TY - GEN
T1 - Influencing Factors to Choose STEM Areas
T2 - 9th IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference, ISEC 2020
AU - Dominguez, Angeles
AU - Tejeda, Santa
AU - Ruiz, Blanca
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 IEEE.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - The need to understand better the actors and factors that influence students' perceptions of pursuing an academic and professional future in STEM areas has been studied for over 30 years. In this work, we focus on students who are strongly oriented to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to investigate what motivates them and who has been cultivating their inclinations to these careers. High school students who attended an international science contest on mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and computing (over 600 attendees) were invited to participate in a focus group. Thirteen students attended the call. The session lasted over 90 minutes and was video recorded. All the session was transcribed, and a group of researchers analyzed the data based on an adaptation of the expectancy-value theory. The results indicated that the students did not feel they had the expected support from their schools; instead, their primary support came from their family (particularly their parents). It was interesting to find that among this group of students, their conceptualization of STEM and interest in how science and technology could improve the world (or their world) proved to be a significant factor in keeping them motivated to pursue their goals.
AB - The need to understand better the actors and factors that influence students' perceptions of pursuing an academic and professional future in STEM areas has been studied for over 30 years. In this work, we focus on students who are strongly oriented to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to investigate what motivates them and who has been cultivating their inclinations to these careers. High school students who attended an international science contest on mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and computing (over 600 attendees) were invited to participate in a focus group. Thirteen students attended the call. The session lasted over 90 minutes and was video recorded. All the session was transcribed, and a group of researchers analyzed the data based on an adaptation of the expectancy-value theory. The results indicated that the students did not feel they had the expected support from their schools; instead, their primary support came from their family (particularly their parents). It was interesting to find that among this group of students, their conceptualization of STEM and interest in how science and technology could improve the world (or their world) proved to be a significant factor in keeping them motivated to pursue their goals.
KW - Educational innovation
KW - Expectancy-value theory
KW - High school
KW - Higher education
KW - Interest in STEM.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104946541&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ISEC49744.2020.9397839
DO - 10.1109/ISEC49744.2020.9397839
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85104946541
T3 - 2020 9th IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference, ISEC 2020
BT - 2020 9th IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference, ISEC 2020
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 1 August 2020
ER -