Collaborative Research: A Study of How Pre-College Informal Activities Influence Female Participation in STEM Careers

合作研究：大学前非正式活动如何影响女性参与 STEM 职业的研究

• 批准号: 1611985
• 负责人: Susan Sunbury
• 金额: $ 14.42万
• 依托单位: Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1611985&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Study; How; Pre

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. This Research in Service to Practice project will examine how a wide range of pre-college out-of-school-time activities facilitate or hinder females' participation in STEM fields in terms of interest, identity, and career choices. The study will address the ongoing problem that, despite females' persistence to degree once declaring a major in college, initially fewer females than males choose a STEM career path. To uncover what these factors might be, this study will look at the extent to which college freshmen's pre-college involvement in informal activities (e.g., science clubs, internships, shadowing of STEM professionals, museum-going, engineering competitions, citizen science pursuits, summer camps, and hobbies) is associated with their career aspirations and avocational STEM interests and pursuits. While deep-seated factors, originating in culture and gender socialization, sometimes lower females' interest in STEM throughout schooling, this study will examine the degree to which out-of-school-time involvement ameliorates the subtle messages females encounter about women and science that can interfere with their aspiration to a STEM careers. The Social Cognitive Career Theory will serve as the theoretical framework to connect the development of interest in STEM with students' later career choices. An epidemiological approach will be used to test a wide range of hypotheses garnered from a review of relevant literature, face-to-face or telephone interviews with stakeholders, and retrospective online surveys of students. These hypotheses, as well as questions about the students' demographic background and in-school experiences, will be incorporated into the main empirical instrument, which will be a comprehensive paper-and-pencil survey to be administered in classes, such as English Composition, that are compulsory for both students with STEM interests and those without by 6500 students entering 40 large and small institutions of higher learning. Data analysis will proceed from descriptive statistics, such as contingency tables and correlation matrices, to multiple regression and hierarchical modeling that will link out-of-school-time experiences to STEM interest, identity, and career aspirations. Factor analysis will be used to combine individual out-of-school activities into indices. Propensity score weighting will be used to estimate causal effects in cases where out-of-school-time activities may be confounded with other factors. The expected products will be scholarly publications and presentations. Results will be disseminated to out-of-school-time providers and stakeholders, educators, and educational researchers through appropriate-level journals and national meetings and conferences. In addition, the Public Affairs and Information Office of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will assist with communicating results through mainstream media. Press releases will be available through academic outlets and Op-Ed pieces for newspapers. The expected outcome will be research-based evidence about which types of out-of-school STEM experiences may be effective in increasing young females' STEM interests. This information will be crucial to educators, service providers, as well as policy makers who work toward broadening the participation of females in STEM.

作为加强非正式环境中学习的整体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划为各种环境中使用的创新资源提供资金。这项服务于实践的研究项目将研究各种各样的大学前校外活动如何促进或阻碍女性在兴趣，身份和职业选择方面参与STEM领域。这项研究将解决一个持续存在的问题，即尽管女性在大学宣布主修后坚持攻读学位，但最初选择STEM职业道路的女性比男性少。为了揭示这些因素可能是什么，这项研究将研究大学新生在多大程度上参与非正式活动（例如，科学俱乐部、实习、跟随STEM专业人员、参观博物馆、工程竞赛、公民科学追求、夏令营和爱好）与他们的职业抱负和对STEM的兴趣和追求有关。虽然源自文化和性别社会化的深层因素有时会降低女性在整个学校教育中对STEM的兴趣，但本研究将研究校外参与在多大程度上改善女性遇到的关于女性和科学的微妙信息，这些信息可能会干扰她们对STEM职业的渴望。 社会认知生涯理论将作为理论框架，将STEM兴趣的发展与学生后来的职业选择联系起来。流行病学方法将用于测试广泛的假设，这些假设来自相关文献的回顾，与利益相关者的面对面或电话访谈，以及对学生的回顾性在线调查。这些假设，以及关于学生的人口统计学背景和在校经历的问题，将被纳入主要的实证工具，这将是一个全面的纸笔调查，将在课堂上进行管理，如英语作文，这是学生的STEM兴趣和那些没有的必修课，由6500名学生进入40所大小高等院校。数据分析将从描述性统计，如列联表和相关矩阵，到多元回归和分层建模，将校外经历与STEM兴趣，身份和职业抱负联系起来。因子分析将用于联合收割机组合成指数的个别校外活动。倾向评分加权将用于估计在校外活动可能与其他因素混淆的情况下的因果关系。预期的产品将是学术出版物和介绍。研究结果将通过适当级别的期刊和国家会议传播给校外提供者和利益攸关方、教育工作者和教育研究人员。此外，哈佛-史密森天体物理学中心公共事务和信息办公室将协助通过主流媒体传播结果。新闻稿将通过学术机构和报纸的专栏文章提供。预期的结果将是基于研究的证据，说明哪些类型的校外STEM经验可能有效地提高年轻女性的STEM兴趣。这些信息对教育工作者、服务提供者以及致力于扩大女性参与STEM的政策制定者至关重要。