Science and creativity: a winning duo

This article is taken from the "Tomorrow Learn" column in the March 2024 issue of Omalius magazine.

Promoting and raising awareness of STEAM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) streams and digital technology is at the heart of Wallonia's Plan de Relance, particularly through the networking of players involved in raising awareness of science and technology, the education/training sector and businesses. The aim? To enable young people - and in particular girls, who often neglect scientific and technological streams - to develop an interest in these subjects, and later to orient themselves and train for these professions in short supply, yet essential to the challenges facing our societies.

A cooperative platform, STEAMULI federates Namur initiatives and organizations active in the STEAM field. Whether working on the image of careers and science, setting up discovery and learning support pathways, or overcoming gender stereotypes through a more inclusive approach. Julie Henry, an expert in IT didactics and gender, is also STEAM project manager and responsible for UNamur within STEAMULI: "STEAMs above all enable a project-based approach, with an emphasis on creativity. So it's all about group work - everyone has to bring their own knowledge, acquired elsewhere - which aims to respond to a societal problem/need by creating a product. "

In this context, the STEAM education certificate set up by UNamur in collaboration with Hénallux, Technobel, le Pavillon and FormaNam, offers teachers the opportunity to acquire new tools in the teaching of science, technology, digital, technical and mathematical subjects, focusing on a creative and innovative approach. "If you have exercises that are too framed, it won't be ideal," comments Julie Henry. "On the other hand, if you put children into problem-solving and take them out of their comfort zone, you'll enable them to be more creative..."

Véronique Dethier, researcher at UNamur and author of a thesis on creativity management, is involved in this certificate. "I discuss the creative process with teachers: what are the methodologies, the stages of this individual and collective process, and how to work on the creative posture." According to the definition of Todd Lubart, professor of psychology and recognized specialist in this theme at Paris Descartes University, "creativity is the capacity of an individual to realize a production that is both novel and adapted to the context in which it manifests itself." Contrary to some a priori, it would be far from being the preserve of artists. For Véronique Dethier, everyone is creative: only, we've developed it at different levels "depending on the family context, professional background and everything we've been able to develop in our career." Creativity would above all be a "state of mind", mobilizable by everyone. A "pedagogy of creativity" is therefore possible, mobilizing "serious games" in particular... whatever the complexity or supposed aridity of the subject matter.

By creating links, the STEAM approach also makes it possible to consider the same issue from different angles in order to propose collective, collaborative responses. "The aim is also to break out of silos, to create bridges between subjects and faculties" comments Julie Henry. Behind STEAM, moreover, are not just intellectual professions, but many manual trades, often in short supply and which struggle in particular to attract girls and women. One of STEAMULI's partners is Forem, because the approach involves not only children and young people, but also the entire continuing education sector. "Today, jobseekers are encouraged to train in manual trades in short supply via skills centers, which offer short courses," analyzes Julie Henry. "We know that in the future, people will change jobs every 5 to 7 years.... We still need to overcome stereotypes about manual trades and gender stereotypes. Just one example: in the training courses offered to jobseekers, trades must also be described in "feminine" terms, so that they speak to women too... "

Gender socialization is in fact decisive in the employment sector: women move much more frequently into the"care" professions, they remain a very small minority in sectors such as physics or IT and, all sectors taken together, they continue to make much more frequently "low profile". "We know that when looking at the bulleted list in a job advert, women will only respond if they tick all the bullets, whereas a man will respond if he ticks at least two out of five", reminds Julie Henry. Deconstructing these self-censorship reflexes is already the beginning of creativity...

Julie Luong

This article is taken from the "Guest" section of Omalius magazine #32 (March 2024).