The learning by doing approach in the spotlight of Gender4STEM teaching assistant

The European pilot tour of the Gender4Stem teaching assistant has recently started and made a stop in Luxembourg at IFEN on 14 March 2019, at the occasion of the training delivered by the Luxembourg Gender4STEM project team - composed of members from the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and Women in Digital Luxembourg.

Gender4STEM Teaching Assistant

“Girls do not belong in STEM”, “STEM are nerdy and boring”…Stereotypes on girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are numerous and tackling the low representation of girls in STEM is the aim of the Erasmus+ project Gender4STEM. How can this be achieved?  By supporting secondary level teachers in strengthening their gender fair educational practises. More information about the project on list.lu.

On 11 February 2019, at the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the project team has launched the Gender4STEM Teaching Assistant, where about 100 educational and awareness-raising materials are made available to teachers. The digital platform includes a self-assessment tool so that teachers can take stock of their own gendered education practices. Depending on each teacher's profile, the tool recommends learning content to help them better manage gender diversity in their classrooms.

In this context, hands on trainings have been developed to encourage and support teachers in using the Gender4STEM Teaching Assistant. Each partner organises pilot sessions in their country to test and improve the solution.

Hands on Training for Gender Fair Teaching in Luxembourg

Six Luxembourg teachers have participated in the training delivered by the Gender4STEM team at IFEN, the national training centre for teachers. This training was aimed at raising the gender fairness of their teaching practices, with the goal to attract more girls in STEM studies.

After digging into the stereotypes on girls in STEM, teachers discovered the Gender4STEM Teaching Assistant. As explained by Marie Gallais from LIST: “Teachers had the opportunity to get introduced to a platform where they self-assessed the gender fairness of their practices, accessed tailored recommendation of contents to help them improve their practices, and could freely browse contents available on the Teaching Assistant”. She goes on: “But, what makes this training original is that it relies on a learning by doing approach: the participating teachers selected one or more contents out of the nearly 100 available, and imagined how to implement them in their schools”. From now on, teachers have three months to carry out concrete implementations of the contents they chose, with the support of LIST and Women in Digital Luxembourg.

Marie Gallais concludes: “Participating teachers had creative and ambitious ideas. We are eager to hear about their implementations. Previously, as part of this European pilot tour, the Romanian, Croatian and Italian partners organised the training for national teachers and soon Dutch partners will organised their own”. In the second session of the training, the pilot teachers will present their experiences and their pupils’, contributing to the improvement of the Teaching Assistant, but also to give tips to other teachers who try those practices. Finally, implemented gender faire practises will be promoted in the next project multiplier events.

> For any further information on this topic, visit www.gender4stem-project.eu or contact Marie Gallais or Laurence Johannsen via email.