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

通往科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）职业的道路由一系列选择和成就组成，这些选择和成就开始于童年，并持续一生（即，管道）。为了了解STEM管道，该领域需要研究从小学到大学/职业选择的教育经验，并记录在多个发展时期支持或破坏STEM管道的过程。此外，STEM的历史变化（例如，制造商空间，以及女性在科学和数学领域的代表性不断增加）引发了关于STEM历史运动是否改变了支持学生STEM动机的机会结构的问题。通过这个项目，研究人员利用七个现存的数据集来测试历史上人口统计学上不同的学生的以下五个目标：（1）检查学生1至12年级数学和科学动机信念的变化和模式;（2）测试学生学习动机的变化在多大程度上预测了他们的数学和科学成绩以及学业成绩，和STEM大学/职业选择;（3）确定父母STEM经验和支持预测学生动机的程度;（4）检查目标1-3中性别，种族/民族和大学一代之间的交叉性;（5）测试目标1-4的数据集和历史时间的概念复制。这些数据集包括大型本地纵向数据集和全国代表性数据集，涵盖了20世纪80年代至今。分析的重点是每一个目标的数据集之间的概念复制的证据。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STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展的工作。该项目将解决学习，养育和交叉性的情感维度对STEM持续差异的作用。个人STEM成果的最直接决定因素之一是他们的动机信念。使用七个现有的数据集，这项研究将探讨谁有动力追求数学和科学，是什么维持学生的动机，以及这些过程是否在发展和历史时期有所不同。该项目的重点是通过调查他们的数学和科学动机信念，STEM结果和父母的相关性来扩大代表性不足的个人的参与。在多个数据集上测试这些过程可以更全面地了解测量、平均水平差异和过程水平差异方面的组差异。这些信息对于严谨的研究至关重要，有助于确定可能从干预措施中受益的群体，以及哪些支持可能对谁最有益。目前的项目扩展了先前的工作，重点关注公平，使STEM劳动力多样化，并为促进和加强代表性不足的群体参与STEM的具体途径提供更具体的见解。此外，在多个大规模数据集上概念性地复制研究结果的策略是对理论的有力检验，并提供了对不同群体交叉身份和发展时期过程普遍性的见解。使用历史上不同的数据集，研究人员可以测试在过去几十年中参与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知识价值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.