5 quotes about education that anticipated the STEM model

STEM education isn’t only about technology, coding and robotics. STEM education also comes to offer the world an interdisciplinary model based on inclusivity, integration, assessment and delivery of useful skills.

Students who go through STEM education, with the guidance of a well prepared teacher (or mentor, as we like to call them), will be able to shape this world into a fairer and more equal place.

Kids who receive STEM education will be better prepared to face real life problems with more creativity, critical thinking and effectiveness.

We put together a few old-ish quotes about education that come to remind us about the deepest meaning of this new model: Placingthe students on athrone, and giving them an actual possibility to learn, explore, discover and create their own learning process.

Enjoy these 5quotes about education that anticipated the focus we are all using (or should be, at least) today.

“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’”

-Maria Montessori

This is exactly what we meant when we referred to teachers as mentors or guides. Self-learning processes allow kids to build theirself-confidence and a better relationship with research sources, and assures a higher level of preparation for real life problems.

What should be the ideal level of participation of a teacher in a class? How much space should students have to explore and build their own learning processes? How does a teacher design a space in which students will build and gainknowledge and skills in the intendedway?

We would love to hear your thoughts on these subjects!

Read more about Maria Montessori in this article of our blog in which we wrote about her.

“Where is the book in which the teacher can read about what teaching is? The children themselves are this book. We should not learn to teach out of any book other than the one lying open before us and consisting of the children themselves.”

-Rudolph Steiner

Indeed, there are thousands of books with extremely valuable material about pedagogical strategies and educational psychology. We value, appreciate and consider those backgrounds for every single coding with robots course we design.

Anyway, the actual learning for a teacher comes from the constant interactivity with the class.

The inherent interdisciplinary aspect of STEM education enables teachers to watch their students progress from a different, formative and constructive point of view.

In some sort of way, this relatesto the subject of the webinar we organized: “Assessment in a STEM & Robotics learning environment”.

If we look only at the theory in books, how could we measure creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving abilities? What’s the right pedagogical strategy to use when the goal is to motivate our students to find full, creative, effective and useful solutions for an engineering problem?

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”

-Steve Jobs

Once again: experiencing, applying skills and focusing on aninterdisciplinary world equals success. Steve Jobs realized this not only when mentioning this but also when deciding who to hire.

STEM education provides the space to experience, to get the skills the –uncertain future- demands from us, to actually be able to “connect the dots” in order to get to a creative form of solution to a specific and sometimes undefined problem.

“The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge.”

-Seymour Papert

Oh, Seymour! We just love Papert’s texts and legacy. All of his research on education mixed with technology drove him to understand how important it actually is to create a space for students to create.

He sees the teacher as the responsible for enabling this process to happen. Opening, with his thoughts, many new questions and challenges for educators worldwide.

Read about Seymour’s work and legacy in this article we wrote about him a few weeks ago.

“The function ofeducationis to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.Educationis the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

-John Dewey

And John Dewey was totally write when saying this. Critical thinking, character, teamwork abilities, and a strong desire to learn how we can shape the world of the future can be a stunning formula to current students to open the doors to success.

Yes, STEM (or STEAM) is not only about technology, coding and robotics, but also about the amazing heightswe could reach if we use those items in a smart and focused way.

We hope tools like ours to be the road for the students’ success in the near future. We aim to be a valuable instrument to shape their future. May they make this world a better place.