The impact of interest congruence on females’ and male study progress in STEM subjects

兴趣一致性对 STEM 科目中女性和男性学习进度的影响

• 批准号: 435366392
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Bernhard Ertl
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Professur für Lernen und Lehren mit Medien
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2019-12-31 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/435366392?language=en
• 关键词: impact; interest; congruence; females; male

Germany, as well as other European countries, faces shortages in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce. Despite many efforts, the number of STEM graduates is still low. Two aspects that contribute to this phenomenon are the low numbers of females in STEM subjects as well as the comparably high number of students dropping out of STEM subjects at university. The project proposed delves into both aspects starting from a perspective of occupational interests. According to Holland’s RIASEC model and empirical evidence, an individual’s occupational interests and their fit to an occupational environment (congruence) are important factors contributing to career choices and persistence. However, there are further aspects that may compromise an interest-based career choice, e.g. the sex-typing of an occupation, which may discourage females choosing a STEM subject, or the prestige that may encourage males with a diminished congruence to choose a STEM career anyway. Of note, prior learning experiences, especially mathematics at school are also seen as prerequisite for persisting in STEM studies. However, evidence is missing about the interdependency of these aspects, especially from a longitudinal perspective.The project proposed applies a progressive approach for gaining more profound knowledge about persistence and outcomes of STEM students. It starts with (a) the predictive quality of interest congruence, (b) follows its development during study, (c) considers compromising aspects, and (d) personal factors according to the social cognitive career theory for being able to distinguish (e) latent profiles of successful and struggling STEM students. The project considers evidence about differences between the STEM fields and therefore particularly focuses on STEM fields with a low proportion of females (STEM-L). However, for revealing peculiarities of these fields it distinguishes them from other STEM, and non-STEM, areas. Thus, the project focuses on factors that are specific to students in STEM (in contrast to other subject areas) and furthermore identifies specific profiles of students in STEM and their trajectory longitudinally along the course of study until entering the labor market. This project analyzes NEPS data (National Educational Panel Study) Starting Cohort 5 (SC5) that follows 18,000 first-year students from 2010 until now. The current wave 11 already includes students that finished their master’s degree and entered the labor market. Focusing on persistence and outcomes of these students, this research contributes to scientific advancement by providing distinguishing models for career path and retention in STEM. It further contributes to societal development by refining evidence for students’ career counselling. This also addresses sociopolitical impacts for more focused support measures to increase the proportion of females in STEM.

德国和其他欧洲国家一样，面临着STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）劳动力短缺的问题。尽管做出了许多努力，但STEM毕业生的数量仍然很低。造成这一现象的两个方面是STEM学科的女性人数较少，以及在大学中退出STEM学科的学生人数相对较多。本项目拟从职业兴趣出发，对这两个方面进行深入研究。根据Holland的RIASEC模型和经验证据，个体的职业兴趣及其与职业环境的契合度（一致性）是影响职业选择和坚持的重要因素。然而，还有其他方面可能会损害基于兴趣的职业选择，例如，职业的性别类型可能会阻碍女性选择STEM学科，或者声望可能会鼓励一致性降低的男性选择STEM职业。值得注意的是，之前的学习经历，尤其是在学校的数学学习经历，也被视为坚持STEM学习的先决条件。然而，缺乏证据证明这些方面的相互依赖性，特别是从纵向的角度来看。该项目建议采用一种渐进的方法来获得关于STEM学生的持久性和成果的更深刻的知识。它从(a)兴趣一致性的预测质量开始，(b)遵循其在学习过程中的发展，(c)考虑妥协方面，(d)根据社会认知职业理论的个人因素，能够区分(e)成功和挣扎的STEM学生的潜在概况。该项目考虑了STEM领域之间差异的证据，因此特别关注女性比例较低的STEM领域（STEM- l）。然而，为了揭示这些领域的特点，它将它们与其他STEM和非STEM领域区分开来。因此，该项目侧重于STEM学生特有的因素（与其他学科领域相比），并进一步确定STEM学生的具体概况及其在学习过程中的纵向轨迹，直到进入劳动力市场。该项目分析了从2010年至今追踪1.8万名一年级学生的NEPS数据（国家教育小组研究）5号开始队列（SC5）。当前这波就业潮已经包括了完成硕士学位并进入劳动力市场的学生。本研究关注这些学生的坚持和结果，通过提供STEM职业道路和保留的独特模型，为科学进步做出贡献。它通过提炼学生职业咨询的证据，进一步促进社会发展。这也解决了社会政治影响，需要采取更有针对性的支持措施，以提高女性在STEM中的比例。