which, he noted, educates one of every four Community College students in the nation. The system provides training and education for a substantial fraction of the nation’s nurses and other allied health professionals. Community Colleges, in his view, are critical to democratizing access to STEM fields because they place a strong emphasis on access and inclusion. “This is the place where so many students of all backgrounds can come to pursue careers in STEM fields,” he noted. These institutions also have the opportunity to form partnerships with 4-year institutions and employers that are important means of diversifying the STEM workforce. The challenge, in his view, is for Community Colleges to do a better job of making students aware of the pathways into STEM fields and to do so with urgency in this “moment of racial reckoning.” He added, “It is not just critical for the students that want to pursue these pathways, it is critical for us as a nation to begin to diversify these fields and to really show students that they can see themselves as doctors, as nurses, as biotech professionals, as computer engineers.”

From Sigur’s perspective in industry, the primary purpose of undergraduate STEM education is to act as a bridge for K–12 students to further STEM education and careers. Perhaps the most important goal of undergraduate STEM education in her view is that students gain critical thinking skills, which can often happen through experiential learning. She agreed with Tate that understanding computer science and technology is

both key and becoming increasingly accessible, and consequently, undergraduate STEM education needs to keep preparing students adequately. “Changes . . . in health care, robotics, and artificial intelligence are going to change the world,” she noted, and this will influence expectations for STEM careers.

Sigur also emphasized that innovation requires a diversity of thought. Increasingly, she suggested, industries that rely on STEM professionals will look to race-conscious, inclusive institutions as places that generate diverse ideas. The demand for innovation will work to the benefit of universities that take advantage of virtual learning to pursue such goals as introducing students to international collaborations, in her view. Expanded partnerships with industry can provide students with valuable opportunities for experiential learning, she noted. Postsecondary institutions that embrace the connections between STEM fields and the arts and humanities, she added, will also contribute to enhancing student capacities for innovative thinking.

Su, a mathematics professor at Harvey Mudd College, began by explaining the difference between skills, which are things for students to learn, and virtues and character traits built by education. Virtues include “persistence, curiosity, creativity, intellectual humility” and the confidence to tackle new problems. Higher education focuses on skills because they are easier to assess than virtues, but skills can be replaced by computers or artificial intelligence. Virtues, however, will always be in demand, and a broader focus on virtues will make equity easier to achieve. “These virtues will serve you well no matter what profession you go into, no matter where your life takes you, and make your life richer,” Su said, adding that while necessary skills change often, virtues drive innovation. Consequently, he believes that “the most important goal of a STEM education in 2040 is the same as it is today: the development of virtue and also broadening how we think about education to address it.”

GOALS FOR UNDERGRADUATE STEM LEARNING

Planning committee member Cathy Manduca noted that she heard three “big classes of goals in the opening statements” made by the panelists. She summarized Tate’s comments about the importance of preparing students to be democratic citizens, ensuring that all students understand the role of technology and STEM in our society, ensuring that they understand how it impacts our lives as citizens. She reiterated Sigur’s and Oakley’s observations about the preparation of the workforce, and then finally, Su’s comments about the importance of higher education in creating individuals who flourish as human beings. Stating that she believes that these are broad and rich goals for higher education, she asked the panelists to talk about the “relationships between these goals and how prioritizing one or another

might suggest a different future for undergraduate STEM learning or how they can be brought together in ways that allow all these goals to flourish.”

Tate views the goals articulated by Manduca as interdependent and not mutually exclusive. In his view, access that begins in the K–12 environment and at Community Colleges is the foundation for both creating a STEM-literate citizenry and democratizing the ways in which STEM plays out in U.S. society. Tate added that those who will be designing new technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools should learn virtues in their education that could address potential “disparities [that] might unfold in the technology we use.” Sigur agreed that these three goals are interdependent, and that developing virtues is part of “shaping a mind, establishing expectations, and enabling a STEM worker to be agile and able to handle” all the new ideas and concepts that will crop up in 2040 and beyond.

