Watch a group of young children in a community garden. They’ll dig in the soil, find and play with earthworms and insects, plant seeds in patches of sunlight, and come back to watch them sprout, grow, and bear fruit. With a little help, these kids can be doing more than simply playing in the dirt. They can be learning the beginnings of environmental science and plant biology and practicing critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Working alongside teachers trained in early STEM learning, they can be exploring the fundamentals of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)—and developing the skills they need to prepare for the future.

Millions of children, and especially the very young, aren’t exposed to STEM subjects and skills and don’t have the trained teachers who can help them get fluent in them. Advocates for early STEM learning are working to change this, but they face significant communications barriers. At the FrameWorks Institute, a communications think tank founded nearly two decades ago, we study how the public understands and thinks about social and scientific issues so that advocates can communicate more effectively with the public. Last week, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and New America released a report on early STEM learning that includes an article by FrameWorks about how to make a stronger case for STEM learning. This article builds on extensive research we have conducted in recent years into how to frame STEM education.

Research reveals that the public holds a number of problematic beliefs about STEM. For example, people think about learning in a linear and hierarchical way. They tend to think that kids need to master “basic” skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic before they can tackle subjects like science, technology, engineering and “higher order” math. If people think (incorrectly) that kids can’t process STEM subjects until they learn other subjects first, parents and voters won’t be likely to prioritize programs that expose very young children to STEM subjects. Watch people reason about STEM learning in the on-the-street videos in this multimedia report about how to communicate about reframing STEM education.

People also tend to think that STEM is only for certain “kinds” of kids—those who have an innate interest and aptitude in STEM subjects. When thinking of STEM in this way, people are less likely to find differential access to STEM education programs problematic. Support for programs and policies designed to provide early STEM access to all children seems ill-considered if only some kids harbor STEM talent.

How can advocates for early STEM learning overcome these (and other) problematic ways of thinking? This is an empirical question. At FrameWorks, we designed and tested frame elements (including values, examples, and metaphors) to see which were most effective in shifting public thinking in productive ways. The result: A meta-narrative, a core story of STEM education, that has the documented power to help the public understand the importance of STEM learning and support policies and programs that promote it at all ages and for all kids. I presented our findings last year in a speech at the White House symposium on early STEM learning.

To help the audience remember my advice, I offered a familiar mnemonic device: STEM. This one doesn’t stand for science, technology, engineering, and math, though. It stands for setting, tension, explanation, and metaphor. The components of any good story.

Setting. In fiction, we think of setting as a “it was a dark and stormy night.” In storytelling for social change, though, setting communicates why an issue is important and matters to society. We use values—cherished cultural ideals like freedom, justice, and equality of opportunity—to set the stage. Not just any value will do, though. We test values to see which are most effective in helping people understand why issues are important to society. FrameWorks researchers found that the values of Future Preparation (that we have to plan now for a complex and unpredictable future) and Collective Prosperity (that society as a whole will benefit if we ensure our future leaders have the skills they need to participate in a prosperous, information-age economy) were the most effective at elevating support for STEM policies and programs.

Tension. Every story has a villain. Who’s the bad guy in early STEM learning? The paucity of opportunities offered in some places. Some kids live in environments with a lot of STEM learning opportunities; they can plug into STEM learning charging stations like museums, libraries, and schools. Others don’t. They live in charging “dead zones,” and they don’t have access to high-quality learning opportunities. The “charging stations” metaphor helps people understand how systemic factors produce disparities in STEM learning—even at a young age—and how we could change outcomes by charging up those environments.

Explanation. In social storytelling, explanation helps people understand complex problems and processes. FrameWorks tested several examples to explain how and why early STEM learning is important. The community garden example, used at the top of this article, was especially effective. It elevated support for applied learning and informal STEM programs and helped people prioritize experimentation in learning, not just rote memorization of basic skills.

Metaphor. Metaphors aren’t merely literary devices. They also help people relate complex social and scientific issues to objects and processes from their everyday lives. FrameWorks found several metaphors helped people understand how STEM learning works and whom it benefits. One is the “charging stations” metaphor described above. Another compares STEM learning to becoming fluent in a foreign language. It helps people understand that children develop STEM “fluency” in the same way they learn a new language: through immersion.

