Students Attitudes Surrounding STEM: A Social Cognitive Career Theory Instrument for High School

To meet the demand of the growing science and health sectors in the United States, there is a critical necessity to engage more people in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). To broaden participation in STEM, we must understand the factors that shape perspectives and beliefs around career selection. Good measurement of these factors is crucial to quantify how effectively educational interventions impact student attitudes towards STEM. Adolescents are particularly suited for quantifying intervention efficacy because students build their identities during these formative years and make important career choices. To better quantify intervention efficacy at the high school level, we developed an instrument entitled Student Attitudes Surrounding STEM (SASS), which builds upon the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) framework for understanding career selection. Questionnaire responses were collected from 932 high school students, and split into samples of 400 for exploratory factor analysis and 532 for confirmatory factor analysis. The questions clustered into six factors: self-efficacy experience, self-efficacy academic, outcome expectations, interests, negative perceptions of scientists, and career awareness. The SASS exhibited adequate construct validity as determined by fit indices and theoretical considerations. Furthermore, the instrument demonstrated criterion validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. This tool represents a novel integration of three latent variables into SCCT, negative perceptions of scientists, career awareness, and an experience factor for self-efficacy.

Teacher views on the use of scenarios to enhance scientific literacy through raising career awareness

Uuringu eesmärk oli välja selgitada loodusteaduste õpetajate valmisolek kasutada karjääriteadlikkuse kujundamisele suunatud stsenaariume loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse arendamisel. Kasutasime viit uuringu jaoks koostatud kontekstipõhist loodusteadusliku karjääriteadlikkusega seotud stsenaariumi. Igas neist tutvustati sotsiaalteaduslikust kontekstist lähtuvalt vähemalt kaht loodusteadustega seotud elukutset koos neis vajalike teadmiste ja oskustega. Valmisolekut stsenaariume tunnis kasutada küsiti kümnelt loodusteaduste õpetajalt, kasutades Google Formsi keskkonnas kohandatud küsimustikku. Kvalitatiivse analüüsi tulemused näitasid, et õpetajate valmisolek stsenaariumide kasutamiseks on erinev ning isegi kogenud õpetaja vajab mitmekülgseid juhiseid karjääriteadlikkuse kui loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse ühe tahu arendamiseks loodusteaduste tundides. Summary

488 Career Awareness of Incoming University of Florida Animal Science Majors

A disproportionate number of Animal Science (ANS) students start their program with the intent of pursuing veterinary school. While some succeed, most change career paths either by personal choice or not gaining admission into veterinary school. Ideally, the sooner a student identifies alternative career path(s), the more opportunities they have to prepare for those careers by pursuing additional classes and extracurriculars. The University of Florida (UF) is unique compared to peer institutions with a 30% freshman acceptance rate, an overwhelming 41% of UF ANS students arrive as transfers. This compresses the time to matriculate through the ANS curriculum and increases the urgency to redirect students into the numerous ANS career paths. The objective of this study is to better understand ANS student’s perceptions of careers. We conducted a career awareness survey at the start and end of the ANS3006 Introduction to Animal Science course over the past two years. Students (n=352) were asked demographic information, and completed an online instrument evaluating their awareness of career options available to them. Over 49% could not list more than two careers. Veterinarian was the most common and appeared on 76% of responses. Students are exposed to careers throughout each lecture module and related career-focused assignments. In the post test evaluation, 57% listed more than two careers, with the average increasing from 2.8 to 3.6 careers per student. Additionally, 18.8% of students indicated their career goals had changed over the course of the semester, with more than 2/3 or those being students who changed from a veterinary path. In conclusion, ANS students arriving at UF have a limited outlook on career options. While introduction to ANS has some success in expanding those options, more efforts need to be made in the current curriculum and through secondary education to increase awareness of ANS careers.

The Relationship between Communication Skills and Career Awareness: An Example of Sports Sciences Faculty Students

The main aim of the research was to determine the relationship between communication skills and career awareness of individuals studying at the faculty of sports sciences. This study was performed according to the relational screening model. The study group of the research consisted of a total of 386 students, 215 males and 171 females, studying at Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Sports Sciences. In addition to the personal information form in the research, the “Communication Skills Evaluation Scale (CSES)” was developed by Korkut (1996) and the “Career Awareness Scale (CAS)” was developed by Yaşar and Sunay (2019) were used as data collection tools. It was accepted that the research data showed a normal distribution according to the skewness and kurtosis values. After the research data showed normal distribution, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation test were applied in the analysis. In the research results, no significant difference was found between the communication skills of Sport Sciences students according to their gender and grade levels. However, a significant difference was determined between the sub-dimensions of career awareness according to the variables of individuals’ gender and class. As a result of the research, a positive moderate relationship was determined between communication skills and career awareness. Considering that as the communication skills of the students studying at the faculty of sports sciences increase, their career awareness will increase, it is recommended that more studies be conducted to increase the communication skills of the students.

