STEM careers are persistently among the most in-demand and high-paying professions out there, and many children dream of becoming scientists, engineers, or doctors because the jobs sound interesting. But as they go through school, many of these students ultimately give up on STEM.
There are many reasons for this, but the one I’ve never seen discussed is the lack of mastery learning in schools.
The kids who are interested in STEM careers are often the ones seen as smart enough to skip ahead in math. So in middle school, they skip 8th grade math and jump into Algebra 1. Or they skip both 7th and 8th grade math to take Algebra 1 and Geometry. Even for very bright students, this is usually a bad idea. They don’t develop a strong foundation for their math knowledge, and their knowledge gaps come back to haunt them later.
Plus, whether or not they skip ahead, the way math classes are taught discourages deep learning. Students are not given enough practice problems to walk the mastery path. Essential learning practices like spaced repetition and interleaving aren’t baked into the curriculum. As a result, most students gain only a shallow understanding of each concept, which they quickly forget.
Furthermore, schools advance students to the next math class as long as they pass this year’s class. But if you earn a 75% in this year’s class, then you’re missing 25% of the knowledge – knowledge that you’ll need to do well in next year’s math class. And, of course, you’ll forget some of what you learned over the summer because hardly anyone practices math on summer vacation, so the amount of missing knowledge is more like 50%.
Eventually, this comes to a head, and students hit a wall. They encounter a math class that they can’t handle. Sometimes it’s Algebra 2. Sometimes it’s Calculus. And the saddest thing is that when they hit that wall, they don’t know the real reasons why, so they conclude that they’re not smart enough.
So students often give up on STEM because they mistakenly think that they’re not bright enough to handle the difficult classes, when really the problem is structural. They are smart enough. But schools aren’t teaching STEM strategically, and students aren’t taking matters into their own hands by studying STEM strategically.
So if you’re a student who’s finding your STEM classes too difficult, remember, the problem is not you. These classes are supposed to be hard. And that means you have to engage with them using smart learning strategies and effective study techniques. You’ll probably have to patch the holes in your math knowledge. And you’ll certainly have to do more than they’re asking you to do.
I wish schools would provide you with better structure for success in STEM, but until they do, you’ll have to be proactive and go out of your way to truly, deeply learn the content.
If you’re a parent whose child wants to pursue a STEM career, help guide them. Facilitate summer math practice. Normalize the techniques of mastery learning in your household. (Actively model these strategies with whatever you’re learning.) And don’t push them to skip ahead in math because going far usually requires going slowly.
Chris Loper has been working as a tutor and academic coach since 2014, racking up over 13,000 hours of experience supporting students.
Along with Greg Smith, Chris is the co-creator of Parenting for Academic Success, a series of classes that create empowered parents, confident students, and harmonious families.
Chris writes the popular self-improvement blog Becoming Better, where he also offers habit coaching, helping busy adults with habit formation and productivity.
Chris’s most recent endeavor combines his academic and habit-formation expertise to help students thrive in college. Visit SmartCollegeHabits.com to learn more.
In 2021, he published a humorous memoir titled Wood Floats and Other Brilliant Observations, a book that blends crazy stories with practical life lessons.
He lives in Issaquah, WA, where he is the owner of South Cove Tutoring.