A workshop by the PERFORM and GEDII projects at the 12th Scientix Projects Networking Event held at the Future Classroom Lab by European Schoolnet on 5 December 2017.

1. 12th Scientix Projects’ Networking Event:
Gender and innovation in STE(A)M education
How to address gender stereotypes in science education through
innovation based on arts-based approaches?
WORKSHOP
Isabel Ruiz Mallén & Jörg Müller
Eunsong Kim

2. 15’ Introduction to the workshop
30’ Sharing experiences
Lunch time
60’ Identify and reflect on limitations and challenges
Discuss and think about best practices

3. Gender stereotypes in STEM,
as well as the reduced opportunities of success girls perceive in these
fields because of the lack of visible role models, too male-oriented
scientific content or an unbalanced representation of men and
women in science resources,
as well as other environmental factors such as teachers’ and peers’
views on gender issues related to science learning
can explain girls’ low motivation and interest in these topics
(Kahle et al. 1993; Leaper et al. 2012; Murphy and Whitelegg 2006;
Kerkhoven et al. 2016).

4. Tveita’s study explore the use of role-games in science education for learning
physics models by focusing on the gender gap among 12-16 year-old students.
Ex. Drama model for electricity.
J.Tveita 1999. Can Untraditional Learning Methods used in
Physics Help Girls to be more Interested and Achieve more in
this Subject? In (p.133): Bandiera et al. Research in Science
Education in Europe. Springer
Overcoming the gender gap regarding learning physics

5. J.Tveita 1999

6. Findings showed that both girls and boys engaged in the activity and
gained more understanding of the topic than using traditional
teaching methods.
Since girls used to perform worst than boys in physics, these results
also suggest that girls might learn more physics by using this arts-
based method than from traditional ones.
J.Tveita 1999

7. In Bristol, facilitators introduced links between
gender and STEM careers and jobs for further
discussion.
“They (students) were particularly put off in our
group because there were some statistics that
someone said,
“like forty-one percent are women”,
and they were like,
“That’s rubbish, I don’t want to do science if…”
like they were all quoting the things that we’d said
beforehand, which was supposed to inspire them.
Instead they were like, “Oh no.”
(Early career researcher, Bristol)
PERFORM experience: Reflecting on gender stereotypes while designing the performances

8. In Barcelona schools facilitators started a debate with students to promote their
reflection about gender stereotypes in science. Students reflected on the perceived
roles of women and men in science in the past and nowadays.
(Focus group, Barcelona)
BOY1: I mean, not changing my idea (about science), but (now) knowing that women
before could not do that… to study to be scientists.
GIRL1: They wanted to do it, but society didn’t…
BOY2: But what has changed? That before they looked weird to Marie Curie because
she was a woman and a scientist at that time?
GIRL2: Yeah and also to Lise Meitner
BOY1: ... But now there are actually more women scientists than men
GIRL1: But well-known (women) not that much, not directly…”

9. In Bristol PERFORM facilitators showed contrasting perspectives about science and
gender by showing first the video “Science is a girl thing” and then a related protest video
making fun of it.
Girls seemed to be more enthusiastic in the related discussion than boys and gave
arguments to break these stereotypes.