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Could apprenticeships replace a college education? Epistemic Games are a low risk alternative.

Students and employers are looking at apprenticeships rather than college degrees to perfect vocational skills. According to an article published by GOOD, these apprenticeships differ from the classic internship, as they combine a classroom education with the master of a skill set.

Apprenticeships are tempting for all parties involved. Employers are looking for employees who have experience and know how to think appropriately. Students are looking to try on vocational hats, and apprenticeships are paid.

Although apprenticeships are slow to trend in the United States, the United Kingdom is seeing an increased demand. The BBC did a study in the UK that found two thirds of graduating high school students are considering apprenticeships rather than college to continue their education.

Apprenticeships have their own downsides. The average apprenticeship requires a four year commitment at a young age. Students take a risk when they commit to a position that they may or may not enjoy.

While apprenticeships are fulfilling a need for the practical application of their learning, Epistemic Games are a low-risk alternative.

Internships and apprenticeships provide on the job learning to complement the classroom education, but Epistemic Games immerse students into a professional learning environment within the confines and protection of a traditional classroom. Epistemic Games give students the opportunity to try on vocational hats in a low risk, learning environment.

Law Students in Need of Epistemic Experience

Law schools are failing students by not teaching them how to practice law according to an article in the New York Times . Practical application is left for students to learn after graduation.

The article frames the issue simply,

“What they did not get, for all that time and money, was much practical training.  Law schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful…”

If students never learn the basics of practice, does graduating mean they have become lawyers? Jeffery W. Carr, the general counsel of FMC Technologies, says no.

“They are lawyers in the sense that they have law degrees, but they aren’t ready to be a provider of services.” Carr told the New York Times.

Students are suffering because they are not taught to think like lawyers, to use their skills, knowledge and culture to see the world like a lawyer. When they graduate with a diploma they know a lot of theory, but they don’t have the epistemic frame of a lawyer.

David Segal, New York Times reporter, places the blame on Universities, as law school professors are chosen for scholarly thinking rather than experience. In fact, experience may even hurt one’s prospects of becoming a professor.

“It can be fatal, because the academy wants people who are not sullied by the practice of law,” explained one lawyer turned professor.

Lack of faculty experience presents a mentoring problem. How are teachers, who have very little experience themselves, in a position to show students how to think like lawyers?

Some schools are looking to make changes. What they need is an epistemic model, to teach an epistemic frame, and turn students into lawyers.

Epistemic Learning Does Work: Real World Examples

This video created by Translogic, describes an after school program called Minddrive . Minddrive is a not for profit organization that reaches out to at-risk students in the Kansas city area.

This video highlights Minddrive’s Lola project, an electric car that students help design, build, and market. Similar to games like Nephrotex , mentors guide students through the engineering design process and model ways of thinking like professional engineers.

The students who participate in this program are having fun while they are learning, and changing their career goals. One young man explained,

“It has changed me a lot. Before Minddrive I was hooked on becoming a professional athlete, basketball to be specific. But since then…it’s really been about my future and what I want to get my degree in, in college.”

Another young woman enjoys the sense of accomplishment.

“Hey I’ve built a car. What have you done?”

Epistemic Games has seen similar results regarding the diversity of women in STEM education. Nephrotex and Land Science present an exciting platform and opportunity for researching other underrepresented or at-risk students in STEM fields.

David Williamson Shaffer at the VLOS Research Meeting: ‘Epistemic Games and Learning’

David Williamson Shaffer, in a talk he gave at the VLOS Research Meeting, Utrecht University, called ‘Epistemic Games and Learning,’ argues that the needs of students today are not the same as they were 50 years ago. His presentation describes epistemic gaming and epistemic network analysis as examples of how teaching and assessment might change to better suit the needs of 21st century students. He concludes by arguing that we need to be more purposeful about how we design educational experiences for youth, suggesting that

“whatever choice [of education style] we make, we have to make it based on some understanding of what it is we want students to accomplish, and what it is we as educators need to do to get them there.”