Oakley also agreed with the importance of developing virtues, but he highlighted the challenge of addressing the systemic issues of discrimination and racism embedded in the educational system that prevent communities of color and low-income communities from accessing STEM jobs. “Hiring processes that exist,” said Oakley, “do not hire on the basis of virtue. They hire on the basis of where you went to school for the top engineering jobs in the country, or if you want to become a doctor or if you want to get a fellowship. So we need to think about how we set up a system that values the kinds of virtues that we’re talking about and does not continue to value the kinds of barriers that we put up as a system of higher education,” including the barriers that exist because of the current math curriculum.” In Oakley’s experience, students from low-income or difficult backgrounds are highly creative and resilient problem-solvers, and they need the opportunity to demonstrate those virtues in the STEM fields.

Su said that he avoids talking about education as a means to get a job and instead focuses on developing the whole person in terms of character, compassion, and community-centered learning. Experiential learning is a critical piece of education, and Su explained that educators need to teach students how to interact with people from completely different backgrounds and learn to appreciate their strengths, which traditional assessments often miss. “What I hope will happen by 2040 is that we could imagine an educational system where people actually think about issues of justice, think about issues that are affecting their particular communities,” said Su. “We have to think about how to shape [learning] experiences so that students see themselves in those experiences and are able to fully participate in them.”

The Role of Internships

From his perspective as a hiring manager, planning committee member Arthur Lee asked the panelists to comment on the value that employers can

get from experiential learning and the role that internships and co-ops play in undergraduate STEM education. He also asked the panelists to address those aspects of STEM education that employers would most value today and in the future. Oakley remarked that there is a need to put less value on a degree and more on competency, experiences, and skills. The value we give to higher education should not be based on who attends selective universities; higher education should be valued for “creating the greatest opportunity for the largest amount of individuals, and then rethinking the way that we communicate those skills.” Achieving that state will require building portfolios of student experiences and demonstrated skills and competencies rather than rewarding degrees from specific institutions.

Sigur noted that the aerospace industry does not consider a prospective employee’s school as a primary criterion for hiring, but looks for people with experiences in applying learned information who can become specialists with on-the-job training. “Frankly,” she said, “you get an opportunity to develop critical thinking only as you start to apply the things you have learned in school.” She added that when she, a Black girl in New Orleans, decided she wanted to be an engineer, she had no idea what an engineering degree really involved nor a complete understanding of what working in the engineering field would entail. The co-op experience required her to use skills and approaches that she had learned in school to analyze data and resolve issues. It “forced me to understand the importance of critical thinking,” she said, “and the dance between working and going back to school allowed me to pull for answers that I wouldn’t have otherwise pulled for and frankly shaped my ability to be successful in the working world.” Sigur added that although hiring managers in her industry consider an applicant’s university degree and their course work, “it is even more important to see whether or not someone already has the ability to perform, because more than anything, you would like to have someone show up on day one and be able to execute.”

Tate explained that programs that have democratized access provide students with the opportunity to experience research and enhance their research skills and also provide mentors and a comprehensive support system, and they enable access to both professional networks outside of the university ecosystem and socialization into their chosen STEM fields. “That screams co-op, an opportunity to work in industry, and undergraduate research,” said Tate. “It screams that the link between undergraduate research and going out into the professional work world is extremely important.” He added that the discussion should stop being about degrees and instead focus on programs—both in 2-year and 4-year institutions—and the question of whether a program of study includes the type of virtues that Su identified. “If we are doing that, we are going to have great students,” said Tate.

Su agreed that experiential learning is “hugely important,” regardless of whether it comes from being in the workforce, having an internship with a company, or working in an academic laboratory. In fact, he called for institutions of higher education to restructure their curricula to feature fewer lectures and more hands-on experiences. He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic, with its heavy reliance on online education, has cost students the opportunity to have these in-person, hands-on experiences that not only teach skills, but also allow them to see how people treat each other in academic and nonacademic settings.

