skip to main content

Explore Research Products in the NSF-PAR

This content will become publicly available on October 31, 2024

Title: What counts as STEM , and does it matter?
Abstract Background

To accurately measure students' science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career interest, researchers must get inside the ‘black box’ to understand students' conceptualizations of STEM careers.

 Aims

The aim of Study 1 was to explore whether students' conceptualizations of STEM included medical careers. The aim of Study 2 was to explore whether predictors of STEM career interest (e.g., gender and motivation) varied by STEM definition (inclusion/exclusion of medical careers).

 Samples

In Study 1, the sample was US college students (N = 125) who were mostly White (80%). In Study 2, the sample was US 10th‐grade high school students (N = 455) who were mostly Black (79%).

 Methods

In Study 1, students completed an online questionnaire. In Study 2, students completed various measures of math achievement, motivation (science and math expectancies of success, interest and importance value) and career interest with an importance.

 Results

In Study 1, medical careers were less often classified as STEM careers than traditional STEM careers, but more often classified as STEM than non‐STEM careers. In Study 2, science importance value was the only motivational predictor of students' STEM+Medicine career interest, and no motivation constructs predicted traditional STEM career interest. Boys expressed greater interest in traditional STEM careers, while girls expressed greater interest in STEM+Medicine careers.

 Conclusions

Students' conceptualizations of STEM are not binary. Thus, we recommend researchers are explicit about their definition of STEM with study participants, in their coding and in their publications.

  more » « less
NSF-PAR ID:
10489905
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley-Blackwell
Date Published:
Journal Name:
British Journal of Educational Psychology
Volume:
94
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0007-0998
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: p. 165-180
Size(s):
p. 165-180
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ( , British Journal of Educational Technology)
    Abstract  
    more » « less
  2. ; ( , Journal of Engineering Education)
    Abstract Background

    Research in engineering education has highlighted the importance of identity and motivation for a number of student outcomes, including persistence. However, these constructs have often been studied separately, despite theorized and demonstrated connections between students' identity and motivation in other fields.

     Purpose/Hypothesis

    Our study fills this gap by investigating the connections between identity and motivation. We specifically examined the connections between students' engineering role identity and future‐time perspective (FTP; a theory of human motivation) theories to understand students' interest in choosing an engineering major after their first year, which we call continuing engineering major interest.

     Design/Methods

    The data came from a questionnaire distributed during Fall 2015 (n = 2,879). Structural equation modeling was used to understand the connections between the latent factors of engineering role identity and FTP. We also examined the predictive validity of this model on students' continuing engineering major interest.

     Results

    Our results show connections between students' engineering role identity and the domain‐specific constructs of FTP. Identity was fully mediated by students' FTPs, and these perspectives were important for predicting continuing major interest. Engineering role identity measures explained a combined 69% of the variance in the FTP measures, and engineering role identity and FTP measures together explained 14.2% of the variance in engineering major interest.

     Conclusions

    These findings provide empirical evidence for linking identity and motivation in studies of engineering students' career pathways. The results of this work inform how theories of identity and motivation can be used collectively in engineering education research.

     
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ( , School Science and Mathematics)
    Abstract

    STEM technician and technologist careers can be accessible options for students; however, the historical devaluing of technical careers combined with a lack of awareness and familiarity with the specific options within this career cluster have resulted in a shortage of trained and prepared professionals. Grounded in social cognitive career theory, this survey study explores college students' knowledge of technical STEM careers, their high school career exploration experiences, and the relationship between science interest, career decision‐making, and technical career knowledge. Results from this survey indicate there is little to no familiarity with the majority of the STEM technician and technologist careers presented. However, results also show students are engaging in career exploration, and many are using more than one resource for exploration in their high school years. Implications for school counselors, teachers, family members, and community members are presented to specifically address the noted concerns.

     
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ( , Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education)
    Background:

    The United States continues to invest considerable resources into developing the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent. Efforts to shore up interest in pursuing STEM careers span decades and have increasingly focused on boosting interest among diverse student populations. Policymakers have called for engaging students in a greater STEM ecology of support that extends beyond the traditional classroom environment to increase student STEM career interest. Yet, few robust studies exist exploring the efficacy of many programmatic efforts and initiatives outside the regular curriculum intended to foster STEM interest. To maximize STEM education investments, promote wise policies, and help achieve the aim of creating STEM learning ecosystems that benefit diverse student populations and meet the nation’s STEM goals, it is crucial to examine the effectiveness of these kinds of STEM education initiatives in promoting STEM career aspirations.

     Purpose:

    The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the impact of one popular, yet understudied, STEM education initiative on students’ STEM career aspirations: participation in a university- or college-run STEM club or program activity (CPA) during high school. Specifically, we studied whether participation in a college-run STEM CPA at a postsecondary institution during high school was related to college-going students’ STEM career aspirations, and we examined whether that relationship differed depending on student characteristics and prior STEM interests.

     Research Design:

    We conducted a quasi-experimental investigation to explore the impact of participation in university- or college-run STEM CPAs on college-going students’ STEM career aspirations. We administered a retrospective cohort survey to students at 27 colleges and universities nationwide resulting in a sample of 15,847 respondents. An inverse probability of treatment weighted logistic regression model with a robust set of controls was computed to estimate the odds of expressing STEM career aspirations among those who participated in college-run STEM CPAs compared with the odds expressed among students who did not participate. Our weighting accounted for self-selection effects.

     Results:

    Quasi-experimental modeling results indicated that participation in university- or college-run STEM CPAs had a significant impact on the odds that college-going students would express STEM career aspirations relative to students who did not participate. The odds of expressing interest in a STEM career among participants in STEM CPAs were 1.49 times those of the control group. Robustness checks confirmed our results. The result held true for students whether or not they expressed interest in STEM careers prior to participation in STEM CPAs, and it held true across a diverse range of student characteristics (e.g., race, parental education, gender, standardized test scores, and family/school encouragement).

     Conclusions:

    Results suggest that university- and college-run STEM CPAs play an important role in the STEM education ecology, serving the national goal of expanding the pool of college-going students who aspire to STEM careers. Moreover, results showed that participation in university- and college-run STEM CPAs during high school is equally effective across diverse student characteristics. Policymakers, educators, and those charged with making investment decisions in STEM education should seriously consider university- and college-run STEM CPAs as a promising vehicle to promote diverse students’ STEM career aspirations in the broader STEM learning ecosystem and as an important complement to other STEM learning environments.

     
    more » « less
  5. ( , International journal of research in undergraduate mathematics education)
    Community college students face difficulties in mathematics courses and may not understand the relevance of the topics they are learning to their intended career. When such connections are not made, mathematics courses can become barriers to pursuit of careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). In the present study, we assessed student interest in mathematics and various STEM career areas and students’ knowledge of ways mathematics was involved in STEM careers in order to better understand how these variables are related. We discovered that interest in mathematics predicted interest in many, but not all, categories of STEM and STEM-related careers. We also assessed how deeply the student was engaged with their current career pathway, and how this related to other variables. We found that students’ depth of interest in their chosen career path was only associated with mathematics interest for some STEM careers. Finally, students’ perceptions of how mathematics was used in their chosen career area predicted their interest in mathematics, and their interest in some STEM career areas. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email