Factors influencing young people (aged 14-19) in education about STEM subject choices : a systematic review of the UK literature (original) (raw)
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Youth STEM career choices: What's influencing secondary students's decision making
Issues in Educational Research, 2020
Concerns are being raised about the increasing demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates exceeding supply. Early adolescence is an especially critical time when our youth are forming beliefs about themselves as learners, along with establishing career related goals. In this qualitative research, we considered the significance of STEM self-efficacy through the lens of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) to investigate the influencers in youth career choices. The study involved interviews with fifteen lower secondary school students, fifteen of their parents and three career counsellors from three faith-based schools in Western Australia. Our research goals were to ascertain the impact of the learning environment on students’ STEM career interest and self-efficacy; explore the influence of parents’ attitudes to STEM engagement and engagement with career advice resources on students’ STEM career interest and self-efficacy; and determine how a career...
The relative lack of students studying post-compulsory STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects is a key policy concern. A particular issue is the disparities in uptake by students' family background, gender and ethnicity. It remains unclear whether the relationship between student characteristics and choice can be explained by academic disparities, and whether students' background, gender and ethnicity interact in determining university subject choices, rather than simply having additive effects. I use data from more than 4000 students in England from 'Next Steps' (previously the LSYPE) and logistic regression methods to explore the interacting relationships between student characteristics and subject choice. There are four main findings of this study. Firstly, disparities by students' ethnicity are shown to increase when controlling for prior attainment. Secondly, family background indicators are differentially related to uptake for male and female students, with parents' social class and education larger predictors of choice than financial resources. Thirdly, gender, ethnicity and family background interact in determining choices. Particularly , as socioeconomic position increases, young women are more likely to choose STEM over other high-return subjects. Finally, associations between student characteristics and subject choices, including interactions, largely persisted when accounting for A-level choices. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.
Based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), the study aims to investigate factors that predict students’ interest in pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in tertiary education both in general and in relation to their gender and socio-economic background. The results of the analysis of survey responses of 2458 secondary public school students in the fifth-largest Israeli city indicate that STEM learning experience positively associates with students’ interest in pursuing STEM fields in tertiary education as opposed to non-STEM fields. Moreover, studying advanced science courses at the secondary school level decreases (but does not eliminate) the gender gap and eliminates the effect of family background on students’ interest in pursuing STEM fields in the future. Findings regarding outcome expectations and self-efficacy beliefs only partially support the SCCT model. Outcome expectations and self-efficacy beliefs positively correlate with students’ entering tertiary education but did not differentiate between their interests in the fields of study .
Investigation of students’ career choices in stem fields
Journal of Psychology & Clinical Psychiatry
The main purpose of this study is to reveal the reason that although STEM professions are very important for the development of countries, why the rate of students choosing these professions is low compared to other professions. Therefore, in the scope of this research, many articles on the factors that affect students’ career choices in STEM fields have been reviewed. As a result of the literature review, it was found that factors such as gender, race, socio-economic status, family, interest, attitude, and self-efficacy affect students' career choices in STEM fields. Moreover, within the scope of the study, considerations that prevent and support students from choosing a career in STEM were mentioned and some suggestions were presented for increasing the number of students who choose a profession in STEM