Mathematics Careers Research Articles

Young children's career aspirations: Gender differences, STEM ambitions, and expected skill use

AbstractThis study examines young children's career aspirations, gender differences in those aspirations, and children's perceptions of the amount of math and science used in careers. We asked 1634 students in first to third grades what job they wanted in the future and how much they thought they would use math or science in it. Career aspirations were sorted into 27 career categories, of which 12 showed significant gender differences. Notably, boys were more likely to indicate military, manual labor, and math/computer science careers, and girls were more likely to indicate stay at home parent, education, and animal care careers. Students aspiring to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers thought they would use science, but not math, more than non‐STEM‐aspiring students did. School counseling interventions focused on specific STEM subfields, and education highlighting links between school subjects and careers requirements may benefit students and reduce gender inequality in STEM fields.

Turning a blind eye? Removing barriers to science and mathematics education for students with visual impairments

With complex, visual concepts prevailing in science and mathematics curricula, these subjects are often inaccessible to students with visual impairments (VI), leading to their underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. While researchers have identified strategies that can facilitate students with VI’s learning within special schools, less is known about how students with VI access science and mathematics within a mainstream context, even though this is where the majority are educated. This seems important to address given the additional barrier students with VI face within mainstream schools, including negative attitudes from mainstream teachers. Consequently, the current study was conducted to explore how students with VI’s access to and learning of science and mathematics can be improved within the mainstream context. Two interviews were conducted with qualified teachers of children and young people with vision impairment (QTVIs), revealing the importance of classroom adaptations, such as hands-on experience and increased lesson time, to facilitate students with VI’s learning of science and mathematics. These findings are discussed in relation to policy and practice, suggesting mainstream teachers should be trained to make small but effective adaptations in their teaching, and that students with VI are given the opportunity to learn skills needed to become independent learners.

Teaching Undergraduate Calculus at an Urban HBCU through a Global Pandemic

Over the last decade, there has been a national effort to prepare a more diverse student population for success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. While there are a variety of best teaching practices in undergraduate STEM education, student engagement has been widely used to improve student learning. Specifically, it is important for students to have opportunities to practice or apply the theory they have learned in courses to real-world problems. Implementing active learning is one model that can be used to achieve this objective. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, professors have had to offer courses in online formats and determine how to continue to implement effective teaching strategies during this unprecedented time. Professors are anticipating the possibility of the need to continue offering courses in fully online and hybrid formats even in the future. With an emphasis on a STEM gateway course sequence, the aim of this paper is to highlight pre-COVID-19 research studies in online STEM education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), explore how COVID-19 impacted students, teaching, and learning in undergraduate calculus courses, and outline opportunities for continuing to implement teaching techniques that work effectively for in-person and online calculus instruction.

How do occupational goals influence adult women’s and men’s decisions to opt out of aspired mathematics-related careers during adolescence?

An explanation for the underrepresentation of women in mathematical fields is the communal goal congruity perspective; that women tend to value communal over agentic goals, perceived to not be afforded by mathematical careers. Less is known about how agentic and communal goals may interact to influence mathematical career trajectories. Analysing a longitudinal dataset, we examined gender differences and combinations of agentic and communal goals, and how goal groups associated with trajectories from adolescent aspirations until actual careers. Among 279 participants followed from secondary school until approximately 20 years later, women valued communal goals higher than men but agentic goals similarly. Despite similar mathematical achievement, the low agentic/high communal goal group was the only group to decline in their choice of a mathematics-related career. There were more women in this group than men, concordant with the communal goal congruity perspective. Implications for future research and educational practice are discussed.

