What counts as STEM, and does it matter?

IF 3.1 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL British Journal of Educational Psychology Pub Date : 2023-10-31 DOI:10.1111/bjep.12639

Rebecca M. Adler, Mingkai Xu, Bethany Rittle-Johnson

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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.

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什么算STEM，它重要吗？

背景：为了准确衡量学生的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）职业兴趣，研究人员必须进入“黑匣子”，了解学生对STEM职业的概念。目的：研究1的目的是探索学生对STEM的概念化是否包括医学职业。研究2的目的是探讨STEM职业兴趣（如性别和动机）的预测因素是否因STEM定义（包括/排除医疗职业）而异。样本：在研究1中，样本为美国大学生（N = 125名），他们大多是白人（80%）。在研究2中，样本为美国10年级高中生（N = 455），其中大多数是黑人（79%）。方法：在研究1中，学生完成了一份在线问卷。在研究2中，学生完成了数学成绩、动机（科学和数学对成功的预期、兴趣和重要性值）以及具有重要性的职业兴趣的各种测量。结果：在研究1中，与传统的STEM职业相比，医学职业不太常被归类为STEM职业，但与非STEM职业相比较，医学职业更常被归类于STEM职业。在研究2中，科学重要性值是学生STEM+医学职业兴趣的唯一动机预测因子，而没有动机结构预测传统的STEM职业兴趣。男孩对传统STEM职业表现出更大的兴趣，而女孩对STEM+医学职业表现出更多的兴趣。结论：学生对STEM的概念不是二元的。因此，我们建议研究人员在研究参与者、编码和出版物中明确他们对STEM的定义。

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来源期刊

British Journal of Educational Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL-

CiteScore

7.70

自引率

2.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： The British Journal of Educational Psychology publishes original psychological research pertaining to education across all ages and educational levels including: - cognition - learning - motivation - literacy - numeracy and language - behaviour - social-emotional development - developmental difficulties linked to educational psychology or the psychology of education