Symposium on “Reflections on the Teaching of Reading and Writing in STEMM”

The science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) ecosystem in India is increasingly recognising the importance of teaching its learners and practitioners how to read and write within and across disciplines. For example, in addition to the National Education Policy (NEP; 2020) recognising foundational reading and writing skills as “basic learning requirements” (p. 08), the draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP; 2021) declares an intention to introduce science communication courses at “all levels of education” (p. 44), and the incorporation of science communication skill sets (which presumably include reading and writing in different genres) across different levels of scientific training. Notably, for the STIP, ‘science communication’ is not limited to the transmission of scientific knowledge to non-expert audiences. Instead, the STIP offers a definition of science communication that comprises both science “outreach” and “inreach” (p. 43); while the former constitutes the communication of science to non-expert audiences through science popularisation activities and science journalism, the latter includes communicating scientific findings to expert audiences. In other words, a contemporary learner and practitioner of STEMM would soon be expected to be trained in reading and writing skills that enable one to communicate effectively both within and beyond disciplinary silos.

Policy considerations aside, reading and writing are important for learners & practitioners of STEMM to participate effectively in their disciplines: be it reading literature to identify research questions, reading textbooks as a part of their STEMM education, or to communicate their findings to other practitioners and to members of the public. However, there is evidence indicating STEMM learners and practitioners struggle with these skills. In the context of mathematics education, it has been reported that undergraduate students of mathematics are unable to effectively read their textbooks, and that the difficulties they face in reading and comprehending these textbooks result primarily from the inefficacy of the reading strategies they employ (Shepherd et al., 2009). Thus, in addition to communication skills, training STEMM learners in reading and writing might benefit their engagement with their discipline.

While work on reading strategies that can alleviate challenges such as the one mentioned above is scant, the increased recognition of the importance of science in- and out-reach has propelled several STEMM higher-education institutions to instate science writing and communication courses. The scope and curriculum of these courses vary considerably, as do their duration, their target audience, and the expertise required of the instructors. Further, reading and writing practices in all disciplines, including STEMM, are being tested and transformed rapidly by generative AI technologies. Before deliberating on the uses and abuses of generative AI in STEMM reading and writing contexts, it is imperative to understand the very reading-writing practices that generative AI seeks to intervene in (and perhaps, replace).

Responding to the opportunity posited by these happenings, the Centre for Writing & Pedagogy and the Mathematics Discipline, School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences, Krea University, are hosting an international symposium on “Reflections on the Teaching of Reading & Writing in STEMM”. This symposium brings together an international cohort of scholars and practitioners from different disciplines engaged in the teaching of reading- and writing-oriented courses in STEMM disciplines, as well as courses that focus on reading and writing practices to teach domain knowledge.

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