Students leaving the STEM pipeline: an investigation of their attitudes and the influence of significant others on their study choice

Abstract

The main aim of the present study was to investigate why some students do not continue in science-oriented studies in higher education despite that their previous career in secondary education proved that they were interested and suitably qualified to do so. We introduced a new approach to deal with these students’ attitudes towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) studies. That is, the study was based on the multi-attribute utility theory, using an approach related to the theory of reasoned action. The study included 477 Dutch students that pursued a study in higher education (mostly second- and third-year students). All students had taken advanced mathematics, chemistry and physics courses in secondary education, but did not choose a STEM study in higher education. In 2008, a questionnaire was sent to them to measure their attitudes. The attitudes of these students towards STEM studies were compared with their attitudes towards their current (non-STEM) study, while also taking the influence of significant others (e.g. parents, teachers and peers) on these students’ study choice into account. As expected, most non-STEM students had chosen the best ‘suitable’ option as regards their attitudes. Nevertheless, 1 out of 10 non-STEM students had a more favourable attitude towards STEM studies than towards their current non-STEM study. However, the hypothesis that these students had left the STEM pipeline because of the advice of significant others was not confirmed.