Together, these components create a “core story” of STEM education that can help scientists, teachers, and advocates share the science—and be sure that it is getting through. To learn more about this story, read STEM Starts Early: Grounding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math in Early Childhood, visit our website, or take a free course on framing STEM education.

 

Susan Nall Bales is founder and senior advisor to the FrameWorks Institute.

 

 

 

Whether it is gardening, building forts, stacking blocks, playing at the water table, or lining up by height in the classroom, children demonstrate a clear readiness to engage in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning early in life.

STEM Starts Early is the culmination of a deep inquiry supported by the National Science Foundation including: interviews with policy makers, researchers, and teacher educators; focus groups with preschool and elementary school teachers; an analysis of research funding in the area; and an extensive literature review on the latest research about early STEM learning. The initial findings were shared with leaders from policy, research, and education at a two-day agenda-setting convening at New America, and their input was then incorporated into the report released today.

Efforts involving STEM (as well as STEAM, which includes the arts) have been gaining momentum around the country.  In addition to raising awareness of STEM education needs at middle and high schools, a crop of research specialists and early childhood advocates has been focused on STEM in the early years. Last year, researchers established the DREME Network, which stands for Development and Research in Early Math Education, and earlier this month, the Early Childhood STEM Working Group published Early STEM Matters. Other system-building initiatives include: 100K in 10, focused on building a highly qualified STEM workforce; the Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM (TIES), which fuels STEM education curriculum and instructional program development; Change the Equation, an alliance of business and policy leaders devoted to promoting STEM education; and CS4All, an effort launched by President Obama and the National Science Foundation to ensure that every child masters computer science as a gateway skill.

These promising initiatives  point to a converging consensus among practitioners and policymakers  and are the first step in creating a web of charging stations for young children, ensuring that they can power up their learning anytime, anywhere. Initiatives like STEM Next work to engage kids in STEM everywhere, and high-quality media are being used to support teachers in the classroom (e.g., STEM from the Start), parents at home (e.g., Bedtime Math), and home-school connections using multi-media (e.g., Ready to Learn’s transmedia suites).

Findings and recommendations from the report include:

Findings

Researchers and educators agree: Children demonstrate a clear readiness to engage in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning early in life. And, just as with language and literacy, STEM education should start early in order to maximize its benefits and effectiveness.

1. Both parents and teachers appear to be enthusiastic and capable of supporting early STEM learning; however, they require additional knowledge and support to do so effectively.
2. Teachers in early childhood environments need more robust training and professional development to effectively engage young children in developmentally appropriate STEM learning.
3. Parents and technology can help connect school, home, and other learning environments like libraries and museums to support early STEM learning.
4. Research and public policies play a critical role in the presence and quality of STEM learning in young children’s lives, and both benefit from sustained dialogue with one another and with teachers in the classroom.
5. An empirically-tested, strategic communications effort is needed to convey an accurate understanding of developmental science to the public, leading to support for meaningful policy change around early STEM learning.

Recommendations

So why is STEM not woven more seamlessly into early childhood education? What can we do—in the classroom, in homes, in museums, in research labs, and in the halls of legislating bodies—to ensure that all young children have access to high-quality STEM learning early in life? Small and large steps can be taken, both sequentially and simultaneously, to advance  greater STEM learning in early childhood.

 

 

• Engage parents: Support parent confidence and efficacy as their children’s first and most important STEM guides.
• Support teachers: Improve training and institutional support for teaching early STEM.
• Connect learning: Support and expand the web of STEM learning “charging stations” available to children.
• Transform early childhood education: Build a sustainable and aligned system of high quality early learning from birth through age 8.
• Reprioritize research: Improve the way early STEM research is funded and conducted.
• Across all these recommended actions, use insights from communications science to build public will for and understanding of early STEM learning

Much has already been written about this project and report, including: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Behind the Scenes at the White House Early STEM Learning Symposium and Fostering STEM Trajectories: A Plan of Action; EdCentral’s Deepening Discussion of STEM in Early Learning Part 1 and Part 2; and the U.S. News’ Op-Ed: Integrating STEM Learning in Early Childhood Education. And for more information on the Fostering STEM Trajectories meeting that was held at New America

STEM Starts Early: Grounding science, technology, engineering, and math education in early childhood is available as a free download today.