Who's Motivated to Pursue Math and Science? Testing Replications of Processes from Grade School to Occupations in Multiple Datasets

科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)职业道路由一系列选择和成就组成，这些选择和成就从童年开始，贯穿一生(即STEM管道)。为了了解STEM管道，实地需要研究从小学到大学/职业选择的教育经历，并记录在多个发展阶段哪些过程支持或破坏STEM管道。此外，STEM的历史性变化(例如，创作者空间，以及女性在科学和数学领域日益增长的代表性)引发了人们的疑问：STEM的历史运动是否改变了支持学生STEM动机的机会结构。通过这个项目，研究人员利用7个现有的数据集，在人口统计学不同的学生中测试了以下五个目标：(1)考察1-12年级学生数学和科学动机信念的变化和模式；(2)测试学生动机的变化对他们的数学和科学成就、课程和STEM大学/职业选择的预测程度；(3)确定父母STEM经历和支持对学生动机的预测程度；(4)在目标1-3中考察性别、种族/民族和大学代之间的交叉性；以及(5)测试跨数据集的概念复制和目标1-4的历史时间。这些数据集包括大型的地方纵向数据集和具有全国代表性的数据集，涵盖了1980年代至今的S。分析的重点是针对每个目标跨数据集进行概念复制的证据。该项目由EHR核心研究(ECR)计划资助，该计划支持推进STEM学习和学习环境的基础研究，扩大对STEM的参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该项目将解决STEM中学习、育儿和交叉性的情感维度在STEM持续差异中的作用。个人STEM结果的最直接决定因素之一是他们的动机信念。利用现有的七组数据，这项研究将探索谁有追求数学和科学的动机，是什么维持了学生的动机，以及这些过程是否随着发展和历史时间的不同而不同。该项目的重点是通过调查他们的数学和科学动机信念、STEM结果和父母关系，扩大代表不足的个人的参与。跨多个数据集测试这些过程可以更全面地了解组内差异在测量、平均水平差异和过程级别差异方面的差异。这些信息是严格研究的基础，有助于确定哪些群体可能从干预措施中受益，哪些支持可能对谁最有利。目前的项目扩展了先前的工作，将重点放在公平，使STEM劳动力多样化，并提供更具体的见解，以促进和加强代表不足群体参与STEM的具体途径。此外，在多个大规模数据集中概念性地复制研究结果的战略是对理论的有力考验，并提供了对不同组交叉身份和发展时期过程的普遍性的洞察。使用历史上不同的数据集，研究人员可以测试过去几十年来参与STEM的范围是否扩大，以及支持参与的过程是否发生了变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The road to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers is composed of a series of choices and achievements that begin in childhood and continue throughout life (i.e., the STEM pipeline). To understand the STEM pipeline, the field needs studies that examine educational experiences from grade school to college/occupational choices and that document what processes support or undermine the STEM pipeline during multiple developmental periods. Moreover, historical changes in STEM (e.g., maker spaces, and women’s growing representation in science and mathematics) have prompted questions about whether STEM historical movements have shifted the opportunity structures supporting students’ STEM motivation. Through this project, the researchers take advantage of seven extant datasets to test the following five aims among demographically diverse students across historical time: (1) examining changes and patterns in students’ 1st to 12th grade mathematics and science motivational beliefs; (2) testing the extent to which the changes in students’ motivation predict their mathematics and science achievement and coursework, and STEM college/career choices; (3) determining the extent to which parent STEM experience and support predict students’ motivation; (4) examining intersectionality among gender, race/ethnicity, and college generation in Aims 1-3; and (5) testing conceptual replication across datasets and historical time for Aims 1-4. The datasets include large, local longitudinal datasets and nationally representative datasets, which cover the 1980’s to present day. Analyses focus on evidence of conceptual replications across datasets for each aim. This project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.This project will address the role of affective dimensions of learning, parenting, and intersectionality on persistent disparities in STEM. One of the most immediate determinants of individuals’ STEM outcomes is their motivational beliefs. Using seven existing data sets, this research will explore who is motivated to pursue mathematics and science, what sustains students’ motivation, and if those processes vary across development and historical time. The project focuses on broadening participation of underrepresented individuals by investigating their mathematics and science motivational beliefs, STEM outcomes, and parental correlates. Testing these processes across multiple datasets provides a more comprehensive understanding of group differences in terms of measurement, mean-level differences, and process-level differences. This information is fundamental for rigorous research and helps identify groups that might benefit from interventions and which supports might be most beneficial for whom. The current project extends prior work to focus on equity, diversifying the STEM workforce, and providing more concrete insight into the specific pathways toward promoting and enhancing STEM participation for underrepresented groups. Moreover, the strategy to conceptually replicate findings across multiple large-scale datasets is a strong test of theory and provides insights into the universality of processes across distinct groups of intersecting identities and developmental periods. Using datasets that vary historically allows the researchers to test whether participation in STEM has broadened over past decades and if the processes supporting participation have changed.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.