Abstract
This study investigated Turkish school students’ attitudes towards STEM disciplines and careers and explored determinants of students’ STEM career goals. In total, 117 lower secondary school students (aged 11 to 14) completed the STEM Semantic Survey including an open-ended question about their career intention after high school and the reasons for their goals. Using the conceptualisation of the influences of behavioural, personal, and contextual variables in career choice decisions, the students’ descriptions of career goal reasons were presented to elaborate on the variables that influence their STEM career goals. Attitudes towards individual STEM disciplines were from moderate to high and towards STEM careers were high. The gender difference was negligible. One of the key determinants of students’ career intentions was interests, involving interest in a particular career (e.g., architect) and career-relevant activities (e.g., planning, drawing, and designing) or subjects (e.g., mathematics). Larger, societal influences (altruism and patriotism) were among the motives of students’ career goals. Implications for research, practice, and policy-making were presented.
Highlights
STEM capability is one of the key competences necessary for functioning effectively in the modern world and contributing to technological and economical high productivity (Jolly, Campbell, & Perlman, 2004; Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012)
Lyons (2006) examined experiences of school science reported by high school students in Sweden, Australia, and England in three interpretive studies
While previous research has suggested that positive orientations towards STEM are fundamental to students’ entrance and persistence in, and completion of STEM-related fields, this study suggests that success is based on various interrelated factors
Summary
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) capability is one of the key competences necessary for functioning effectively in the modern world and contributing to technological and economical high productivity (Jolly, Campbell, & Perlman, 2004; Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012). Many countries consider the issue of competence in STEM as important and incorporate strategies for its development during schooling, at the highest policy level. Despite these influences, there remains a lack of interest in students towards STEM subjects. Three characteristics of school science emerged from students’ narrative reflections: the transmissive pedagogy; decontextualized content; and unnecessary difficulty of school science. These perceived classroom experiences were found to have negative influences on students’ interest and enrolments in both in high school and tertiary level science courses
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