International Journal of Stem Education最新文献

{"title":"Negotiating belonging: a constructivist grounded theory of transfer students' experiences in STEM.","authors":"Katya Hernández Holliday, Saya Shahoy, Stanley M Lo, Ashley L Juavinett","doi":"10.1186/s40594-026-00633-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40594-026-00633-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>A sense of belonging has been identified as a crucial predictor of persistence in undergraduate degrees. This construct is especially significant within the chilly environment of STEM fields since students' sense of belonging and recognition as rightful members of the academic community ultimately shape their educational trajectories. However, it has rarely been studied among community college (CC) transfer students attending highly selective universities. This population is of interest because CCs enroll students from underrepresented backgrounds at higher rates than four-year institutions, making transfer students a critical component in efforts to diversify the STEM workforce. Additionally, these students often face unprecedented challenges as compared to their \"traditional\" peers. We addressed this research gap by conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews with thirteen community college transfer students one and two years after transferring. Analyses applied constructivist grounded theory methodology to examine how these students described a sense of belonging and what experiences they drew from to assess their level of belonging in academic environments.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Transfer students described their sense of belonging as a negotiated process involving internal motivators, values and perceptions, and the messaging received from external institutional, familial, and social factors. Particularly, participants' experiences of belonging were first marked by an orientation toward building it with some more concerned about their level of fit than others.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>By theorizing belonging as a negotiated process, this study shows how community college transfer students in STEM actively interpret academic environments, drawing from both internal motivation and external signals to negotiate a sense of belonging, with students' orientations toward belonging and internal alignment comprising a major contributing paradigm in the process. This work emphasizes the need to include opportunities for disciplinary exploration in transfer students' academic trajectories. Potential implications include the design of transfer pathways and advising structures that recognize belonging as dynamic, supporting students' identity work as central to academic success.</p>","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"13 1","pages":"34"},"PeriodicalIF":10.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13375769/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148580624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Institutionalizing grant-funded interventions: a multiple case study examining long-term investments in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM).","authors":"Krystle P Cobian, Naomi A Stephen, Hector Ramos, Ana L Romero, Sylvia Hurtado, Denise Ortiz","doi":"10.1186/s40594-026-00620-3","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40594-026-00620-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background context and purpose: </strong>Although funding agencies make large investments and encourage program adoption, little is known about the process of institutionalizing grant-funded efforts in higher education. This multiple case study examined how grant-funded awardees of a biomedical training grant worked toward institutionalizing program activities. Cases included 10 diverse postsecondary institutions (368 study participants) across the United States charged with implementing a federal grant aimed at comprehensive and multi-level approaches to engage and retain students from diverse backgrounds in biomedical research.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>Employing prior frameworks on institutionalization in higher education, we examined how embedded campus agents appealed to two determinants of institutionalization: compatibility and mutualism. We identified institutional resources as an additional determinant. Compatibility is most commonly sought after as early as the grant proposal stage, while agents typically appealed to mutualism in the later stage of implementation. Institutional resources are sought throughout all stages of the grant. Within each determinant, we describe strategies and tools that embedded agents use to facilitate long-term institutionalization of grant-funded efforts. We also describe common challenges sites faced as they worked to obtain compatibility, mutualism, and resources.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Leaders of postsecondary science training initiatives who aim to institutionalize efforts can utilize a variety of strategies to enhance compatibility, mutually shared benefits, and committed resources to continue, embed, and/or scale the original initiative.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40594-026-00620-3.</p>","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"13 1","pages":"28"},"PeriodicalIF":10.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13282345/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148297004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A systematic review of STEM teacher recruitment and retention interventions.","authors":"Sophie Thompson-Lee, Beng Huat See, Robert Mark Klassen","doi":"10.1186/s40594-025-00550-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40594-025-00550-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The worldwide problem of teacher recruitment and retention is particularly pronounced in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects, due in part to a lack of trainee teachers and to high rates of attrition. The teacher shortage has resulted in non-specialist teachers teaching STEM subjects and is likely to have a negative effect on the next generation of STEM students and STEM teachers. Numerous studies have outlined, and in some cases evaluated, recruitment and retention interventions, but to our knowledge a comprehensive review of interventions specifically aimed at recruiting STEM teachers has not yet been done. We reviewed 25 studies (9 recruitment, 11 retention, 5 both). Most interventions were financial (13/25), others included teacher education and alternative pathways. We evaluated study quality and the method each study used to assess intervention effectiveness. Financial incentives do not appear effective for recruitment despite being the most common incentive. Financial incentives seem to be more effective for retention; 3/9 higher quality studies found positive results. Findings for the other types of intervention were mixed and due to low design quality, not compelling. Our findings suggest that financial incentives might be effective for retention. Further research is needed to determine what interventions work for recruitment as the most common, financial incentives, do not appear effective. Studies investigating the efficacy of interventions need to be more rigorous with large sample sizes, comparison groups, and ideally randomised-control trials. There is also room for innovation as we did not find much evidence of novel intervention types.