Why do students drop out of STEM majors: deteriorated interest, low grades, loss of passion.

The president’s call for more engineers and STEM educators is focused on the wrong level of education according to a New York Times article .

Where enthusiasm for STEM subjects is ignited at a young age, it appears to fizzle out as students reach higher levels of education. The article cites a study from the University of California Los Angeles.

What is driving students out of STEM degrees? One engineering professor described the situation as “the math-science death march.”–caused by rigorous coursework, difficult grading scales, loss of passion, easier classes in other majors and most importantly too many classes based on theory and memorization and not enough practical application.

Educators fear that the study of engineering has not evolved to meet the needs of students in the age of technology, action, and hands on learning.

‘Other deterrents are the tough freshman classes, typically followed by two years of fairly abstract courses leading to a senior research or design project. “It’s dry and hard to get through, so if you can create an oasis in there, it would be a good thing,” says Dr. Goldberg, who retired last year as an engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.’

Many students and professors take issue with the static style of STEM education calling for more interaction and innovation in the classroom.

The take home point is nationally students are losing interests because they are not building confidence in their knowledge, skills, values, and identities as an engineer–the same factors needed to create an epistemic frame. As educators look for engaging ways to teach the process of engineering thinking and design, opportunity and need for epistemic games like Nephrotex is greater than ever.  

Epistemic learning through mentored games like Nephrotex may provide the solution to the so called “math-science death march.”

It’s Confidence, Not Competence

According to an MIT report on women in science and engineering, it turns out women leave the field of engineering because of a lack of confidence, not because they want to start a family or have lower technical abilities. Read more in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Physics and Poetry

Professions that depend on STEM skills are the second-fastest professional group in the United States according to New York Times blogger Motoko Rich, who references a Georgetown University study. Occupational fields like manufacturing, utilities, transportation and mining, and even sales and management are demanding that workers have a STEM background. In an increasingly technical global marketplace, it’s become a necessity to be able to communicate with engineers and computer scientists in collaborative projects or to sell a product.

So even if young people don’t plan on majoring only in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, it’s beneficial for them to have some understanding of the STEM world and ways of thinking. Students can complete a double major in STEM and another field, participate in STEM extra-curricular activities and competitions, or play epistemic games like Nephrotex and Land Science that simulate professional workplaces.

Rich sums it up best, “physics and poetry, anyone?”

Dr. Naomi Chesler invited to attend Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) Symposium

Dr. Naomi Chesler, the Co-PI on the Nephrotex Project and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been invited to attend the Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) Symposium. The symposium, which will take place November 13-16 in Irvine, CA, brings together sixty-five of the nation’s most engaged and innovative engineering educators and will create a “unique venue for engineering faculty members to share and explore interesting and effective innovations in teaching and learning,” said NAE President Charles M. Vest.

The 2011 Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium is sponsored by the O’Donnell Foundation.

David Shaffer speaking at ASU February 2, 2012

David Shaffer will be the guest speaker at Advances in Learning Lecture series at Arizona State University on Feb 2. See the flier for more details.

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Students Feel High School Insufficiently Prepared Them for STEM Majors

Today, Microsoft released a survey indicating that only 20% of students in STEM fields felt that their high school courses sufficiently prepared them for college-level work, despite the fact that 55% of them decided to pursue STEM fields when they were still in high school. The majority of students and parents of K-12 students agreed that the U.S. does a “poor job” of teaching STEM courses compared to other countries.

We continue to stress that expecting students to simply memorize and recite formulas and concepts is poor teaching. Students need to be taught the ways in which professionals in STEM fields use those formulas and concepts as problem solving tools. Students who play epistemic games are better prepared for the work that lies ahead. In epistemic games such as Nephrotex and Land Science, mentors who play the role of professionals encourage students to reflect on their actions in the game and make connections between values, skills, and knowledge in their STEM domain.