Effects of Exposure on Attitudes towards STEM Interests.
2015; Project Innovation Austin; Volume: 136; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0013-1172
AutoresMary Elizabeth Kurz, S. Elizabeth Yoder, Ling Zu,
Tópico(s)Youth Development and Social Support
ResumoIntroduction For several years, Clemson University has hosted an Engineering Expo on the Thursday of National Engineers Week for second grade students at Clemson Elementary. Recently, the question was posed as to whether or not this event has impacted student perception of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career paths. We surveyed several cohorts of students at both Clemson Elementary (who participated in the Expo) and Central Elementary, a nearby school that did not participate, to determine what impacts, if any, exposure to the Expo may have had. Traditionally, people believe that young children's career path choices are affected significantly by parental and teacher guidance (Bregman & Killen, 1999; Bright, Pryor, Wilkenfeld, & Earl, 2005). Research shows that there are many factors that affect children's attitudes towards STEM interests including gender, ethnicity, parents, education, etc. Student grades are also considered important but not as important as parental guidance (Frome & Eccles, 1998). Researchers agree that parental social context and guidance played a significant role in children's career interests. Parental career interests affect children's career interests, as demonstrated by (Hagen, 1960; Hargrove, Creagh, & Burgess, 2002; Whiston & Keller, 2004). Wong, Wong, and Peng (2011) surveyed 113 freshmen in Hong Kong and concluded that children's career interests are related with their parent's careers when the variables of gender, personality, general mental abilities and intelligence are controlled. Teacher guidance also plays an important part in children's career interests (Haladyna and Shaughnessy (1982). Osborne, Simon, and Collins (2003) determined that quality of teaching as well as gender are important to students' attitudes about science. Gender is a very important factor that affects children's attitudes since it is usually considered that science and technology is male dominated and it is often believed that male students do better in STEM courses. However, Catsambis (2006) noted that female students were not inferior than male classmates in STEM classes and some female students performed better, though they had less positive attitudes. Sadler, Sonnert, Hazari, and Tai (2012) surveyed 6000 students in high school and concluded that male students show more interest in engineering where female students are more interested in health and medicine during high school years. Su, Rounds, and Armstrong (2009) concluded that male students show more interest in STEM areas while female students show more interest in social or artistic areas. Andre, Whigham, Hendrickson, and Chambers (1997) concluded that both boys and girls like science equally. Levin and Barry (1997) reviewed many papers and indicated that boys showed more positive attitudes towards technology education such as computers than girls, while girls were more interested in the technology. Hyde, Fennema, and Lamon (1990) conducted a meta-analysis to analyze boys' and girls' performance in math and found out that the differences were very small. The Engineering Expo (Expo) is a one day event that is not integrated into the curriculum. It is held the Thursday of National Engineers Week. Some researchers believed that limited exposure at events such as the Expo will increase children's interests in STEM areas (The effects of hands-on activities on middle school females' spatial skills and interest in engineering and technology-based careers, 2012). However, Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006) indicate that minimal exposure does not provide a meaningful change in perception, based on human cognition. In this paper, we investigate if younger students' attitudes toward STEM are different than those held by older students. We are also interested in potential differences in attitudes held by female and male students towards STEM careers. Methods In order to investigate student perception of and interest in STEM careers, a survey was designed as shown in Table 1. …
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