Predicting STEM educational achievement and career pathways from spatial ability and non-cognitive factors

许多政府已宣布增加STEM参与的优先事项，因为它与积极的个人成果和更大的国家繁荣有关。虽然有大量的研究更广泛地阐明了教育成就个体差异的原因，但很少关注预测STEM成就和职业选择。为此，最近的研究表明，态度和情绪等非认知因素的变化与数学成绩的变化有关，而空间能力（与STEM成绩相关的一般认知能力领域）似乎与一般认知能力不同，无论是表型还是遗传。基于这些知识，该项目将利用一种新颖而全面的空间能力测试以及非认知因素的测量来预测STEM成就和发展背景下的职业选择。通过增加我们对环境和遗传学影响STEM结果个体差异的方式的理解，这项研究可能会为公共政策提供有关增加STEM参与和减少差异的信息。

Increasing STEM engagement has been declared a priorityby many governments due to its association with positiveindividual outcomes and greater national prosperity. Whilethere has been an abundance of research elucidating theaetiology of individual differences in educationalachievement more broadly, there has been less focus onpredicting STEM achievement and career choicesspecifically. To that end, recent work has shown thatvariation in non-cognitive factors such as attitudes andemotions are related to variation in maths achievement,while spatial ability (a domain of general cognitive abilityrelated to STEM achievement) appears to bedistinguishable from general cognitive ability, bothphenotypically and genetically. Building on this knowledge,this project will utilize a novel and comprehensive batteryof spatial ability tests alongside measures of non-cognitivefactors to predict STEM achievement and career choice in adevelopmental context. By increasing our understanding ofthe way the environment and genetics influence individualdifferences in STEM outcomes, this research can potentiallyinform public policy with regards to increasing STEMengagement and reducing disparities.