– The student’s social and economic background and the reasons and processes behind the student’s choice of study have an impact, as does the induction into the study programme.
– Students’ preparation for their studies influence persistence, but
students’ academic level and abilities cannot explain why some students persist and others opt out.
– Conversely, the teaching and learning environment and the teaching methods applied prove to be highly important. The teaching and learning activities students are engaged in, the design of the curriculum and the interaction with faculty
and peers are also important.
– Most of the research focuses on overcoming deficits in students’ prior knowledge, but a more specific focus on identities as an analytical framework for understanding young people leaving STM higher education programmes is also emerging.
– It is important to shift from considering drop out as an individual problem for the student to regard it as a feature of the relationship
between students and their study programmes.
– Measures to increase retention rates must shift from focusing on individual student adaptation to studies addressing institutional change. However, this change is difficult since it is entwined with fundamental conceptions of science and teaching.
2010 - What do we know about explanations for dropout/opt out among young people from STM higher education programmes?
The first section of the review deals with the general trends within higher education. This section takes as its point of departure the works of Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) and of Harvey, Drew, and Smith (2006). These two works provide extensive presentations of mainly US and UK based research respectively on persistence and non-completion in general, not focusing on the field of STM in particular. A seminal contribution, particularly in the US context, but also influencing European studies, is the work of Tinto (1975, 1988, 1993), and therefore this work is given some attention.
The second section of the review focuses on STM education in particular. The starting point for this part of the review is Seymour and Hewitt’s book “Talking about leaving” published in 1997. To supplement this work, the rest of this section follows from a literature search using the ERIC (Education Resources Information Centre) database. The search words were: science education and higher education are combined with the following words: retention, dropout, opt-out, persistence, student success, attrition, leaving and non-completion within the timeframe of 2000-2009.