Episode 73: Bridging Soft Skills and STEM Education — A Redefinition of Learning

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Welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microdiscriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids who.

Were in the public school system.

I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then.

Equipped to be able to successfully support.

My children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K12 education trends and topics is is important.

To you, so keep listening. On today's episode, I'll be discussing the relationship between soft skills and stem. Soft skills are those interpersonal skills that today's employers are looking for in all job applicants, especially those in the technical fields. While technical skills can be taught, interpersonal skills need to be developed through coaching. So how do these two areas intersect and what are the benefits of having excellent soft skills while pursuing or working in a technical field? I'll address these questions and other areas of interest pertaining to this topic on this episode. Let's get started. Soft skills generally encompass communication skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills, leadership skills and collaboration and teamwork skills. One of the important characteristics of soft skills is that they relate directly to developing problem solving abilities. Soft skills actually complement technical skills. Soft skills are the approach appropriate attitudes, behaviors and dispositions that foster relationships. Although there is an intersection between interpersonal skills and soft skills, interpersonal skills are people skills or skills that initiate, build and maintain relationships between people. Soft skills are part of personal qualities in the form of interpersonal skills and these skills are very influential on a person's success. Additional soft skills that need to be implemented in the educational arena include information management, lifelong learning skills, entrepreneurial skills, ethics, and professionalism. Interpersonal skills are skills in self regulation. Historically, there have been inconsistent funding for soft skills training in American schools, especially for primary and secondary education. Because of this, many Students often arrive in higher education settings with fragmented training and soft skill competency development. There is no federal law that addresses specific soft skills education. K12 public education basically defaults soft skills education to post high school experiences in life, in the workforce, or in higher education. In the educational setting, instructional strategies for teaching soft skills could include group decision making, games, role play with discussion, following structured exercises, and group projects. One of the benefits of having outstanding soft skills is that they are not unique to a certain industry or discipline. These skills can be transferred from industry to industry. Both soft skills and technical skills are critical to success on the job and technical skills are not enough to keep you employed. The truth of the matter is that job candidates can be good hires even if they lack some of the technical skills because these skills can be taught Now Switching from Soft Skills to STEM stem, which is an acronym that stands for science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, was initiated in the 1990s in the United States by the National Science Foundation. STEM is a learning alternative designed to build 21st century abilities and skills. The educational goal of STEM is to integrate multidisciplinary science as a key to deep understanding and meaningful learning. STEM has slowly begun migrating into STEAM education in the classroom STE setting with an emphasis on the arts. STEM education is an integration of four inseparable components related to various situations and experiences of everyday life. STEM implementation and education is typically divided into three the silo approach, the embedded approach, and the integrated approach. In the silos approach, learning is taught in each of the STEM disciplines which is separated from the other disciplines in order to allow students to gain a deeper understanding of one specific subject topic. The embedded approach in science learning emphasizes reviewing the content within several contexts. The realm of engineering and technology is infused throughout STEM learning. This approach raises competencies in various subjects so that competency limits are determined in order to achieve learning objectives. The integrated approach in STEM education is carried out to fuse its components which allows students to gain mastery of these competencies needed to solve problems in everyday life by integrating all components in STEM education. In science learning, STEM education is usually integrated with project based learning models models. Additionally, the inquiry learning model provides students with opportunities to take the initiative in learning and develop independence so that they can gain problem solving skills and teamwork during the