The influence of students' participation in STEM competitions on their interest in STEM careers
The influence of students' participation in STEM competitions on their interest in STEM careers
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DOI：
10.1080/21548455.2017.1397298
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发表时间：
2018-01-01
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Sadler, Philip
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Miller, Kelly;Sonnert, Gerhard;Sadler, Philip
在美国，大学预科学生参加科学博览会、机器人竞赛、计算竞赛和其他科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）竞赛的人数每年都在增加。尽管事实上，很少有人知道STEM竞争参与和STEM职业兴趣之间的关系。通过逻辑回归，本研究解决了三个主要的研究问题：控制学生的背景变量和先前的STEM职业兴趣，参加STEM比赛是否会增加高中结束时STEM职业兴趣的可能性？学生参加的竞争领域（机器人，工程，科学博览会，信息技术）是否会影响STEM职业兴趣的子学科？以及，参加比赛的数量和对STEM职业感兴趣的概率之间的关系是什么？该研究使用的数据来自外展计划和科学职业意向调查（N= 15，847），这是一个大规模的大学生强制性英语课程的样本。我们的数据揭示了三个有趣的结果。首先，参加STEM竞赛的学生比不参加竞赛的学生更有可能在高中结束时表达对STEM相关职业的兴趣，即使学生之前对STEM的职业兴趣被控制。其次，竞争参与和STEM职业兴趣之间的关系似乎是特定领域的。第三，当学生参加不止一场比赛时，参加比赛对追求STEM职业的影响要大三倍。这些发现表明，竞赛是培养对特定STEM职业兴趣的有效途径。
Pre-college student participation in science fairs, robotics competitions, computing contests and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) competitions increases every year in the United States. This is despite the fact that little is known about the relationship between STEM competition participation and career interest in STEM. Through logistic regressions, this study addresses three main research questions: Controlling for student background variables and prior STEM career interest, does participating in a STEM competition increase the likelihood of STEM career interest at the end of high school? Does the field of competition (robotics, engineering, science fair, information technology) a student participates in influence the sub-discipline of STEM career interest? And, what is the relationship between the number of competitions participated in and the probability of interest in a STEM career? The study uses data from the Outreach Programs and Science Career Intentions' survey (N=15,847), a large-scale sample of university students enrolled in mandatory English courses. Our data reveal three results of interest. First, students who participate in STEM competitions are more likely to express interest in a STEM-related career at the end of high school than are students who do not participate, even when students' prior career interest in STEM is controlled for. Second, the relationship between competition participation and interest in a STEM career appears to be domain specific. Third, the impact of competition participation on pursuit of a STEM career is three times stronger when students compete in more than one competition. These findings suggest that competitions are an effective way to foster career interest in specific STEM careers.