Career choice in gifted students with interests in STEM

ABSTRACT The areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics have an impact on countries’ social and economic transformation, innovation, and sustainable development; women's participation, however, in science and mathematics careers, has remained scarce. This remains true for gifted women, that is, women who display high cognitive potential, which leads to less inclusive societies that squander an important part of their talent. Through a qualitative study, gender differences in the career choice process of gifted students with STEM interests were examined. Thirty students in their last year of high school (15 women and 15 men) with the above-mentioned characteristics participated by responding to an in-depth interview. Findings show that, for both genders, academic decisions are mainly determined by individual factors linked to giftedness characteristics, academic/cognitive skills and interests, and contextual factors linked to family, school, and experiences of others who study or work in the STEM areas of interest. The implications of these findings are discussed, suggesting the need to create more inclusive school environments and vocational guidance to offer these students, highlighting the urgency to promote greater female participation in STEM.

Walking Alone: My Career in Mathematics

In this article, dictated by Maohua Le and arranged by Yongzhong Hu, Professor Le briefly recounts his legendary experience of self-study mathematics, which reflects the life experiences of his generation of Chinese people.

Combating Racial Disparity in Children’s Public Health Education and Literature

Racial disparities in public health persist due to unequal representation of race in lectures, textbooks, case studies, and even clinical training in both health related and biomedical education. This racial disparity is also apparent in children’s literature. Children’s literature predominantly features white main characters, which is particularly true when looking at science books. To address these issues, the authors created an oncology book that featured not only illustrated characters of color but also highlighted a scientist of color in the oncology field. The book uses a kid-friendly approach to address topics such as cancer symptoms, uncontrolled cell division, metastasis, cancer prevention, cancer treatments and how to provide support for someone who has cancer. One of the book’s goals was to debunk myths related to cancer and provide a resource to initiate conversations about cancer for children and their families. The Oncology Book was framed from a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics career with an emphasis on health equity and social justice; therefore, it features illustrated characters of color and a real-life scientist who identifies himself as both Latino and Black who documents his work as a cancer researcher and discusses pathways into various careers in oncology. He also encourages preventative and promotional health behaviors. This article discusses the need for the creation of this free online resource (available in English and Spanish) for healthcare professionals, researchers, and educators along with a paired lesson plan that is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.

Use of Online Tools to Introduce Students to Research.

Engaging students in research is a high-impact practice shown to increase graduation outcomes and sustain their pursuit of careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, research opportunities for students early in their undergraduate studies are not widely available at most colleges or for most students. To overcome this barrier, we developed three online resources designed to introduce students to what research is and direct them on how to get started with the search for research opportunities. These resources consist of (a) two introductory videos to inspire students to learn more about research, (b) online modules on the topics of getting started with research, transferable research skills, and publications and presentations, and (c) a searchable faculty research mentor directory. We found these online resources to be an effective ways to reach and engage a large number of undergraduate students who are accustomed to obtaining information on the web. These online resources can also serve as useful supplemental resources for advising staff and faculty who wish to introduce students to research.

Math Instrument Development for Examining the Relationship between Spatial and Mathematical Problem-Solving Skills

Spatial cognition involves the ability to acquire, organize, and use spatial information in the “mind’s eye.” Numerous correlational studies have demonstrated the strong relationship between spatial cognition and skill in problem-solving in mathematics. Educational researchers across the globe aim to improve students’ mathematics problem-solving ability since these skills are often viewed as the gateway to further study in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers of the future. As a result, causal studies showing that spatial cognition interventions can improve mathematics problem-solving skills have begun to appear with increasing frequency. In order to determine if a spatial intervention is effective in improving mathematics problem-solving skills, it is important to identify the type of problem that is likely to respond to improvements in spatial cognition. A large study was conducted in the United States, where a spatial skills intervention was implemented in 7th grade classrooms across the country to determine its impact on mathematics problem-solving skills through four waves of testing. Mathematics instruments for 7th to 9th grades were developed with items compared to the spatial scores of the individual students. In this paper, the instrument development process along with lessons learned are presented. Data are provided showing each item’s correlation with spatial skills test scores, difficulty level, and discrimination index, along with overall instrument reliability. Complete final instruments for each wave of testing are included in an Appendix. General guidelines are also presented discussing the type of math problems likely to be correlated with spatial ability.

