Examining Science Achievement in Chile: A Multilevel Model Approach

This study employed data from the 2015 Chilean sample of the Programme for International Student Assessment to examine the factors that influence science achievement and factors that may reduce the gender gap in science achievement. Our research was guided by Eccles’ Expectancy-Value Theory, which focused on motivational factors that influence gender differences in students’ achievement choices and performance. Our results indicate that socioeconomic status (SES), motivation, enjoyment of science, expected occupational status, school SES, and class size are related to higher science achievement. Also, anxiety was negatively associated with science achievement. Implications for Chilean policymakers and school administrators to improve Chilean girls’ science achievement are discussed.

Failure and Improvement in Elementary Engineering

Recent science education reform documents in the United States have called for teachers to teach content related to engineering and science and to do so by engaging students in disciplinary practices. One important practice of engineering is improving from failure. Thus, students should experience productive failure as part of engineering design activities. However, engineering is a new subject for most elementary teachers. Historically failure has had negative connotations in elementary and precollege classrooms. To scaffold students through failure as they learn from and improve engineering designs, teachers will need to understand failure and pedagogical strategies for managing it. This study uses discourse analysis of video from eight elementary classes engaged in engineering to examine the nature of failure in engineering design projects. It also investigates how the collective actions of students and teachers support or constrain the process of improvement from engineering design failure. From these data, we propose a model of improvement through failure. This includes a classification of types and causes failure as well as facilitating conditions that must be present for improvement. We explore three features of engineering and three features of classroom cultures that contribute to learning to engage in productive failure.

Assessing Robotics Skills in Early Childhood: Development and Testing of a Tool for Evaluating Children’s Projects

Children’s robotics skills can be assessed in various ways, one being examining the unique projects that they create. This paper discusses the multi-phase development and testing of a robotics project rubric. The rubric considers both the programming concepts and the aesthetic design elements of a project, which enables researchers and practitioners to determine the overall level of complexity exhibited in the robotics project. This paper presents the background literature and theoretical framework that contributed to the rubric design and summarizes findings from iteratively developing and testing the rubric with a total of 173 robotics projects. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.

Strategically Addressing the Soft Skills Gap Among STEM Undergraduates

Employers are seeking candidates with uniquely human, or “soft” skills to survive and thrive in their future careers. This article aims to illuminate the soft skills gap of STEM undergraduate students by understanding the soft skills that will be needed in the future of work and the soft skills that students are currently missing. These skills include teamwork, collaboration, leadership, problem-solving, critical thinking, work ethic, persistence, emotional intelligence, organizational skills, creativity, interpersonal communication, and conflict resolution. To address this soft skills gap, this paper also explores various collaboration strategies between employers and academic institutions, such as working jointly on curriculum, raising awareness, establishing leadership support, and building communities of success. These can be implemented to enhance the soft skills capabilities of STEM undergraduate students entering the workforce. This qualitative research examined STEM employers’ perceptions of the most essential soft skills needed and missing among recently hired STEM undergraduates. Findings identified the top ten most in-demand soft skills needed for the next five years with leadership and human-connection on the top of the list. Furthermore, the result of this inquiry indicates that the soft skill gap in current STEM undergraduates is not only evident, but it is steadily increasing. To address this problem, this paper suggests that an ongoing synergy is needed between employers and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to guide students in developing and acquiring these essential skills. This effort will hopefully improve student employability, increase employer outcomes, and ultimately reduce the nationwide soft skills gap. Also, it provides insights into soft skills that organizations and HEIs should invest in the years ahead.

A Quantitative Analysis of a Customized Peer Mentoring Program with STEM Underrepresented Students

This article highlights a customized mentoring program that successfully supported underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines at a university in the northeastern part of the United States (U.S.). Because of the national and regional needs to augment underrepresented, minority, first-generation, and low-income STEM college students, this study investigated efforts to expand the number and retain such population in higher education STEM programs through a customized mentoring program based on a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. In particular, we evaluated the necessity of strong and broad-based mentoring characteristics using assessment tools and surveys. The study was conducted with 34 participants in STEM fields. The participants’ motivation mean scores in STEM was measured at three different points in time (pre-, mid-, and end-year) and compared using descriptive statistics and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results obtained indicated significant improvement in mentoring characteristics such as goal orientation, resource management, and academic performance with mean scores ranging from 4.99 to 5.21. Although additional findings from the repeated measures ANOVA showed no statistically significant differences, however, the marginal mean scores suggest the customized mentoring program had some positive effect and the mentoring practices supported underrepresented groups toward successful navigation of STEM disciplines. We discuss the study limitations, implications, and future research directions.

