– There were significant race by gender differences in students’ education and STEM occupational plans.
– Race and gender differences exsist in perceived cost utility and efficacy of education and occupation outcomes.
– Depending on the definition of STEM careers operationalized in the analysis, variation can be observed in the impact of gender, while the role of the expectancy-value constructs remains largely consistent across multiple definitions of STEM careers.
– While expectancy-value constructs such as utility, interest, and attainment value are significantly related to the STEM career plans of White students, fewer significant relationships between expectancy-value constructs and the STEM career plans of Black and Hispanic students were identified.
Current Selections
ClearSTEM Career Aspirations in Black, Hispanic, and White Ninth-grade Students
Discovery Orientation, Cognitive Schemas, and Disparities in Science Identity in Early Adolescence
– Gender and race/ethnicity are associated with science identity but not with discovery orientation.
– The positive association between discovery orientation and science identity is mediated by science interest, importance, and reflected appraisal.
– There are statistically significant differences in science interest between groups. Science interest is higher among white boys than for minority girls. Overall, science importance, perceived science ability, and science reflected appraisal means are also fairly high, particularly compared with science other-ID and science self-ID.
– Science importance is higher among white and minority boys than for white and minority girls. Perceived science ability is higher among white than minority students. White boys and girls have higher scores than minority boys and girls on the questions about parents and teachers, giving them positive messages about their science performance (reflected appraisal).
– White boys have significantly higher science other-ID than all other groups, while only white boys and minority girls differ significantly on science self-ID.
Identifying Taiwanese Teachers’ Perceived Self-efficacy for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Knowledge
-Male teachers outperformed female teachers in each dimension
of the survey.
-Teachers’ self-efficacy in synthesized knowledge of STEM had two mediating effects. One was in the relationship between self-efficacy in engineering design and attitudes toward STEM education. The other was in the relationship between self-efficacy in Mathematical Thinking and Attitudes toward STEM education. Displaying higher self-efficacy in Engineering Design or Mathematical Thinking is not sufficient to positively predict their attitudes toward STEM education. It is having teachers with higher self-efficacy in the synthesized knowledge of STEM that matters.
-Taiwan teachers tend to have relatively high self-efficacy in terms of their Mathematical Thinking knowledge.
-Taiwan teachers seem to manifest favorable Attitudes regarding STEM education.
-Twain teachers have relatively low confidence in their Engineering Design knowledge.
– Teachers’ Scientific Inquiry and Technology Use did not relate to their self-efficacy in Synthesized Knowledge of STEM and Attitudes toward STEM education.
– Only when teachers demonstrate higher confidence in combining technology use, engineering design, and mathematical thinking into a single learning topic of science in many ways will they believe in the positive impact of STEM education on students.
– When designing teachers’ professional development, the educational authorities concerned should be very intentional in facilitating teachers’ understanding of concepts and processes that are applied through engineering design and mathematical thinking activities.
Threats and Supports to Female Students’ Math Beliefs and Achievement
– While controlling for prior achievement and race, gendered differential treatment was negatively associated with math beliefs and achievement, whereas relevant math instruction was positively associated with these outcomes.
– Gendered differential treatment by teachers in the 8th grade negatively related to student math importance and math grade within the same year.
– Gendered differential treatment by teachers in the 11th-grade was negatively related to 11th-grade SCMA.
– In 8th and 11th grade, relevant math instruction was positively related to students’ math importance and SCMA
– 8th-grade and 11th grade relevant math instruction had an indirect effect upon math importance via self-concept of math ability.
– Self-concept of math ability in the 8th grade partially mediated the relationship between 8th-grade relevant instruction and self-
concept of math ability in the 11th-grade.
– Maryland Math Achievement scores in the 9th grade partially mediated the relationship between 8th-grade gendered differential treatment and self-concept of math ability in the 11th grade.
The Relationship of STEM Attitudes and Career Interest
-The authors findings reinforce prior research that students across key demographic factors perceive biological/clinical and physical science career paths differently, resulting in two career clusters.
-The relationship of mathematics attitudes to career
interest varied by STEM career cluster.
-Findings were supportive of the conclusion that students’ attitudes towards STEM careers are not static over their primary and
secondary grades, stabilizing and leveling during their secondary years.
-Gender showed significantly different interest levels for the two career clusters: males higher for physical sciences and females higher for biological/clinical sciences.
-Racial/ethnic disparity in STEM career interests can be seen more readily in physical sciences and engineering than in the biological sciences.
-The authors’ work reinforces findings that students, as young as elementary grades, are forming attitudinal associations between their academic and life experience and future STEM careers.
Pressurizing the STEM Pipeline: an Expectancy-Value Theory Analysis of Youths' STEM Attitudes
Through the lens of expectancy-value theory (EVT), what are the potential factors that influence STEM attitudes in the context of computing intervention?
Science Engagement and Science Achievement in the Context of Science Instruction: A Multilevel Analysis of U.S. Students and Schools
– All aspects of science engagement were statistically significantly and positively related to science achievement, and nearly all showed medium or large effect sizes.
