Young People's Science and Career Aspirations age 14-19 ('ASPIRES2')

在英国，就像在几乎所有发达国家一样，人们普遍认为我们需要更多的人在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的各个层面学习和工作。STEM产业是英国经济的重要组成部分，预计将相对于其他领域扩张。但是，人们普遍认为存在STEM技能差距，而且这一差距正在扩大，人们担心，预计将缺乏适当合格的STEM毕业生和具有STEM技术技能的工人，这将对英国经济产生负面影响。还有一个被广泛接受的理由是，有必要扩大STEM 16年级后学生的性别、种族和社会阶层背景，尤其是在物理科学领域。因此，迫切需要研究了解影响STEM参与的因素以及许多16岁以后的年轻人选择不学习这些科目的原因。这项研究（“ASPIRES2”）将扩展第一次aspire研究（RES-179-25-0008）开发的独特数据集，该数据集追踪了10-14岁年轻人的科学和职业抱负的发展。ASPIRES1调查了9000多名小学生（10/11岁），然后在这群人上中学时进行了进一步的调查（调查了5600名12/13岁的学生和5000名13/14岁的学生）。除了这些调查，研究人员还对一群孩子及其父母进行了纵向追踪，在六年级时对92名年轻人和78名父母进行了采访，在八年级和九年级时再次对他们进行了跟踪调查。这项新研究旨在了解年轻人如何在他们生命中未来重要的五年（从14岁到19岁）发展他们的科学和职业抱负。它将探讨家庭、学校、职业教育、社会身份和不平等对这些年轻人的科学和职业抱负的不断变化的影响，至关重要的是，将这些与他们在国家普通中等教育证书考试中的实际科目选择和成绩以及16岁以后的选择联系起来。跟踪年轻人的志向和教育成果是我们跟踪这一群体的重要“最后一环”。为了实现这一目标，该项目将进行两次调查，每次调查的全国代表性样本为7-10 000名学生。这些学生将与之前的aspire调查的年龄相同，并将在11年级（15/16岁）和13年级（17/18岁）的学生中进行。这将为我们提供10-19岁青少年发展观点的权威图景。在11年级和13年级，研究人员还将对80名学生和60名家长进行访谈，这些学生和家长此前都曾被研究人员从6年级开始跟踪调查过。我们还将统计分析那些参加第一次调查（六年级）的国家数据集，以探索早期的态度和/或因素如何与后来的结果（例如GCSE成绩，16岁后的选择）相关。该项目将与两个科学组织（物理研究所和科学委员会）合作，开发与STEM职业相关的关键项目信息吸引家庭和年轻人的方法。合作1将侧重于通过社交和流行媒体形式（例如，通过在超市杂志等流行印刷媒体上发表一系列文章，以及通过使用Twitter和社交网站）为家长受众翻译项目信息。合作二将开发一款“应用程式”（电脑应用软件），以互动方式向青少年传达项目的主要信息。我们也希望争取学校和科学教师的帮助，在学生中推广使用这个应用程序。ASPIRES2解决了对学生志向形成机制的深入了解的迫切需求，提供了一个独特的机会，通过学生教育生涯的关键点来扩展10-19的现有知识。

In the UK, as in virtually every developed country, it is widely accepted that we need more people studying and working at all levels in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). STEM industries are vital elements of the UK economy and are predicted to expand relative to other fields. But there is a widespread consensus that there is a STEM skills gap and that this gap is growing with fears that the predicted lack of appropriately qualified STEM graduates and workers with STEM technical skills will impact negatively on the UK economy. There is also a widely accepted case for the need to broaden the gender, ethnic and social class profile of those who study STEM post-16, particularly in the physical sciences. It is therefore a matter of urgency for research to understand the factors affecting STEM participation and the reasons why many young people choose not to study these subjects post-16.This study ('ASPIRES2') will extend the unique dataset developed by the first ASPIRES study (RES-179-25-0008), which tracked the development of young people's science and career aspirations from age 10-14. ASPIRES1 surveyed over 9,000 children when they were in primary school (age 10/11) and then conducted further surveys when the cohort reached secondary school (surveying 5,600 students at age 12/13 and c.5000 at age 13/14). Alongside the surveys, researchers longitudinally tracked a group of children and their parents, conducting interviews with 92 young people and 78 parents in Year 6,following them up again in Year 8 and 9.The new study aims to understand how young people develop their science and career aspirations over the next important five years of their lives (from age 14-19). It will explore changing influences of the family, school, careers education and social identities and inequalities on these young people's science and career aspirations and, crucially, will relate these to their actual subject choices and attainment in national GCSE examinations and their post-16 choices. This tracking of young people's aspirations and educational outcomes comprises the vital 'final link' in our tracking of this cohort. To achieve this goal, the project will conduct two surveys with a nationally representative sample of c.7-10,000 students per sweep. The students will be drawn from the same age cohort as the previous ASPIRES survey, and will be conducted when students are in Year 11 (age 15/16) and Year 13 (age 17/18). This will provide us with an authoritative picture of the developing views of young people from age 10-19. Interviews will also be conducted in Year 11 and Year 13 with c.80 students and 60 of their parents, all of whom have been previously tracked by the researchers from Year 6. We will also statistically analyse national datasets for those who took part in the very first survey (Y6), to explore how early attitudes and/or factors may relate to later outcomes (e.g. GCSE attainment, post-16 choices).The project will collaborate with two science organisations (the Institute of Physics and the Science Council) to develop ways of engaging families and young people with key project messages around STEM careers. Collaboration 1 will focus on translating project messages for parent audiences, via social and popular media formats (e.g. through a series of articles placed in the popular print media such as supermarket magazines and by using Twitter and social networking sites). Collaboration 2 will develop an 'app' (computer application software) to develop an interactive quiz that can convey key project messages to young people in an engaging, interactive format. We also hope to enlist the help of schools and science teachers to promote the use of this app among students.ASPIRES2 addresses the urgent need for a deeper understanding of how student aspirations are shaped, offering a unique opportunity to extend existing knowledge from 10-19, through key points in students' educational careers.