Gender and the STEM Fields in Education- and Career-Related Discussions between Finnish Parents and their Adolescent Children

Occupational gender segregation in Finland is high and persistent in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Previous research has concluded that, rather than differences in aptitude, gendered educational and vocational choices originate from more complex system of attitudes, self-concepts, motivations and both direct and indirect social influences, all of which shape young people’s future goals. In the sphere of social influences on career choice, parents play a special role in adolescents’ education and career exploration. This study explores two interrelated areas: firstly, the ideas expressed by Finnish adolescent children’s parents about the role of gender in education and career choices, and secondly, parent-child discussions about such ideas, especially with regard to STEM career pathways. The research data (N=103) was collected by means of an online survey. Almost half of the parents reported having had discussions about STEM careers with their children. Problematically, many parents considered that they had too little information about these careers. Our results indicate that mothers are more aware of the societal and individual consequences of occupational gender segregation than fathers are. The results also suggest that parents should be provided with up-to-date information on STEM careers and on the consequences of occupational gender segregation in order to enhance parents’ readiness to support their children in their future exploration of education and careers. Greater collaboration between homes, career counseling, teachers and relevant organizations concerned with the economic world, working life and entrepreneurship would be beneficial in promoting awareness of these aspects during adolescents’ career development.

Perceived Impact of COVID-19 and Other Factors on STEM Students’ Career Development

In early 2020, colleges shifted abruptly from traditional in-person to remote distant instruction due to COVID-19 potentially exacerbating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students’ recruitment and retention. This preliminary study using survey methodology was conducted with STEM students at a small (700 students) private college to examine questions related to students’ perceptions of natural science careers, career decision-making factors, barriers influencing students’ career path, including effects of COVID-19 on career goals, mental health, and perceived quality of instruction. A Qualtrics® survey was sent to 180 STEM students, from which we received 53 responses (29.4% response rate). Consistent with other studies, family was one of the most important factors supporting their career path. Students had a relatively upbeat career outlook despite being in the middle of a global pandemic and were only moderately worried about the impact of COVID-19 on their future career. Despite these relatively positive outcomes, the abrupt switch to online instruction was viewed unfavorably by most respondents, who valued the hands-on learning experiences obtained with traditional in-person instruction. It is possible that respondents’ views of online instruction may improve over time as instructors become more adept at using new instructional tools. Future research should evaluate this aspect and whether students’ career goals change across time as the pandemic unfolds.

Excessive Mentoring? An Apprenticeship Model on a Robotics Team

Participation on a robotics team affords students the opportunity to learn science and engineering skills in a competition-based environment. Mentors on these robotics teams play important roles in helping students acquire these skills. This study used an apprenticeship learning theory to examine how mentors on one high school robotics team contributed to students attaining the knowledge associated with designing and building a robot for competition. How active of a role did mentors play on their competition-based robotics team? How did mentors and students together handle the challenges they faced? The mentor-student interactions detailed in the research revealed an apprenticeship model where mentors played leadership roles reluctant to move beyond modeling tasks to students. The mentors’ roles bring into question if they were granting their students the full opportunities to develop skills associated with working on a robot. Despite these developmental concerns, the students on the team gradually took up simple tasks working side-by-side mentors, saw expert engineers model professional habits, and expressed being inspired while contributing to a winning team.

Beyond the Leaky Pipeline: Developmental Pathways that Lead College Students to Join or Return to STEM Majors

STEM education researchers often invoke the “Leaky Pipeline” metaphor (National Research Council, 1986) when explaining why so many students do not persist in STEM. This metaphor envisions the supply of potential workers as a pipeline. Students “drip out” (leave STEM) of the pipeline from preschool through college. However, this metaphor does not adequately reflect the fluidity and multi-directionality of students’ decisions about their college majors. For example, some students join STEM after leaving another (non-STEM) major, and others add STEM as a second major. Increasing the number of students who join STEM could contribute substantially to addressing the STEM shortage. We used the term STEM joiners to refer to these students. We conducted a qualitative study of 22 college STEM joiners to explore the developmental trajectories and motivations of these STEM joiners. Data was collected through semi-structured clinical interviews with each individual and was analyzed by an iterative, grounded coding processes to derive themes and categories. We found that the decision to join STEM after declaring another major was often motivated by a desire to return to original interests in STEM. Early college STEM courses, supportive STEM environments, and mentoring experiences were critical in students’ joining decisions. The results suggest ways in which STEM joining could be increased, which could lead to an increase in the number of STEM majors.

STEM Integration for High School Mathematics Teachers

The discipline of mathematics in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) integration has not yet been consistently connected in a clear way for a large amount of high school mathematics teacher to implement STEM integration well. In response to this I have proposed a focus on integrated steM education; the integration of STEM subjects with an explicit focus on mathematics. There are benefits to integrated steM education in a mathematics classroom including increased motivation, interest, and achievement for students. Integrated steM integration can also prepare students with the needed proficiencies and knowledge bases to be productive and impactful members of society. This article discusses three methods that high school mathematics teachers can utilize for integrated steM education. By focusing on open-ended problems through engineering design challenges, mathematical modeling, and mathematics integrated with technology high school students are more likely to see mathematics as meaningful and valuable. Examples of each method are discussed along with common instructional elements among the methods.