Examining the professional career values and career awareness of athlete- students: the sample of the faculty of sports sciences

Background and Study Aim. Athlete-students continue their athletic careers at a professional level during their education, or many try to pursue alternative career paths. While much attention has been given to Athlete-students' academic progress and graduation rates in the literature, little attention has been paid to their attitudes towards career values and career awareness. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the career awareness and career values of athletes-students according to some demographic variables. Material and Methods. This cross-sectional descriptive-correlational study was performed in the Sports Science Faculty of Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University of Turkey which forms the universe of the study. A total of 334 (162 female and 172 male) athletes-students who were undergraduate students in the sports sciences faculty of the university participated in the research. The data collection tool in the study "Professional Career Awareness Scale", and "Career Values Scale" was used. T-test and One-Way ANOVA tests were used to perform the differential analysis and Pearson Correlation analysis was used to determine the correlation between variables. Results. According to the results of the research, it was found that scores of the professional career values and career values of the athletes-students were at a moderate level. It was observed that the students' career values dimensions perception scores differed according to their perception scores and gender, department, class, age variables; there was no difference between the variable of being a licensed athlete and the dimensions. Differences were observed between career awareness dimensions, professional development disposition, and department and age variables. There was no difference between career awareness dimensions and gender, status of being a licensed athlete, and class variable. In addition, it is seen that there is a low and moderate relationship between professional career awareness and career values sub-dimensions. Conclusions. According to these results, it can be said that due to the lack of standardized measures of athlete-student career development, career awareness and career values are at a moderate level and their perceptions differ according to their demographic characteristics.

Examining the professional career values and career awareness of athlete- students: the sample of the faculty of sports sciences

Background and Study Aim. Athlete-students continue their athletic careers at a professional level during their education, or many try to pursue alternative career paths. While much attention has been given to Athlete-students' academic progress and graduation rates in the literature, little attention has been paid to their attitudes towards career values and career awareness. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the career awareness and career values of athletes-students according to some demographic variables. Material and Methods. This cross-sectional descriptive-correlational study was performed in the Sports Science Faculty of Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University of Turkey which forms the universe of the study. A total of 334 (162 female and 172 male) athletes-students who were undergraduate students in the sports sciences faculty of the university participated in the research. The data collection tool in the study "Professional Career Awareness Scale", and "Career Values Scale" was used. T-test and One-Way ANOVA tests were used to perform the differential analysis and Pearson Correlation analysis was used to determine the correlation between variables. Results. According to the results of the research, it was found that scores of the professional career values and career values of the athletes-students were at a moderate level. It was observed that the students' career values dimensions perception scores differed according to their perception scores and gender, department, class, age variables; there was no difference between the variable of being a licensed athlete and the dimensions. Differences were observed between career awareness dimensions, professional development disposition, and department and age variables. There was no difference between career awareness dimensions and gender, status of being a licensed athlete, and class variable. In addition, it is seen that there is a low and moderate relationship between professional career awareness and career values sub-dimensions. Conclusions. According to these results, it can be said that due to the lack of standardized measures of athlete-student career development, career awareness and career values are at a moderate level and their perceptions differ according to their demographic characteristics.

Career Awareness in the Study of Malay Language Program

Awareness of the career to be pursued can be present as early as childhood and can vary according to knowledge and interest. Most of today's children are more focused on achieving excellence in education, but still vague in the career that will be pursued. This situation persisted when they continued their studies at higher education and they realized that the choice of field of study was not in line with their ambitions. Usually, these children choose a field based on their results rather than settling for the required degree for the field of interest. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the extent of students’ understanding of the scope and career prospects in Malay language. Students were distributed with a set of questionnaires containing 54 items using ordinal scales of semantic difference types. The findings of the study showed that 34(56.7%) of the students studied chose this field of study as the main choice. Students also showed a high level of knowledge about careers in the Malay language which they studied (M=3.92; SD=0.57). Students have also listed a total of 14 careers in the field of Malay language they are familiar with.