Abstract
This study investigates the suitability of the STEM Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS) to measure secondary school students’ aspirations towards STEM subjects and careers. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess the initial structural validity of the adapted STEM-CIS survey, where the science subscale was extended to four science disciplines, to align with the way science is taught in Finland and Russia. The results indicate that the interest in STEM subjects in general is not at a high level in any of the countries. There is a traditional gender gap regarding STEM subjects in every dimension, which favors females in biology and males in technology and engineering. STEM stereotypes among students—due to low exposure to STEM professions at school—can explain students’ low interest despite high self-efficacies. Our study shows that we must increase informal learning opportunities inside and outside school and improve career counselling for students so that they will be more informed of STEM career opportunities.
Highlights
The STEM Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS) was created for researchers, professional developers, and evaluators in measuring STEM career interest and the impact of STEM programs on changes in students’ interest in STEM subjects, majors, and careers [1]. In this adapted STEM-CIS, science was divided into four disciplines, i.e., biology, chemistry, geography, and physics, and it was used to investigate the interest in STEM subjects and careers of those students in the lower secondary schools who participated in the “Development of Common Approaches to Involve Youth into Science and the Technical Sphere—BeTech!” project, organized in the North Calotte region of Finland, Norway, and Russia
Students from Finland and Russia were interested in physics and mathematics, and students from Norway and Finland were less interested in technology than students from Russia
Females had a higher interest in biology than males, while males had a higher interest in physics, mathematics, technology, and engineering compared with females (Table 3)
Summary
The STEM Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS) was created for researchers, professional developers, and evaluators in measuring STEM career interest and the impact of STEM programs on changes in students’ interest in STEM subjects, majors, and careers [1]. In this adapted STEM-CIS, science was divided into four disciplines, i.e., biology, chemistry, geography, and physics, and it was used to investigate the interest in STEM subjects and careers of those students in the lower secondary schools who participated in the “Development of Common Approaches to Involve Youth into Science and the Technical Sphere—BeTech!” project, organized in the North Calotte region of Finland, Norway, and Russia. Research in the sphere of STEM interests shows that there is a wide gap between students’ interests in STEM education and their desire to make efforts in study-related disciplines [6]
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