TRANSFORMING STRUCTURES OF UNDERGRADUATE STEM EDUCATION

Setting the stage for upcoming symposium panels focused on the transformation of undergraduate education, Manduca then asked the panelists to speak about what the ideal future educational structures will look like. Su said he sees higher education taking advantage of online platforms to have courses taught by the best teachers, but also including in-person, experiential learning, possibly using flipped learning models. Oakley commented that it is difficult to imagine how any new structure for STEM education works without universal access to broadband internet, an element of infrastructure that is becoming an increasingly fundamental stepping stone toward achieving many of these aspirational goals. The other critical infrastructure piece needed is diversifying faculty and staff so that students can see themselves in their instructors and faculty can better understand the experiences of their students. STEM educators of color or those who come from low-income backgrounds can help build underlying education infrastructure, said Oakley.

Structures of higher education that currently act as barriers were also discussed by the panelists, one example being that math courses can act as gatekeepers and limit who can enroll in other STEM courses. Oakley mentioned how algebra is often taught as a bunch of rote things you have to memorize without context. He called on curriculum designers in the higher education environment to think about how to make these experiences more relevant to the lives of students and enable students to more fully participate. Sigur pointed out the need to be creative and support and encourage students from diverse backgrounds who may not come in with a strength in algebra. She explained the need for a more intense focus on experiential learning so that students leave higher education ready to produce and perform on day one of their employment. Oakley, with his perspective from Community Colleges, explained that many students from low-income communities, students who have come from very difficult backgrounds, are often the most creative: they are great problem-solvers and amazingly

resilient, so we need to give them an opportunity to demonstrate those skills, to demonstrate those virtues in the kind of jobs that we are talking about. He said that “we as educators need to find a better way to measure the kinds of learning that we think we are going to need to support our students with as they get into the fields of the future.” Su commented that he shies away from focusing on getting a job as the purpose of education because he does not want people to think about education as a competition. He encouraged a larger focus on developing the whole person in relation to compassion, character, and in all things, taking into account our fellow students, the people that we are learning with together in community. He pointed out that a focus on experiential learning has got to be a huge part of that.

Tate noted that at research universities like his every department has some faculty or staff who excel in the big class lecture format and others who are outstanding at teaching small classes and providing one-on-one instruction, yet academia has never organized instructional responsibilities in a way that builds on the assets and strengths of their individual faculty members. In his opinion, this type of organization could help increase persistence toward STEM degrees simply by reducing the chances that students will have one or two bad instructional experiences. Sigur added that, given the costs of higher education, “there will be a greater pull for schools getting better and being responsive as people consider that it’s not just an investment of time anymore but of significant dollars.” Finally, Su commented that he was hoping “that as we move forward, people will begin to see some of the most important things about college education aren’t necessarily just the physical surroundings and the perks that you get. What’s really essential, I think, is the community that you build and that you learn together now.”

SUMMARY

To close the discussion period, Lee, speaking as a STEM businessperson, addressed the question as to why more employers do not offer internships by saying that there has to be a business case for investing in an internship program so the company can see a future benefit. Manduca began her summary of the discussion by stressing “these three goals of developing virtuous students able to have rich lives, of creating a citizenry that is prepared for our democracy and for living in it, and creating a workforce for tomorrow.” Education works best when it serves all those goals together, she observed. She also highlighted the discussions of virtues within the workforce, valuing programs over degrees, and the community one builds in education. Finally, Manduca ended the session by reiterating Tate’s remarks about the importance of a student’s networks inside and

outside of their education and the fact that community includes not only fellow students but also the faculty and the people a student engages with as they go into the world through experiential learning. “That is, I think, a really lovely vision,” Manduca said, “and it really sets up this notion that in the future, we will have new roles and mixtures of ways of learning. I like the idea that the graduate students and the faculty all form a community of learning that maximizes both the learning for the students and the capabilities of the members of that community.”