Research: Predicting STEM Career Choice from Computational Indicators of Student Engagement within Middle School Mathematics Classes

伍斯特理工学院的这项研究将确定数学学习软件在多大程度上可以确定学生对数学的“脱离”，以及它在多大程度上预测了STEM学习和职业发展的未来结果。这项研究将使用从中学计算机数学学习工具中自动提取的指标来预测高中毕业后STEM劳动力的参与度。这项研究将使用调查、在线调查和在线社区，随机抽取1000名2010-2012年高中毕业进入大学的学生作为研究样本。通过将这些数据与他们上中学和使用ASSISTment系统的时间信息相结合，该项目可以创建一个长达8年的纵向研究项目。他们将遵循上大学的学生和找工作而不是立即上大学的学生的职业选择。该项目将使用教育数据挖掘方法，通过分析学生使用教育软件时记录的日志文件，对学生行为进行分类。研究人员希望通过学生对STEM职业的态度和学习科学和数学的动机的自我报告来衡量脱离，从而衡量学生对STEM内容的动机、目标和自我效能是如何在实践中实现的。研究人员打算确定，那些在学校里有很高程度的脱离行为的学生，比如他们在课堂上使用电脑的情况，是否与以后的职业选择、工作行为和成功有关。这项研究将在心理学期刊上发表文章，预计将为学生在正规学校期间的参与与学习科学的动机和行为以及进入需要思考和理解科学的职业之间的关系增加重要的一步。

This study by Worcester Polytechnic Institute will ascertain how well "disengagement" of students in mathematics can be determined from math learning software and how well it predicts later outcomes of STEM learning and career advancement. The study will use with metrics automatically extracted from a computer-based math learning tool in middle school to predict STEM workforce participation after high school. This research study will track a randomly selected sample of 1000 students who graduate from high school in 2010-2012 into college using surveys, online surveys, and on-line communities. By integrating these data with the information on when they were in middle school and were using the ASSISTment system the project can create an 8 year long longitudinal research project. They will follow the career choices of both students who go to college, and students who seek jobs instead of immediately attending college. The project will use educational data mining methods to categorize student behavior through analysis of log files recorded while students were using educational software. The investigators expect to measure disengagement and thus how student's motivation, goals, and self-efficacy towards STEM content are realized in practice with self-reports of student attitudes toward STEM careers and motivation to study science and mathematics. The researchers intend to determine whether students who had high levels of disengagement while in school, as shown by their use of computers in classes, is correlated with later life career choices, work behavior and success. This study will result in published articles in psychological journals that are expected to add a significant step in the knowledge of how student engagement during formal school years is associated with motivations and behavior to study science and enter careers that are demanding of thought and understanding of science.