learning process. Learning science at the early childhood school level helps to facilitate various aspects of a child's development including cognitive, language, art, physical motor skills and socio emotional skills. Critical thinking ability, problem solving ability, and scientific literacy are the dominant learning outcomes in STEM education. The engineering portion of the STEM approach uses Engineering as a tool to teach other STEM disciplines Because the engineering design process not only helps to acquire subject knowledge and skills, but also creates a platform for developing high level skills. Engineering is the glue that holds the other STEM disciplines together. Connecting science and engineering practices can promote meaningful learning in science education as well as build a basis for new learning in various contexts. STEM integration requires using real world problems or context and ideas and skills that connect the disciplines. STEM learning is a process that occurs through dynamic interactions over time and across settings. Formal education in school is not the only place where STEM learning occurs. Opportunities occur in out of school time, including during design programs, before and after school, through mentoring programs and via online communities. These opportunities, collectively known as the STEM Learning ecosystem, which consists of interactions among learners, settings in which learning occurs and the learners, communities and cultures. There's a need to map these learning opportunities in the communities to the gaps in STEM learning ecosystem, especially for students from underrepresented groups like girls, African Americans, Latino and Latina populations and Native American children and map those gaps to existing opportunities. It's important to address the inequities that limit access of children from underrepresented and communities to STEM careers and academic pursuits. The goal of STEM education should not be to eliminate perceived deficits in students, their families or their communities, but to find connections between each of these and the disciplinary knowledge and practices to promote equitable cross setting learning in the STEM ecosystem. Afterschool programs should one draw values and practices from multiple settings to articulate shared learning goals and to identify resources that can help meet those goals. Point 2 these afterschool programs should structure partnerships in such a way that multiple stakeholder groups and co design initiatives can promote learning across settings. Number three they should engage students in building stories, imaginative worlds and artifacts that make connections that have meaning across learning settings. And point 4 these after school programs should help students identify with the learning enterprise by supporting, supporting and naming them as contributors to their authentic endeavors. In order to implement these four cross setting equity oriented design principles, resources and processes need to be in place that connect organizations and communities. Resources are needed to support both families and programs. One of the reasons that young people from lower income families suspend pursuit of STEM interests is that they lose access to material resources such as transportation or computers that support their participation. Promoting equity in STEM education means providing funding to sustain programs and to lower or eliminate the cost of participation for low income students. Efforts to raise parent awareness of learning opportunities and allow their children to persist in STEM activities and this may be a crucial part of a robust learning ecology A main goal of utilizing soft skills and being competent in technical knowledge is to produce students who will be proficient in the working world. This is in line with how soft skills and STEM are related. The fact of the matter is that soft skills may not be innate, but they can be learned. Integrating soft skills can be achieved by designing activities in the curriculum that strengthen these skills. For example, to improve a student's verbal communication skills, assignments can require oral presentations and these could be impacted embedded in the curriculum with appropriate assessments. The PLAN curriculum, typically taught in the K12 public education system, concentrates mostly on the technical requirements necessary to graduate. These are the skills that are taught in STEM programs. The focus is now to couple both technical skills with soft skills so the students graduate with the ability to work in teams to demonstrate proficient oral and written communication skills as well as a willingness to learn new skills so that they're successful in the workplace. Some of these communication skills that could simulate a workplace environment include presentation skills, phone skills, creating meeting minutes, email etiquette, and interviewing skills. Phone skills, email etiquette and interviewing skills are great topics from which to develop role play activities. So what would a blending of soft skills and technical skills look like in a computer engineering course? For example.

