Stealing Discovery: The Theft of Organic Learning Opportunities in STEM Education

Justin Luttrell, Ed.D., Director of STEM and Blended Learning, Pulaski County Special School District

“I can’t do this. It’s too hard,” my second grader said in defeat of her math assignment. I stopped working and peered across the table. Where did my daughter learn to give up so easily? When did she develop such a helplessness when concepts became difficult? Her mother is a math teacher; her father works as a STEM director. I reflected on this even more. Was it somehow our fault? What were we going to do to reverse course on this behavior before it is too late?

I cannot count the number of math and science classrooms I have visited over the course of my leadership journey. One growing trend which I have observed is the lack of confidence in students when tackling STEM concepts. The greater the number of observations, the lower the grade level of students I observe displaying this same defeatist behavior.

Many years ago, as a kindergarten student, I sat in front of a green screen mesmerized by the adventure that awaited me. I had finished my “classwork” and, as a reward, I loaded up my Conestoga wagon and headed West. I had played this game often, and every time the end result was the same- death! I died from dysentery, snake bites, and cholera too many times to recall. Once, I remember breaking a leg and wasting away from lack of food. It didn’t matter how many times I failed. I was off discovering the new West and a virtual death wasn’t going to stop me. While this was all a game, it taught me a valuable lesson- failure was not the end. Despite my many encounters with death, I never paused to have someone bail me out. I was in Kindergarten, so I didn’t know how to default the game into an easier level. I  simply had to master my own fate. The memories are with me to this day, although I never finished a single trip to Oregon.

In much the same way, learning is an adventure. The most important facet of adventure is discovery. Discovery is the act of revealing or uncovering. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the term adventure was used to denote risk, loss, and wonder. In order to uncover new knowledge and skills within us, we must first learn to wonder by taking cognitive risks. This process is key for STEM fields. Yet, so often when faced with the first sight of challenge, students are rescued. This rescue, though pure in intention, is detrimental to the learning journey that should be taking place in our STEM classrooms. In short, the rescue mission becomes a thief of discovery, and by default, one of the greatest barriers to student engagement and learning in STEM.

"In order to uncover new knowledge and skills within us, we must first learn to wonder by taking cognitive risks. This process is key for STEM fields"

STEM teachers commonly report students coming to their courses unprepared. Most teachers desire to mitigate these gaps in learning, but their intentions so often involve swooping in to rescue students from productive struggles. So, how can educators refrain from stealing discovery?

● Give Wait Time: By giving students more time to answer and respond, we are letting them know that it is ok to think through a situation or challenge- to wonder. Giving students longer wait time also prevents the teacher from doing all the heavy lifting so soon.

● Give Questions to Questions: In much the same way longer wait times give students space to wonder, responding to student questions with a question puts the cognitive effort of the journey back in the hands of the learner. If we tell students all the answers, learning becomes nothing more than a series of steps to follow.

● Champion Growth Mindsets: STEM educators tend to focus on answers more than the arts and humanities. It’s not that correctness doesn’t matter; it does. Around the same time calculus was formulated, Isaac Newton had to discover the journey an apple takes from the tree to the ground. There was no one around to give him the answer. He had to take a cognitive journey towards that outcome, using math as he understood it to be. I wonder how many times he rejected his own hypotheses before arriving at gravity. It is said that mistakes are the portal to discovery.

● Give Challenges, Not Problems: In STEM fields, mathematical and scientific discoveries are often driven by situational urgency. Challenges give students real-world situational issues that allow for wonder. Problems, too often, allow only for processes and procedures, and by default, require lower depths of knowledge. In the ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence, students will find processes and procedures readily available at their fingertips. We must then push for more depth of knowledge with unique challenges to apply mathematical and scientific processes.

 It is not so much that our children are developing a learned helplessness out of refusal to work hard at something. Rather, it is that our children are consistently losing the empowerment that derives from the discovery process. Without this empowerment of discovery to build their confidence and push them to take cognitive risks, student engagement in STEM concepts will continue to diminish. The good news is that children are resilient. It is not too late to turn the tide. Educators are the greatest predictive factor in a child’s learning. We can do this, if we all agree to stop stealing their discovery. 

Cognitive

Artificial Intelligence