Abstract
Informal STEM education programs have become venues wherein girls can improve their sense of belonging and potential success (STEM identity) through interactions with role models and seeing how STEM fields are relevant to them. Despite decades of advocacy for single-sex programs’ role in improving girls’ STEM identity, few studies have found definitive results. To explore the role that a single-sex environment can have on adolescent girls’ STEM identity development, this study compares participating girls’ STEM identity from pre- to post-test using linear regression and hierarchical linear modeling to determine whether participants have a larger identity growth in an all-girls informal STEM education summer camp (STEM GIRLS) or a co-educational informal STEM education summer camp (STEM STARS). Results indicate that STEM Self-Efficacy and STEM Identity are positively correlated, however, the model is currently incomplete and could use more clarity to determine the role one plays on the other. Despite this, our study indicates the value in addressing self-efficacy by giving girls opportunities to struggle through challenges. This study also found that both camps were similarly beneficial in impacting STEM Identity and STEM Self-Efficacy, further supporting research that highlights the gendered aspect of the camp is less impactful than the practices used.
Highlights
Girls and women have remained stubbornly underrepresented in many STEM fields, physics, engineering, and computer science (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2016), despite attempts to increase girls and women’s access to STEM programs and careers (American Association of University Women [AAUW], 2010; Spielhagen, 2008)
In our phase 1 analysis we used linear regression to test our hypotheses related to the positive correlation of STEM Self-Efficacy to STEM Identity and whether girls with different demographics would have different levels of STEM Self-Efficacy and STEM Identity
To test our hypotheses related to growth in STEM Identity and Self-Efficacy we conducted hierarchical linear modeling (HLM)
Summary
Girls and women have remained stubbornly underrepresented in many STEM fields, physics, engineering, and computer science (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2016), despite attempts to increase girls and women’s access to STEM programs and careers (American Association of University Women [AAUW], 2010; Spielhagen, 2008). Informal STEM education programs have become venues wherein this type of action and advocacy can occur in safe spaces where students can work with role models that look like them and work on projects that are relevant to them (Brotman and Moore, 2008; Calabrese Barton, et al, 2013) Sometimes this safe space is an all-girl environment where they are free from the pressures of competing for males’ attention or from the fear of speaking up because they see boys as being naturally gifted in STEM (Bracey, 2006; Dweck, 2006; Spielhagen, 2008). Single-sex learning environments have come under attack by feminist groups and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as separate and not equal learning environments (AAUW, 2009; Gandy, 2006; Salomone, 2003)
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