Wounded healer: The impact of a grant-supported scholarship on an underrepresented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics student’s career and life

This study narratively untangles an African–American student’s experiences in the throes of receiving a scholarship to study computer science and enter a future Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) career. Using the “wounded healer” metaphor as an interpretative lens, this work explores challenges the young adult experienced relating to his development, culture, contextualized learning, family interactions, religious beliefs, and self-identity. The student’s stories of teaching-learning, transforming, and healing instantiate the profound impact the grant-supported scholarship had on the youth’s development, life, and career trajectory. Additionally, new connections between narrative and metaphor are forged in ways that strengthen the sense made of teaching-learning, culture, and social interactions in higher education.

Middle‐ and secondary‐school students' STEM career interest and its relationship to gender, grades, and family size in Kazakhstan

AbstractDespite pervasive educational efforts, student interest in STEM careers continues to decline in many countries. The present study seeks to better understand this phenomenon by examining how internal factors (gender) and external factors (school grades, grade level, family size) relate to Kazakh students' STEM career interests. To this end, a newly developed instrument (STEM Career Interest Survey) based on social cognitive career theory was used to assess interest in STEM careers among middle‐ and secondary students in Kazakhstan. The survey was completed by a sample of 396 Kazakh students in grades 7 to 12. Our statistical analyses revealed that (1) female students were generally less interested in STEM careers than male students; (2) students with higher grades in physics classes were significantly more interested in STEM careers than low‐performing students; (3) students at higher grade levels were generally more interested in STEM careers than those in lower grade levels; (4) the number of siblings was positively associated with student interest in mathematics careers; and, (5) family support and role models were significantly correlated with student STEM career interest. Our findings suggest that student development of interest in STEM careers constitutes an epigenetic phenomenon that involves complex interactions between internal factors (e.g., self‐efficacy) and external factors (e.g., gender stereotypes). Based on this, it is argued that the promotion of student interest in STEM careers is a multifaceted problem whose resolution requires, among other things, dispelling stereotypes in students' sociocultural context through systematic renegotiation of traditional gender‐technology relations characteristic of a country's culture.

Equitable approach to introductory calculus-based physics courses focused on problem solving

Introductory calculus-based mechanics (“Physics 1”) is an important gateway course for students desiring to pursue a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career. A major challenge with this course is the large spread in the students’ incoming physics preparation. This level of preparation is strongly predictive of a students’ performance because of the overlap between Physics 1 and high school physics courses. Because the level of students’ incoming preparation is largely determined by the quality of their high school physics courses, Physics 1 can amplify K–12 educational inequities and be a barrier for marginalized students wishing to pursue a STEM career. Here, we present a novel introductory course design to address this equity challenge. The design and implementation are based on the concept of deliberate practice as applied to learning real-world problem solving. Students explicitly practice research-identified decision-based skills required for problem solving in the context of solving real-world problems. The problems used in the course and their solutions have little resemblance to what students encounter in high school physics, thereby reducing the dependence of course performance on the high school physics preparation. Versions of this course were taught at a highly selective private and a lightly selective public university. The students who took the course learned the physics content knowledge they needed for future courses, particularly in engineering, and their problem-solving skills improved substantially. Furthermore, their course performance had much less correlation with their incoming physics preparation than was the case for the outcomes from the traditional Physics 1 courses at both institutions: in one case the correlation dropped from r=0.62 to 0.14, and on the other case the correlation dropped from r=0.56 to 0.26. These findings suggest this course design can be a more equitable version of the traditional Physics 1 course, and hence particularly beneficial for marginalized students.Received 8 August 2022Accepted 23 September 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.020124Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasDiversity & inclusionInstructional strategiesStudent preparationPhysics Education Research

School visits to a physics research laboratory using virtual reality

School visits to research laboratories or facilities represent a unique way to bring students closer to science and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics careers. However, such visits can be very expensive for students and teachers, in terms of both time and money. In this paper, we present a possible alternative to on-site visits consisting in an activity addressed to high school students that makes use of a Virtual Reality application to make them ‘enter’ into a particle physics experiment. This proposal can represent a valid way of guaranteeing a visit to a research centre for all schools, regardless of their social or geographical origin. We describe the tests we carried out with a focus group of teachers and their students, and the obtained results.

