Analysis of Relation of High School Students Math and Science Motivational Belief and Their Subsequent STEM Major Choice in College and the Gender Difference

Abstract

Expectancy-value theory and Dimensional comparison theory were used to design the instrument of this research. This study examines the relationship between the grade twelfth (G12) high school students math and science motivational belief and their STEM major choice in college. Additionally, this study examined how math and science motivational beliefs and STEM outcomes varied by gender. This research is conducted by 30 secondary students who is the twelfth grade students and participates into the entrance of university examination in Guangzhou China through questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by qualitative method structural equation modeling with SPSS and Python to modeling the variables to find the coefficients. From the SEM analysis, it is shown that confidence in acquiring skill in mathematics (0.35) and science (0.08) enables G12 students to choose empirical major but not math-intensive STEM college major such as engineering, agriculture or medicine. Meanwhile, the anxiety of the mathematics score (-0.02) and the science score (0.29) present that students are highly involved in their related subject studies even though they suffer academic pressure. According to the broken-line analysis, students consider mathematics mostly as a benefit to future university study (3.65), and science is more for daily life function (3.71). Lastly, it is proposed that the male performs better than the female but there is no apparent gender difference in STEM performance.