</p>","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"12 1","pages":"33"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12214040/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144561641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The S in STEM: gender differences in science anxiety and its relations with science test performance-related variables","authors":"Dmitri Rozgonjuk, Karin Täht, Regina Soobard, Moonika Teppo, Miia Rannikmäe","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00504-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00504-4","url":null,"abstract":"STEM education has experienced significant growth due to its pivotal role in innovation and economic development. While cognitive factors like prior knowledge are known predictors of STEM success, non-cognitive factors, including attitudes and demographics, also play vital roles. However, there is a notable scarcity of research focusing on the \"S\" in STEM—science—compared to extensive studies in fields like mathematics. This study aims to address this gap by exploring gender differences in science test performance and related attitudes, providing insights into this under-researched aspect of STEM education. The effective sample comprised 1839 Estonian 12th-grade students who took a computer-assisted science test. The test consisted of tasks combining chemistry, physics, biology, and geography, and a post-test survey was also administered. Across the total sample, the results showed that test performance positively correlated with test-taking duration, effort, and test importance. Test performance was negatively correlated with perceived test difficulty. Interestingly, while general science anxiety was not associated with test performance, subject-specific anxiety, especially chemistry anxiety had a negative association with test performance. While there were no gender differences in test performance, female students scored consistently higher on all science anxiety measures, compared to male students. Furthermore, female students assessed the science test to be more difficult, and they also took more time to complete the test. The correlations in gender subsamples mirrored those observed in the total sample. The association between science test performance and test-related variables is nuanced: students might not necessarily have a “general” STEM anxiety but it may be associated with a specific subject. Moreover, the findings imply that although there are no gender differences in test performance, girls have a greater anxiety when it comes to natural sciences subjects. These findings indicate the need for investigating the origin of such anxieties, which do not seem to stem from aptitude.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142264678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The transfer effect of computational thinking (CT)-STEM: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis","authors":"Zuokun Li, Pey Tee Oon","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00498-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00498-z","url":null,"abstract":"Integrating computational thinking (CT) into STEM education has recently drawn significant attention, strengthened by the premise that CT and STEM are mutually reinforcing. Previous CT-STEM studies have examined theoretical interpretations, instructional strategies, and assessment targets. However, few have endeavored to delineate the transfer effects of CT-STEM on the development of cognitive and noncognitive benefits. Given this research gap, we conducted a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to provide deeper insights. We analyzed results from 37 studies involving 7,832 students with 96 effect sizes. Our key findings include: (i) identification of 36 benefits; (ii) a moderate overall transfer effect, with moderate effects also observed for both near and far transfers; (iii) a stronger effect on cognitive benefits compared to noncognitive benefits, regardless of the transfer type; (iv) significant moderation by educational level, sample size, instructional strategies, and intervention duration on overall and near-transfer effects, with only educational level and sample size being significant moderators for far-transfer effects. This study analyzes the cognitive and noncognitive benefits arising from CT-STEM’s transfer effects, providing new insights to foster more effective STEM classroom teaching.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring instructional design in K-12 STEM education: a systematic literature review","authors":"Suarman Halawa, Tzu-Chiang Lin, Ying-Shao Hsu","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00503-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00503-5","url":null,"abstract":"This study aimed to analyze articles published in the Web of Science database from 2012 to 2021 to examine the educational goals and instructional designs for STEM education. We selected articles based on the following criteria: (a) empirical research; (b) incorporating instructional design and strategies into STEM teaching; (c) including intervention; (d) focusing on K-12 education and on assessment of learning outcomes; and (e) excluding higher education and STEAM education. Based on the criteria, 229 articles were selected for coding educational goals and instructional designs for STEM education. The aspects of STEM educational goals were coded including engagement and career choice, STEM literacy, and twenty-first century competencies. The categories of instructional designs for STEM education were examined including design-based learning, inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, and problem-based learning. The results showed that engagement and career choices and STEM literacy were mainly emphasized in STEM education. Design-based learning was adopted more than inquiry-based, project-based, or problem-based learning, and this instructional design was mainly used to achieve STEM literacy. It is suggested that studies on twenty-first century competencies may require more research efforts in future STEM education research.