Through the lens of expectancy-value theory (EVT), what are the potential factors that influence STEM attitudes in the context of computing intervention?
Current Selections
ClearThe Roots of STEM Achievement: An Analysis of Persistence and Attainment in STEM Majors
1. What factors predict that incoming STEM majors who graduate will attain a STEM degree?
2. What elements affect incoming STEM majors’ persistence in college?
3. What variables influence non-STEM majors who graduate college to switch to and attain a degree in a STEM field?
4. What factors motivate undecided majors to declare and graduate with a STEM degree?
Why does teacher gender matter?
– High school math and science teacher gender affects student interest and self-efficacy in STEM. However, such effects become insignificant once teacher behaviors and attitudes are taken into account, thus pointing towards an omitted variables bias.
– Teacher beliefs about male and female ability in math and science – as well as how teachers treat boys and girls in the classroom – matter more than teacher’s own gender.
-Creating a positive learning environment and making math and science interesting are pivotal in engaging students in these subjects.
– Student interest and self-efficacy are substantially affected by teacher ability to make their subject interesting and to create a positive learning environment.
– Rather than hiring more female teachers or segregating students by gender, training teachers ( increasing empathy and reducing gender biases) could be more effective in increasing student self-efficacy and interest in STEM.
– What matters primarily in this context are not the role models played by teachers (or the stereotype threats), but the time and skills that instructors put in preparing their lectures and supporting their students.
A Path Analysis of Student Interest in STEM, with Specific Reference to Qatari Students
(1) What factors influence students’ interest in STEM fields of study or work? (2) Are there any significant differences in students’ responses with respect to their gender? (3) Are there any significant differences in students’ responses with respect to their grade level?
The Role of Mothers’ Communication in Promoting Motivation for Math and Science Course-Taking in High School
– There was a significant effect of the experimental intervention on course-taking, such that adolescents whose parents received the intervention took more MS in 12th grade, compared with controls.
– There was an indirect effect of personal connections on STEM course-taking through adolescent’s interest.- More years of mother’s education were associated with higher perceptions of adolescents’ math ability.
– Neither mothers’ years of education nor mothers’ perception of adolescents’ math ability predicted number of conversations between mothers and adolescents or personal connections articulated in the interviews.
– Mothers with more years of education generated more elaborated responses in their interview.
– There was a significant interaction between number of conversations and elaboration, such that the highest level of interest occurred with high elaboration and few conversations.
– Adolescents whose parents received the intervention reported more UV in 10th grade than those whose parents were in the control group.
– Higher levels of interest in 10th grade predicted more STEM courses taken in 12th grade.
– There was a significant interaction between elaboration and number of conversations such that the highest levels of course-taking were achieved either with the combination of high elaboration and fewer conversations, or less elaboration but more conversations.
Computing Whether She Belongs: Stereotypes Undermine Girls’ Interest and Sense of Belonging in Computer Science
The authors predict that belonging will have a particularly strong influence on interest because belonging is a fundamentally important motivator. They also examine a potentially important individual difference that may affect belonging- whether students feel that they personally fit the stereotype of a computer scientist.
The concentration of Asian Americans in STEM and health-care occupations: an intergenerational comparison
This article examines the concentration of Asian Americans in the STEM and health-care fields of study and occupations by generation, ethnic group and gender, compared to white Americans.
Gender Differences in Conceptualizations of STEM Career Interest: Complementary Perspectives from Data Mining, Multivariate Data Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling
To extract new information about differences in male versus female conceptual frameworks of STEM career interest in middle school.
Student perceptions of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) content and careers
1) Are STEM dispositions of high school science and mathematics students more similar to those of their generational peers or those of STEM professionals? 2) Are STEM dispositions or career interests different for disaggregation attributes such as gender, year in the academy, size of school, or ethnicity? 3) What are the primary influences reported by academy students for their interest in STEM careers?
Pathways to Science and Engineering Bachelor’s Degrees for Men and Women
How would the gender gap in S/E degrees
change if women had the same orientation
toward and preparation for S/E in middle school
and at the end of high school?
Predicting High School Students' Interest in Majoring in a STEM Field: Insight into High School Students' Postsecondary Plans
This study examined how various individual, family, and school level contextual factors impact the likelihood of planning to major in one of the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields for high school students.
Longitudinal Analysis of the Relations Between Opportunities to Learn About Science and the Development of Interests Related to Science
The authors hypothesize that children’s developing interest in science emerges over time through coregulation between children’s interest and the informal science opportunities parents provide. Second, they suggest that this coregulation cycle may differ for boys and girls and this may ultimately account for some of the gender differences in science interest.
Science Aspirations, Capital, and Family Habitus: How Families Shape Children's Engagement and Identification With Science
How and why is science a more ‘‘thinkable”
aspiration in some families and not others?
Stability and Volatility of STEM Career Interest in High School: A Gender Study
To gauge how stable versus volatile the reports of boys’ and girls’ STEM career interests are over the course of high school.
Is Science Me? High School Students' Identities, Participation and Aspirations in Science, Engineering, and Medicine
To explore why some who were once very interested in science, engineering, or medicine (SEM) majors or careers decided to leave the pipeline in high school while others persisted.
Effects of learning about gender discrimination on adolescent girls' attitudes toward and interest in science
To examine whether adolescent girls’ interest in, and attitudes toward, science are affected by knowledge about gender discrimination in the field.