Barriers to a STEM Career

Author(s):  
Luanne M. Amato

Inequality of gender representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers continues, despite the narrowing of the gender achievement gap. This chapter showcases original qualitative research that provides clearer insights into origins and effects of math anxiety as the reason females are less likely to choose (STEM) majors and related careers. The role of instruction methodology of the academic organization in perpetuating marginalization practices limits women's STEM achievement. The stage environment fit (SEF) theoretical model probes the relationship of the policies and procedures of the academic organization to the likelihood of female adult-student success in higher education. The American Statistical Association's (ASA) funding of the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education Report (GAISE) mandates reforms for mathematics instruction among the information about new research opportunities and the current state of STEM education in the United States.

Author(s):  
Luanne M. Amato

Inequality of gender representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers continues, despite the narrowing of the gender achievement gap. This chapter showcases original qualitative research that provides clearer insights into origins and effects of math anxiety as the reason females are less likely to choose (STEM) majors and related careers. The role of instruction methodology of the academic organization in perpetuating marginalization practices limits women's STEM achievement. The stage environment fit (SEF) theoretical model probes the relationship of the policies and procedures of the academic organization to the likelihood of female adult-student success in higher education. The American Statistical Association's (ASA) funding of the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education Report (GAISE) mandates reforms for mathematics instruction among the information about new research opportunities and the current state of STEM education in the United States.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie L. Jensen ◽  
Shannon Neeley ◽  
Jordan B. Hatch ◽  
Ted Piorczynski

The United States produces too few Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduates to meet demand. We investigated scientific reasoning ability as a possible factor in STEM retention. To do this, we classified students in introductory biology courses at a large private university as either declared STEM or non-STEM majors and assessed their reasoning ability using the Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning. We then obtained their declared majors 1 to 4 years later. We found that reasoning ability correlates with high-level performance and final course grades. In addition, results indicate that STEM majors have higher reasoning skills than non-STEM majors but not until after the freshman year. However, we show that reasoning ability does not predict retention or declaration of a STEM degree and suggests instead that increased reasoning skills are a product of learning. We suggest educational interventions that may plug the leaky pipeline in STEM education.


Author(s):  
Ursula Thomas ◽  
Jill Drake

Participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions have been historically dominated by white males in the United States with women, particularly minority women, remaining grossly underrepresented. In the United States and in most of the industrialized nations around the world, STEM majors and careers remain male-dominated despite ongoing efforts to change this reality. The study presented in this chapter explores the familial, educational, economic, and social experiences that are contributing to the selection and maintenance of a STEM career for 125 female participants. The grounded theory approach was used to develop an inductively derived grounded theory about the role these experiences played in the participants' choosing and remaining in a STEM career. Study findings suggest that many of the macro-level initiatives aimed to increase the number of women who acquire a position in a STEM field are misaligned with the micro-level needs of the women in their academic progression as well as their needs once in a STEM profession.


Author(s):  
Tara L. R. Beziat ◽  
Kristin M. McCombs ◽  
Brooke A. Burks ◽  
Jennifer Byrom

The existing literature does not focus on risk-taking differences within females and how these differences may influence academic choices in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The current project examined differences in academic risk-taking between STEM and non-STEM female students. A total of 272 undergraduates from 3 universities in the United States participated in a total of 2 studies. Results from the first and second studies indicated differences between STEM and non-STEM females in academic risk-taking. Future studies should explore these academic risk-taking differences between STEM and non-STEM female students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Faiq Zulfikar Hadi ◽  
Maman Fathurrohman ◽  
Cecep Anwar Hadi

This research is conducted by the low mathematics critical thinking ability of students in junior high schools, especially in  VII grade .Students of VII grade commonly are transitioning from elementary school to junior high school could be a reason how low students of VII grade on mathematic critical thingking ability. The low ability mathematics critical thingking one of caused by mathematics anxiety. This study aims to find a relationship between math anxiety and mathematics critical thinking ability of VII grade at SMPN 5 Serang City. The method of this research is quantitative descriptive by making 110 students from VII grade as a sample. The data were collected using questionnaire and test. The result of this study indicate that 1) the ammount of correlation between math anxiety with critical thingking ability is -0,5991> rs table 0,1695, which means there is a significant and negative relationship between anxiety and critical thingking ability 2) the average of students’s mathematics critical thingking ability is different where score between students with low anxiety have a better score than student with mid anxiety and low anxiety,and students with mid anxiety have a better score than students with high anxiety, and students with mid anxiety have a better score than students with high anxiety.


Author(s):  
Terence Young ◽  
Alan MacEachern ◽  
Lary Dilsaver

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. es12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Thompson ◽  
Joseph Sanchez ◽  
Michael Smith ◽  
Judy Costello ◽  
Amrita Madabushi ◽  
...  

The BioHealth Capital Region (Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC; BHCR) is flush with colleges and universities training students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines and has one of the most highly educated workforces in the United States. However, current educational approaches and business recruitment tactics are not drawing sufficient talent to sustain the bioscience workforce pipeline. Surveys conducted by the Mid-Atlantic Biology Research and Career Network identified a disconnect between stakeholders who are key to educating, training, and hiring college and university graduates, resulting in several impediments to workforce development in the BHCR: 1) students are underinformed or unaware of bioscience opportunities before entering college and remain so at graduation; 2) students are not job ready at the time of graduation; 3) students are mentored to pursue education beyond what is needed and are therefore overqualified (by degree) for most of the available jobs in the region; 4) undergraduate programs generally lack any focus on workforce development; and 5) few industry–academic partnerships with undergraduate institutions exist in the region. The reality is that these issues are neither surprising nor restricted to the BHCR. Recommendations are presented to facilitate improvement in the preparation of graduates for today’s bioscience industries throughout the United States.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089590482110199
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Freeman ◽  
Michael A. Gottfried ◽  
Jay Stratte Plasman

Recent educational policies in the United States have fostered the growth of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career-focused courses to support high school students’ persistence into these fields in college and beyond. As one key example, federal legislation has embedded new types of “applied STEM” (AS) courses into the career and technical education curriculum (CTE), which can help students persist in STEM through high school and college. Yet, little is known about the link between AS-CTE coursetaking and college STEM persistence for students with learning disabilities (LDs). Using a nationally representative data set, we found no evidence that earning more units of AS-CTE in high school influenced college enrollment patterns or major selection in non-AS STEM fields for students with LDs. That said, students with LDs who earned more units of AS-CTE in high school were more likely to seriously consider and ultimately declare AS-related STEM majors in college.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 1283-1297
Author(s):  
Mike Thelwall ◽  
Pardeep Sud

Ongoing problems attracting women into many Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects have many potential explanations. This article investigates whether the possible undercitation of women associates with lower proportions of, or increases in, women in a subject. It uses six million articles published in 1996–2012 across up to 331 fields in six mainly English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The proportion of female first- and last-authored articles in each year was calculated and 4,968 regressions were run to detect first-author gender advantages in field normalized article citations. The proportion of female first authors in each field correlated highly between countries and the female first-author citation advantages derived from the regressions correlated moderately to strongly between countries, so both are relatively field specific. There was a weak tendency in the United States and New Zealand for female citation advantages to be stronger in fields with fewer women, after excluding small fields, but there was no other association evidence. There was no evidence of female citation advantages or disadvantages to be a cause or effect of changes in the proportions of women in a field for any country. Inappropriate uses of career-level citations are a likelier source of gender inequities.


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