Context and Implications Document for: Recruitment to STEM studies: The roles of curriculum reforms, flexibility of choice, and attitudes

Abstract

This guide accompanies the following article: Mellander, E. & Lind, P. (2021) Recruitment to STEM studies: The roles of curriculum reform, flexibility of choice, and attitudes, Review of Education. https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2049-6613 In many countries, the recruitment to education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is viewed as insufficient relative to the needs arising through increasingly rapid technological change and growing challenges with respect to, for example, the environment, energy supply and pandemics. The deficiency is especially marked with respect to female students. To increase STEM studies, some countries have implemented upper secondary curriculum reforms. In the Netherlands, the number of study options has been reduced and STEM alternatives emphasised. In Germany, students have been required to take advanced mathematics, where they formerly could choose between basic and advanced mathematics. In England, the Royal Society has formulated a vision implying that all students should study mathematics and science up to age 18. We assess a Swedish upper secondary curriculum reform in 1995 that was similar to the proposal launched by the Royal Society. Moreover, there was a later reform, implemented in 2011, that reversed many of the changes of the earlier one, allowing us to compare two reforms going in opposite directions, in one and the same country. We also consider attitudes to STEM and flexibility with respect to the choice of study path as these may also impact on STEM recruitment, directly and indirectly, by influencing the reactions to curriculum reforms. The intentions of educational reforms can be very different from the resulting outcomes. To capture the actual changes in behaviour among those affected by the reform, data spanning both pre- and post-reform periods, as well as the reform itself, are required, that is, longitudinal data. In 2002, the German federal state Baden-Württenberg implemented a reform requiring students to take advanced mathematics where they formerly could choose between basic and advanced mathematics. The reform had no effect on the results in mathematics among male students. While mathematics results improved among female students, their upper secondary drop-out rate increased too. The Swedish reform in 1995, requiring students on vocational programmes to stay on an additional year, to enable more academic studies, including STEM, was not very successful either (Policy implication 1). A ‘soft’ alternative was tried in the Netherlands. In 1998, a large number of upper secondary study options was limited to only four study profiles, among which two were STEM-oriented. The reform reduced the female under-representation in STEM studies. However, with respect to the two STEM profiles, the male students predominantly chose the more STEM-intensive ‘Science and Technology’ profile while the majority of the female STEM students opted for the ‘Science and Health’ profile. STEM studies are demanding. One would thus expect that for students uncertain about whether they will cope with the studies, it should be important that the risks associated with choosing an upper secondary STEM programme be kept low. Swedish experiences support this conjecture. First, changing programme is easy, common, and not stigmatising. Accordingly, more students ‘at the margin’ try a STEM programme, than would have been the case, had the (first) choice of programme been (more) decisive. Second, the 4-year Technology and Engineering programme owes much of its popularity to the feature that it incorporates an alternative to the long-term commitment to higher education studies that otherwise is associated with the choice of an academic upper secondary STEM programme. Specifically, after three years of academic studies the students can choose between going to university or undertaking one year of vocational training, yielding a well-respected professional qualification. A high male participation in STEM studies often seems to be taken as given. Data for Sweden indicate that this can be a dangerous presumption. Whereas the male enrolment rate on academic upper secondary STEM programmes was close to 30% in the mid-1980s, it was below 20% in 2012. An important factor behind the downturn was the partial dismantling of the Technology and Engineering programme (dominated by male students) that took place between 1990 and 2010 and meant that the option to attend one year of vocational training after the third academic year was taken away. After the reinstatement of this option in 2011, enrolment increased again but still did not exceed 20% in 2017, the end of our period of observation. Fortunately, this negative development was compensated for by an enlarged inflow to vocational upper secondary STEM programmes and students attending the Supplementary 1-year Upper Secondary Science/Technology Education. Due to these channels, the share of male students proceeding to STEM university studies increased from 12% to 13% between the mid-1980s and 2012, which, however, is very modest compared to the female rate (see Policy Implication 4). For a discussion about the use of register data, that is, longitudinal population data, in educational research, see Mellander (2017). The German curriculum reform has been assessed by Görlitz and Gravert (2016, 2018) and Hübner et al. (2017) and the consequences of the reform in the Netherlands have been considered by van Langen et al. (2008). The current system of upper secondary education in England is described by Hupkau et al. (2017) while the Royal Society’s vision concerning its reformation is formulated in Royal Society (2014, 2018). A pilot scheme preceding the first curriculum reform in Sweden has been evaluated by Hall (2012). Görlitz, K., & Gravert, C. (2016). The effects of the high school curriculum on school dropout. Applied Economics, 48(54), 5314–5328. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2016.1176116 Görlitz, K., & Gravert, C. (2018). The effects of a high school curriculum reform on university enrollment and the choice of college major. Education Economics, 26(3), 321–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2018.1426731 Hall, C. (2012). The Effects of Reducing Tracking in Upper Secondary School: Evidence from a Large-Scale Pilot Scheme. Journal of Human Resources, 47(1), 237–269. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.47.1.237 Hupkau, C., McNally, S., Ruiz-Valenzuela, J., Ventura, G. (2017). Post-Compulsory Education in England: Choices and Implications. National Institute Economic Review, 240(1), R42–R57, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/002795011724000113# Hübner, N., Wille, E., Cambria, J., Oschatz, K., Nagengast, B., & Trautwein, U. (2017). Maximizing gender equality by minimizing course choice options? Effects of obligatory coursework in math on gender differences in STEM. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(7), 993–1009. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000183 Mellander, E. (2017). On the use of register data in educational science research. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 3(1), 106–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2017.1313680 Royal Society (2014). Vision for science and mathematical education (Royal Society Science Policy Centre report 01/14). Royal Society (2018). Vision update 2018. https://royalsociety.org/media/education/policy/vision/reports/Vision-Update-2018.pdf van Langen, A., Rekers-Mombarg, L., & Dekkers, H. (2008). Mathematics and science choice following introduction of compulsory study profiles into Dutch secondary education. British Educational Research Journal, 34(6), 733–745. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920802041590 Seminar Idea: New ways to increase the recruitment to STEM studies Educational reforms seeking to increase the study of STEM subjects in upper secondary education by requiring students to take STEM courses have not been very successful (see Policy implication 2). This raises the question if new ways can be found to increase the recruitment to STEM studies, based on free choice of study programme and the creation of novel study paths. In particular, can options traditionally regarded as substitutes provide a solution if they, instead, are viewed as complements and, thus, possible to combine? The idea can be illustrated by two Swedish examples. The first example concerns a combination of non-STEM and STEM studies. By means of 1-year ‘add-on’ science/technology education, students with a completed academic non-STEM upper secondary programme can become eligible to STEM university studies. While this prolongs their studies from three to four years it provides them with a very broad upper secondary education and a guaranteed study place at an appropriate university science/technology programme, if they complete the supplementary education within the stipulated year (see Policy implication 3). The second example involves a combination of academic and vocational studies. In the Technology and Engineering programme, the first three years are devoted to academic studies, yielding eligibility to university technology and engineering education. However, the third year can also be followed by one year of vocational studies, yielding a professional qualification. Accordingly, the students need not decide on a long university education when they enrol on this programme; they have an exit option which is well recognised in the labour market (see Policy implication 3). Issues to consider: Could these examples be applied to other countries? Are there institutional obstacles, like limits on the maximum number of years spent in upper secondary, or regulations preventing changes of study path? If so, could they be eliminated?