Economic growth relies on the development of new technologies: with many U.S.-born students turning away from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in pursuit of “softer” disciplines, our country faces a considerable challenge if we wish to maintain our current economic supremacy.  Including a broader range of individuals in the STEM workforce is one solution to this challenge.

Many of us believe that talent determines who succeeds and who does not in our disciplines, but the research evidence says otherwise. Gifted and capable students leave STEM in their early college years because they find introductory courses unwelcoming and uninspiring: they conclude that it is not worth the time and effort required to excel. Instructor attitudes may encourage this response. 

If instructors do not make an effort to engage students in the excitement of the discipline and demonstrate its relevance to modern society, students may receive the message that the field is not worthy of pursuit.  Women and under-represented minority students are vulnerable to this type of influence, as they may be less familiar with STEM career options and may be particularly motivated to pursue a career with social value.

Including a broader range of students in our disciplines does not mean degrading the quality of our courses. In fact, research shows that low expectations correlate with low performance; this situation is particularly insidious for minority students, who may spend their academic careers in institutions where expectations are lower than average. The greatest gift we can give to our students is to intellectually challenge them with the real excitement and promise of our fields, while providing an appropriate level of support for their learning and growth.

Blaming foundational education in primary and secondary schools for poorly preparing students for STEM disciplinary study in college has, in some cases, become an excuse for inaction. As higher education instructors, we must teach the students who enter our classrooms. We have an obligation to provide them with the best and most rigorous education possible. To do so, we must engage in understanding how people learn and in developing our own teaching expertise. We do our students a great disservice if we blame them for failure when we have not taken the time and effort to develop our own gifts as teachers.

As STEM practitioners and instructors, we play a profound role in the lives of our students.  Each one of us who stands in front of a classroom has the potential to inspire, to lead and to nourish. Our responsibility is to train the future STEM workforce: if we are not producing outstanding practitioners, men and women of all cultural and racial heritages, we are not meeting the expectations of our society, our students, or ourselves.