Why Not STEM? A Study Case on the Influence of Gender Factors on Students’ Higher Education Choice

The gender gap in STEM-related job positions is a fact, and it is closely related to the low percentage of women studying STEM degrees. This poses a problem because Europe, as well as the United States and the rest of the developed countries, keep demanding the best engineers and scientists to continue developing innovative products. This problem can thus be approached by answering, firstly, the following question: Why are women not studying STEM degrees? In this paper, we summarize the factors, found in literature, that influence students—both boys and girls—to not study STEM, particularly engineering, computer sciences and technology. We study these influence factors in a sample of N = 338 students from a secondary school placed in the south of Spain; we carry out a survey in order to find out if those students fill out the same answers other researchers have found and published in the related literature. Our main conclusions are as follows: The results confirm that the number of women in technical courses decreases when the level of the course increases; the lack of role models is not an impediment for girls to feel comfortable; unlike boys, girls will not choose engineering, even if their scoring in STEM is good; and we found that girls and women see themselves as not capable of studying an engineering degree more than boys and men do. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the situation regarding the gender gap in STEM fields in ages in which both girls and boys must choose their future studies.

Yhdeksäsluokkalaisten vieraan kielen oppimismotivaatioprofiilien ja arvosanan yhteydet peruskoulun jälkeisiin jatkosuunnitelmiin -

In this article I explore the relationship between Finnish ninth graders’ L2 motivational profiles, language grades and future study plans after basic education. The aim of the study is to critically explore the relationship between motivation and language grades and reflect on the possible implications of this for language education policies. The statistically representative data was collected with an e-questionnaire (n=1 206). For this study, I analysed those who planned to continue their studies to general upper secondary school or vocational education after basic education, and who submitted their language grade (n=981). In earlier analyses of the study (Kangasvieri, 2019), five motivational profiles were found: the least motivated, averagely motivated with low anxiety, averagely motivated, the most motivated and students with high anxiety. In this study, the connection between these motivational profiles and students’ education choice is explored, taking into account the effect of grades. A logistic regression analysis was conducted. The results show that the probability to continue to general upper secondary school or vocational education in each motivational profile depends on the grade. The model explains about 30 percent of the students’ educational choices. Additionally, the results show that the more motivated the student is in his/her language studies, the higher grade he/she feels is needed in order to plan to continue to general upper secondary school after basic education. Correspondingly, less motivated students plan to continue to general upper secondary school with poorer grades than more motivated students.

An examination of gender imbalance in Scottish adolescents’ vocational interests

This paper documents Scottish adolescents’ vocational interest types. Our research is based on the responses of 1,306 pupils from 18 secondary schools to an empirically verified online interest inventory test. Our results are threefold. First, the structural validity of the test with the Scottish sample is confirmed by evaluating the underlying circumplex structure of Holland’s RIASEC vocational interests. Second, gender distribution along the six primary vocational interest dimensions is consistent with the research literature: young men scoring higher on the Realistic vocational interest and young women scoring higher on the Social dimension. Finally, we observe that across dimensions, vocational interests of young women are less diverse than those of young men. We discuss how these dissimilarities could lead to differences in education choice and career decision-making.

Online Education Participants: Standing Together or Falling Apart?

The paper summarizes the findings from research by Russian scholars into the expansion of online education technologies into Russian universities. Risks are described connected with the unpreparedness of the education process participants to be fully engaged in the new education format. Two opinion polls were organized among students and university staff in order to reveal their assessment of education strategies and their involvement in online education. The study has shown that neither students nor academic staff at provincial universities are sufficiently involved in the process, which does not enable any forecast to be made pertaining to online training efficiency. So far, it is only the opportunities to access, participate and use online education that can be assessed. The survey has revealed a significant difference in students’ and lecturers’ perception of online education. While students are ready to switch to the new format, lecturers prefer classical approaches. They display negative attitudes, tend to avoid changes and stress that the expansion of online education services may result in a lower status and loss of prestige for the teaching profession. The possibility of their participation in developing online education products is doubtful. The lack of either experience or desire to be involved in the process may result in a low quality of online courses and programs, if developed. The study enables the authors to define a problem field of youth education choice management. This field includes issues of self-study needs satisfaction, a lower level of knowledge in today’s young generation and information retaining difficulty, the “external memory” problem resulting from the abundance of gadgets et cetera. Risks are described pertaining to youth’s uncontrolled involvement in online education alternatives connected with human capital structure changes, emergence of negative generation characteristics and education prospects. Keywords: youth, academic staff, education, education strategies, online education, self-study

The Accidental Home Educator

Previous conceptions of the choice to home educate have focused on a dualism between ideology and pedagogy. Indeed, the discussion around home education choice frequently falls back onto these two categories to explore and explain the choice to home educate. Using empirical literature on the choice to home educate that presents the experiences of families who home educate, this chapter instead proposes a different dichotomy. Rather than ideologues and pedagogues, this chapter proposes there are two choosers based on their a priori/a posteriori relationship with schooling for their children, and, instead, they choose either because of ideological or pedagogical reasons; rather, they choose either deliberately or accidentally. Using the theoretical lens of responsibilisation, this chapter argues parents are responsibilised toward home education in response to risks they perceive. These risks could be experienced a posteriori, through direct exposure to their child's schooling, or a priori, through a belief about what schools are like.

Integrating User Voice in Hearing Care With Focus on Off-Duty Warfighter

ABSTRACT Introduction Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) is a growing public health concern in the USA and globally because of the emergence of lifestyle preferences and environmental exposures to sound levels exceeding safe listening limits for extended periods of time. In the military, hearing and communication are important for survival and the Department of Defense’s Hearing Center of Excellence highlights the importance of protection from NIHL. Issuance of the World health organization safe audio listening standards along with existing U.S. federal and military standards provides a framework for developing an accessible tool for promoting safe listening. Methods An App is being proposed for an aggregated assessment of a user’s daily sound exposure, through personal audio system and ambient sources and providing tools for managing personal sound exposures. The key elements for development of App features were integration of user voice for functionalities, computations based on global standards, including military, for safe listening and alignment with regulatory standards for Apps. Results Features of the App are “Track” for audio and ambient exposures, “Compute” for real-time and cumulative exposures vs. safe listening standards, “Alert” for unsafe exposures using visual and haptic, “Inform” for personal exposures vs. safe dose, associated NIHL risk and education, “Choice” for alternatives that can be relatable to personal lifestyle, and “Share” for informing others as determined by the user. App safety is ensured by privacy and cybersecurity regulatory standards. Conclusion The overall goals of the App are to increase NIHL awareness and to empower users to improve personal listening behaviors that can potentially reduce the risk of NIHL.

Emotional Intelligence in Children of Christian Missionary Schools at Kolkata

The present study seeks to observe emotional intelligence (EI) among children from four Christian Missionary Schools in the Kolkata metropolitan area and stipulates the need to cultivate EI from the preparatory years of the children. 316 children were studied using a cross-sectional survey design. The results revealed the presence of a reasonably good amount of emotional intelligence where gender was associated with a statistically significant variation in EI scores. It also showed no association between parental education, choice of hobby, presence of sibling, family structure and locality of residence to one's own emotional intelligence. The results of the study recapitulate the effectiveness of the faith-oriented learning environment in the four missionary school settings for promotion of emotional intelligence among the children by developing selfcontrol, empathy and values-based decision making.