Sunday
Jul112010
Pathways vs. Pipeline
Sunday, July 11, 2010 at 6:51AM
In the STEM research literature, two models for recruiting students into STEM majors in college are often discussed.
The Pipeline model suggests that students drop out from considering a STEM career as a "leaky pipeline"; from middle school to college graduation, only a very small percent of a middle school population actually achieve a Bachelor's degree in science and engineering. An eye-opening statistic is that only about 5% of the Bachelor's degrees granted in the U.S. are in engineering.
The "Pathways" model suggests that students may decide they are not interested in a STEM career, but later on they may develop an interest in STEM as a result of life's experiences or conversations with their pees. For most STEM careers, this is very feasible. In colleges and universities that have a student-centered culture, there will be programs that attract and engage students into STEM majors, and pathways for accommodating deficiencies in academic preparation. More colleges and universities need to adopt a "pathways' philosophy. If universities make it difficult for students to enroll in STEM courses, they automatically will have fewer students graduating in STEM, at a time when we need them in our workforce.
In my visits to university campuses, I see too many universities with a pipeline paradigm when we need to be transitioning to a pathways paradigm! As the new school year approaches, let's think about pathways that could work to enable students to pursue their career choice in STEM.
Cindy
The Pipeline model suggests that students drop out from considering a STEM career as a "leaky pipeline"; from middle school to college graduation, only a very small percent of a middle school population actually achieve a Bachelor's degree in science and engineering. An eye-opening statistic is that only about 5% of the Bachelor's degrees granted in the U.S. are in engineering.
The "Pathways" model suggests that students may decide they are not interested in a STEM career, but later on they may develop an interest in STEM as a result of life's experiences or conversations with their pees. For most STEM careers, this is very feasible. In colleges and universities that have a student-centered culture, there will be programs that attract and engage students into STEM majors, and pathways for accommodating deficiencies in academic preparation. More colleges and universities need to adopt a "pathways' philosophy. If universities make it difficult for students to enroll in STEM courses, they automatically will have fewer students graduating in STEM, at a time when we need them in our workforce.
In my visits to university campuses, I see too many universities with a pipeline paradigm when we need to be transitioning to a pathways paradigm! As the new school year approaches, let's think about pathways that could work to enable students to pursue their career choice in STEM.
Cindy
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