Bridging the Technology Divide in the COVID-19 Era: Using Virtual Outreach to Expose Middle and High School Students to Imaging Technology.

Increasing the diversity of students choosing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is an area of intense focus across the USA, especially in kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12)-focused pipeline programs in medical schools. A diverse STEM workforce contributes to better problem-solving and equity in health care. Two of the many major barriers for rural students are the lack of sufficient STEM role models and limited access to technology in the classroom. Medical schools often serve as an important resource for students in the local community who can easily gain access to STEM professionals and modern technology through on-campus, sponsored events and STEM outreach to the local classrooms. However, underrepresented minority (URM) students often live in socioeconomically distressed parts of rural states such as Arkansas, where access to STEM role models and technology is limited. Virtual learning in the COVID-19 era has proven that the imaging technology resources of a medical school can be harnessed to reach a wider audience, especially students living in rural areas far from the medical school campus.

Kız ve Erkek Öğrencilerin Fen ve Matematik ile İlgili Kariyer İsteklerindeki Eğilimler

The aim of this study is to examine secondary school students' desire to pursue a career in science and mathematics in 2011 and 2015, taking into account gender differences, and to examine how variables related to students' socioeconomic status, motivation and performance predict the desire of female and male students to pursue a career in science and mathematics. The number of books, study environment at home and parents’ educational levels were analyzed as SES variables. While motivational variables were students’ self-efficacy and task value beliefs, performance related variables were their achievement and engagement. The data of the eighth-grade students from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 and 2015 were analyzed. To investigate the year differences of girls’ and boys’ career aspirations in science and mathematics, Chi-Square test was performed. In addition, logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relation between students’ SES, motivation, performance and career aspirations for 2011 and 2015 data separately. The results have indicated that students’ motivation was the strongest and the most common predictor of career aspirations in science and mathematics for boys and girls.

The Plant Science Blogging Project: A curriculum to develop student science communication skills

Societal Impact StatementThe practice of writing science blogs benefits both the scientist and society alike by providing professional development opportunities and delivering information in a format that is accessible to large and diverse audiences. By designing a project that introduced upper‐level undergraduate students to science blog writing with a focus on plant biology, we piqued students' interest in science writing and the content of a popular plant science blog website. If adopted more widely, this work could broaden the scope of science education and promote the development of effective science communication skills for the next generation of scientists.Summary Successful scientists must communicate their research to broad audiences, including distilling key scientific concepts for the general public. Students pursuing careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields benefit from developing public communication skills early in their careers, but opportunities are limited in traditional biology curricula. We created the “Plant Science Blogging Project” for a Plant Biology undergraduate course at the University of Pittsburgh in Fall 2018 and 2019. Students wrote blog posts merging personal connections with plants with plant biology concepts for the popular science blogs Plant Love Stories and EvoBites. By weaving biology into their narratives, students learned how to share botanical knowledge with the general public. The project had positive impacts on student learning and public engagement. In post‐assignment surveys, the majority of students reported that they enjoyed the assignment, felt it improved their understanding of plant biology, and piqued their interest in reading and writing science blogs in the future. Approximately one‐third of the student‐authored blogs were published, including two that rose to the top 10 most‐read posts on Plant Love Stories. Some dominant themes in student blogs, including medicine and culture, differed from common story themes published on the web, indicating the potential for students to diversify science blog content. Overall, the Plant Science Blogging Project allows undergraduate students to engage with plant biology topics in a new way, sharpen their scientific communication skills in accordance with today's world of mass information sharing, and contribute to the spread of scientific knowledge for public benefit.