– Each aspect was positively associated with one of the four practices (strategies) of science teaching.
– Focus on applications or models was positively related to the most aspects of science engagement (science self-concept, enjoyment of science, instrumental motivation for science, general value of science, and personal value of science).
– Hands-on activities were positively related to additional aspects of science engagement (science self-efficacy and general interest in learning science) and also showed a positive relationship with science achievement.
– School mean SES has a positive and significant effect on students’ future motivation in science and on science achievement.
Public Understanding of Science and K-12 STEM Education Outcomes: Effects of Idaho Parents' Orientation Toward Science on Students' Attitudes Toward Science
The authors focus on the potential effects of parents’ attitudes toward science on their children’s STEM learning outcomes.
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.
Teacher Characteristics, Student Beliefs and the Gender Gap in STEM Fields
To examine the impact of teachers’ gender, beliefs and behaviors on students’ beliefs about boys’ and girls’ abilities in math and science.
Who Aspires to a Science Career? A Comparison of Survey Responses from Primary and Secondary School Students
1) Who holds science aspirations? 2) What factors seem to be connected to aspirations? 3) Are these patterns similar or different at different time points (in primary and secondary school)?
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?
Causal effect of intergroup contact on exclusionary attitudes
– Author reports a randomized controlled trial that assigns repeated intergroup contact between members of different ethnic groups. The contact results in exclusionary attitudes toward the outgroup.
– This experiment demonstrates that even very minor demographic
change causes strong exclusionary reactions.
– Exclusionary attitudes can be stimulated by even very minor, noninvasive demographic change: in this case, the introduction of only two persons. Overtly threatening behavior by newcomers is not a necessary component for the stimulation of exclusionary attitudes.
– Developed nations and politically liberal subnational units are expected to experience a politically conservative shift as international migration brings increased intergroup contact.
Cohort changes in the relationship between adolescents' family attitudes, STEM intentions and attainment
1) Are family attitudes less likely to constrain young women’s STEM intentions and attainment in the 1990s, as compared to the 1970s? 2) Alternatively, did the effect of family attitudes become less gendered during this period, such that family attitudes constrained both women’s and men’s STEM intentions and attainment among the 1992 cohort?
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.
The Role of Schools, Families, and Psychological Variables on Math Achievement of Black High School Students
- What is the impact of school-, family-, and person-level affective or social psychological variables on math achievement for a nationally representative sample of Black high school students?
School Ethnic Composition and Aspirations of Immigrant Students in Belgium
- The authors seek to examine whether Flemish ethnic concentration in secondary schools has the detrimental effects on immigrant students’ performance as some claim.
- Is there an association between ethnic school composition and immigrant students’ intention to finish high school and their plans to move on to higher education?
Profiles of Urban, Low SES, African American Girls' Attitudes Toward Science: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods Study
What are the urban, low SES, African American girls’ attitudes toward science and science
learning? What aspects of their experiences and understandings contribute to differences in attitudes?
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.
Gender Ratios in High School Science Departments: The Effect of Percent Female Faculty on Multiple Dimensions of Students' Science Identities
1) How does the percentage of female science faculty affect high school students’ science perceptions, achievement, views, self-concept, and college major aspirations, which collectively define and reinforce their science identities? 2) Are the effects of percent female science faculty different for girls and boys?
Factors Associated With Mathematics Achievement and Participation in Advanced Mathematics Courses: An Examination of Gender Differences From an International Perspective
This paper reports results of an exploratory study examining factors that might be associated with achievement in mathematics and participation in advanced mathematics courses in Canada, Norway, and the United States of America (USA). These factors, which were not directly related to schooling accounted for large degrees of variability in mathematics achievement scores. Research questions: 1) How are the personal and environmental variables associated with achievement in mathematics for females and males in the three countries? 2) How are the personal and environmental variables associated with participation in advanced mathematics courses for females and males in the three countries?
Elementary School Teachers' Perceptions and Attitudes to the Educational Structure of Tracking
Explores teachers’ attitudes and perceptions about tracking in three NY State public schools.
Stereotypic Explanatory Bias: Implicit Stereotyping as a Predictor of Discrimination
Whether a measure of implicit stereotyping is predictive of behavior towards a partner in an interracial interaction.
The Impact of Racial and Ethnic Diversity on Educational Outcomes: Cambridge, MA School District
Impact of racial and ethnic diversity on educational outcomes
Classroom Structure, Functioning, and Student Outcomes: An Organizational-Cultural Approach to Classroom Research
The relations between classroom organization characteristics and student education outcomes, with a focus on the classroom functioning mechanism.
Multicultural Education: Its Effects on Students' Racial and Gender Role Attitudes
Describes research on the effects of multicultural education on the perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs of K-12 students
Some of My Best Friends are Black: Interracial Friendship and Whites' Racial Attitudes
Examines the tenets and assumptions of contact theory.
School Practices that Improve Race Relations
Which school practices improve racial relations in desegregated schools?