Bringing in network science

It was the first thing to pinpoint the problem at hand. Similar to other nations, in other times, it wasn't that difficult to attract and keep top teachers in STEM or any other area. The way things are now isn't necessarily the case. We realized that we'd designed our way to the status quo that was broken that meant we could design our way out.

We were aware that we had to investigate from every angle -- why it's difficult to attract and keep top teachers, particularly in STEM. In the absence of a holistic view the picture, we who were involved in the process had to overlook crucial factors, and that's likely to explain why the million-dollar programs haven't always led to field-level solutions. However, seeing the entire picture is difficult Biologists, neuroscientists and even behavioral economists have proven that we're wired in an evolutionary way to accept the views we've already been forming and disregard those that do not.

As ecologists must know all the parts of the ecosystem before they can begin an innovative conservation program and we needed to know every aspect that comprise STEM teacher education STEM educator system in order to decide the best way to draw people to stay to the field. 

Inspiring ourselves by the Toyota Five Why's and the Toyota 5 Why's, we asked "why" until we discovered the root causes of the problem, and no new main motives emerged. This resulted in an inventory of more than 100 causes that stand behind a strong STEM teaching system, which includes inaccessibility to relevant cultural STEM curriculum, the small amount of teacher education teachers with expertise in elementary STEM as well as the lack of time for teachers to work together during the time of school, and school leaders' responsibility to foster an atmosphere that fosters a positive working We have grouped them to be categorized into seven " grand challenges" for STEM education currently: The perceived lack of respectability of the profession Inconsistent preparation of teachers for the classroom The lack of encouragement in STEM within elementary schools Professional growth is not always constant during a career in teaching There aren't many opportunities to lead and experiment in the classroom Access to very little or no top-quality teaching materials The lack of support among school administrators and parents for science technology, engineering, and science especially To understand the interplay of the two challenges, we created an array of tools such as network analysis and system mapping that are used more frequently in fields such as ecology. We collaborated together with Jeff Mohr at the data visualization firm Kumu and Brandon Barnett, director of corporate strategy at Intel to develop an exercise where participants examine two of the 100 causes, randomly selected and then suggest how each impacts the other. Then we asked: Will making the second one better or worse or stay the same? We reached out to our network again and over 700 principals, teachers as well as deans, university professors and other participants participated. We weren't searching for preconceived notions of significance, but to see their honest awareness of consequences, in order to determine the root causes that could positively impact the majority of other root causes.