Diamond: The Game – a board game for secondary school students promoting scientific careers and experiences

Diamond: The Game is a board game designed for secondary school students (aged 11–18) to enable them to explore a broad variety of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers, STEM subjects and life as a scientist. Board games are a reusable and entertaining way to directly engage students in STEM, but careful consideration of mechanics, messages and accessibility is required to successfully deliver on this goal. Diamond: The Game was designed and evaluated against these considerations. The inclusive approach to design resulted in a better and more accessible game for all. Its success is further evident in the rise in the number of players who would consider a career as a scientist or an engineer after playing. The opportunities to explore collaboration, failure and the interdisciplinary nature of science in the game were particularly highlighted in discussions with students, teachers and careers advisers.

From atoms to stars: an interactive theatre play based on ‘The Little Prince’ novella to describe spatial thinking

The implementation of theatre as a didactic tool for teaching science provides a new perspective on the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in the construction of meaningful learning experiences. Gamification and collaborative work are functional strategies to teach scientific concepts in a creative way. However, there are still conceptual issues about spatial thinking that are difficult for students to understand owing to the lack of visualization of objects and their development through a characteristic chronicle. Here we show an innovative way to unifying science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) careers through the development of an interactive theatrical play inspired by The Little Prince novella, to promote a culture of integration of science, theatre and literature. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that the didactic strategies used are key ingredients in order to design an unique theatre play based on a link between history of atomic models and literature towards full understanding of spatial macroscales and microscales thinking. Due to the successful in the qualitative assessment results, we are devising to continue exploring the use of these didactic strategies to achieve an integrated and greater impact on students’ learning processes.

System Dynamics Modeling of the STEM Education and Outreach Career Pipeline

Developing initiatives promoting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEMs) career opportunities for K-12 and postsecondary students can bolster student success and provide societal benefits. A novel system dynamics model of an outreach influenced education to workforce careerization pipeline based on the endogenous professionalization theory is presented. The emergent framework incorporates outreach activities and stakeholders into a feedback-rich education ecosystem model focused on student self-perception and beliefs on a journey toward potential STEM careers, highlighting the effects of mentorship, role models, peer groups, self-perception, and self-efficacy on student progression through academic and career entry milestones. Verification and validation of the modeling framework were performed against real-world survey data of current STEM professionals gathered to identify the stages of the career pipeline, along with catalytic influences and demographic data. Sensitivity analysis through simulation was performed to generate simulation outputs correlated with pipeline transition waveforms extracted from survey data. This robust modeling and simulation representation of real-world data enables credible counterfactual analysis and optimization of proposed educational outreach efforts. The improved mechanistic understanding attained through this framework development effort led to actionable stakeholder recommendations. Shifting focus of outreach programs to mentorship activities, promoting project-based learning with a resilience focus, encouraging beneficial peer group and role model effects, and maximizing participation in near-peer mentorship programs all emerged as preferred strategies, particularly for students from underrepresented backgrounds.

How Does Hands-On Making Attitude Predict Epistemic Curiosity and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Career Interests? Evidence From an International Exhibition of Young Inventors.

Whether the hands-on experience of creating inventions can promote Students’ interest in pursuing a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career has not been extensively studied. In a quantitative study, we drew on the attitude-behavior-outcome framework to explore the correlates between hands-on making attitude, epistemic curiosities, and career interest. This study targeted students who joined the selection competition for participating in the International Exhibition of Young Inventors (IEYI) in Taiwan. The objective of the invention exhibition is to encourage young students to make innovative projects by applying STEM knowledge and collaborative design. We collected 220 valid data from participants in the 2021 Taiwan IEYI selection competition and conducted a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that: (1) hands-on making attitude was positively related to two types of epistemic curiosity; (2) interest-type epistemic curiosity (IEC) and deprivation-type epistemic curiosity (DEC) were positively associated with STEM career interest; additionally, DEC had a higher coefficient on STEM career interest than IEC; (3) both types of EC had a mediating role between hands-on making attitude and STEM career interest. It is expected that encouraging students to participate in invention exhibition competitions can raise both types of EC and increase their interest in pursuing STEM careers.