Have you had a chance to check out my interactive expert on my website? There are some great conversations and questions going on there. You can check it out at me. Anything. Again, check out the questions and conversations happening there at.

The learning outcomes might be one Analyze the computing problem and apply computing engineering principles and other relevant disciplines to identify solutions 2. Design, implement and evaluate a computing based solution to meet a given set of computing requirements for the development of a particular product 3. Communicate effectively in a variety of contexts 4 Recognize ethical responsibilities and make informed decisions about a computing practice based on legal requirements 5. Function effectively as a team member or team leader engaged in activities appropriate for the course and 6 identify and analyze user needs and take them into consideration as far as the selection, creation, integration, evaluation and implementation of a computer based system. Given these types of outcomes, it's imperative that the instructional model for a course of this nature is not purely lecture based but is task based and hands on. This allows students to practice and develop all of these skills. Students will be assessed through the performance of these tasks with feedback provided. The Learning through practice in order to develop skills skills is similar to how you learn to swim by being in a pool. Volunteerism can improve soft skills for those pursuing STEM subjects or careers. Volunteering can increase communication skills, productivity, critical thinking skills, and interpersonal skills. It's a pro social behavior that plays a significant role in in society by strengthening social connectivity and delivering much needed goods and public services. For students, volunteerism tends to impact their sense of responsibility and citizenship. Students who volunteer regularly are more likely to engage in various political behaviors such as voting as well as participate more in community service activities. Volunteerism also tends to improve academic performance, develop leadership potential and boost self confidence. The key to volunteering though is that it needs to be consistent as in occurring on a regular basis. Students that regularly volunteer experience improvement in their soft skills compared with occasional and first time volunteers. Here are some action steps you can take regarding this topic. If your child is interested in the subjects that constitute STEM learning, be sure to support them by providing them with the necessary resources, contacts, mentors and programs that encourage them to see themselves and young scientists. For example, 4h is the youth development organization of the Cooperative Extension System. This national organization serves children in the areas of healthy living, Civic Engagement and STEM. The 4H summer of STEM is a workforce readiness program for high school students. The goals of the program are to increase students interest in in STEM careers, improve college and workforce readiness, and connect students to businesses and industries in the local community. Based on feedback from recent participants in the program, students stated that they gained information and experience that they didn't get in school, including being able to deepen their knowledge and their specific subject matter of interest, polishing their public speaking skills, and developing their leadership abilities. There may also be programs at colleges and universities like the SEEDS Project at the University of Southern California. There may be other projects similar to this in your area that support underrepresented students in STEM learning. You might want to check into these because these programs dismantle stereotypes about marginalized people, especially those about their technical abilities and competencies, as well as encourage students to explore more information about STEM careers. These programs also expose participants to award winning video games like Legends of Learning, which has a STEM focus yet doesn't require students to have prior knowledge of the lessons. Featured here are this episode's takeaways. Soft skills generally encompass communication skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills, leadership skills, and collaboration and teamwork skills. One of the important characteristics of soft skills is that they relate directly to developing problem solving abilities. Soft skills actually complement technical skills. Soft skills are part of personal qualities in the form of interpersonal skills, and these skills are very influential to on a person's success. Additional soft skills that need to be implemented in the education environment include information management, lifelong learning skills, entrepreneurship skills, ethics, and professionalism. Interpersonal skills are skills in self regulation. STEM was initiated in the 1990s in the United States by the National Science Foundation. STEM is a learning alternative designed to build 21st century skills and abilities. The educational goal of STEM is to integrate multidisciplinary science as a key to deep understanding and meaningful learning. Critical thinking ability, problem solving ability, and scientific literacy are the dominant learning outcomes in STEM education. The STEM learning process is a process that occurs through dynamic interactions over time and across settings. Formal education in school is not the only place where STEM learning occurs. Opportunities occur in out of school time, including during design programs, before and after school, through mentoring programs, and via online communities. These opportunities collectively are known as the STEM Learning Ecosystem, which consists of interactions among learners, settings in which learnings occur, and the learners communities and culture. The focus is now to couple both technical skills with soft skills so that students graduate with the ability to work in teams to demonstrate proficient oral and written communication skills as well as a willingness to learn new skills so that they're successful in the workplace. Some of these communication skills that simulate workplace environment include presentation skills, phone skills, creating meeting minutes, email etiquette, and interviewing skills. Volunteerism can improve soft skills for those pursuing STEM subjects or careers. Volunteering can increase communication skills, productivity, critical thinking skills, and interpersonal skills. It's a pro social behavior that plays a significant role in society by strengthening social connectivity and delivering the necessary goods and public services. A main goal of utilizing soft skills and being competent in technical knowledge is to produce students who will be proficient in the working world. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast or whatever service you're listening to. This. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a rating, a review, or a comment on Apple or podchaser if you like this podcast. The best way to support me and help me grow grow it is by leaving a review. This helps my rankings and entices other people to listen to the show and share this episode with anyone that you think would find valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. And be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode. I'll be discussing project based learning. Until next time. Aim to learn something new every day.

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