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Academic social comparison: a promising new target to reduce fear of negative evaluation in large-enrollment college science courses","authors":"C. Jynx Pigart, David P. MacKinnon, Katelyn M. Cooper","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00501-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00501-7","url":null,"abstract":"Fear of negative evaluation, defined as a sense of dread associated with being unfavorably evaluated in a social situation, is the primary factor underlying student anxiety in college science courses and is disproportionately experienced by students who are underserved in science. Yet, it is unknown why fear of negative evaluation disproportionately affects these students and what can be done to reduce student fear of negative evaluation. Academic social comparison describes how students perceive themselves compared to their peers with regard to desirability as a groupmate, the extent they fit in among others in their major, and academic talent. We hypothesize that academic social comparison mediates the relationship between student identities and fear of negative evaluation, where individuals with underserved identities in science may perceive themselves as “less than” their peers, contributing to their fear of negative evaluation. We surveyed 909 undergraduate science majors across 15 research-intensive institutions in the United States (U.S.) to assess: (1) To what extent do student identities predict fear of negative evaluation among science undergraduates? and (2) For identities that significantly predict fear of negative evaluation, to what extent does academic social comparison mediate the relationship? We used regression, single-mediator models, and multi-mediator models to address our research questions. Women/non-binary and LGBTQ + science majors reported disproportionately high fear of negative evaluation compared to men and non-LGBTQ + science majors. Women/non-binary and LGBTQ + students also expressed lower academic social comparison relative to their respective counterparts, meaning they perceive themselves as less than their peers with regard to their desirability as a groupmate, the extent to which they fit in among others in their major, and their academic talent. Academic social comparison partially mediated the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and both gender and LGBTQ + status. Major fit, defined as the extent to which students perceive they fit in among others in their major, was found to be the primary mediating subconstruct of academic social comparison for both gender and LGBTQ + identities. Women/non-binary and LGBTQ + science majors perceive themselves as less than their peers to a greater extent than men and non-LGBTQ + science majors, contributing to their higher fear of negative evaluation in college science course. Major fit, defined as the extent to which students feel they fit in with others in their major, is the subconstruct of academic social comparison that had the strongest influence on fear of negative evaluation in our sample. Academic social comparison is a promising target for future efforts aimed at decreasing fear of negative evaluation in active learning college science courses.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Helping mentors address scientific communication in STEM research training helps their mentees stay the course","authors":"C. Cameron, H. Y. Lee, C. B. Anderson, E. K. Dahlstrom, S. Chang","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00497-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00497-0","url":null,"abstract":"Scientific communication (SC) has important social-cognitive, behavioral, and career-related benefits for emerging researchers, but both mentors and mentees find development of SC skills challenging. Whether training mentors to effectively mentor development of SC skills could have a meaningful impact on mentees was not clear. The Scientific Communication Advances Research Excellence (SCOARE) project has conducted faculty training workshops in techniques for mentoring SC skills since 2018. To study indirect workshop effects of mentors’ attendance at the SCOARE workshop on their matched PhD and postdoctoral mentees (N = 477), we surveyed mentees before and 6 months after their mentors attended and measured their social-psychological and behavioral outcomes. To examine the effectiveness of the workshop and to explore whether workshop effects vary based on mentee demographic characteristics, including home language variety (speaker of standardized English [STE], non-standardized English [NSTE], or another language [L2]), we conducted multilevel models. After adjusting baseline scores, mentees of mentors who attended SCOARE workshops (W +) were more engaged in speaking activities (β =0 .30, p = 0.016), had higher science identity (β = 0.20, p = 0.048), and were less likely to reconsider their career due to SC skills (β = – 0.39, p = 0.004) than mentees in the W– group. Across demographic groups, mentees of mentors who attended SCOARE workshops showed similar improvements in SC outcomes. Postdoctoral mentees, compared to doctoral mentees, had higher science identity and lower intention to pursue a non-research-intensive career. Comparing mentees of the 3 categories of home language variety, both the NSTE and L2 groups, compared to the STE group, were more likely to reconsider their careers due to SC skills and had a higher intention to pursue non-research-intensive careers both at baseline and post-workshop, suggesting the possibility of language background as a barrier to mentee career progression. Mentor training for SC skill development can improve social-psychological and behavioral outcomes for mentees, including science identity, frequency of speaking, and reconsideration of research careers due to concerns about SC.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"One size doesn’t fit all: how different types of learning motivations influence engineering undergraduate students’ success outcomes","authors":"Xi Wang, Minhao Dai, Kathleen M. Short","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00502-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00502-6","url":null,"abstract":"Motivation is the inherent belief to guide students learning goals and behaviors to make continuous efforts and strengthen learning outcomes. Previous research reported the positive impacts of learning motivation on student success, but there have been limited efforts in systematically and structurally studying different types of motivations and their impacts on students’ success in engineering education. The current study contributes to the literature by systematically examining two important types of motivations and their influences on undergraduate engineering students in a theoretically grounded manner while using an advanced analytical approach. The current study conducted a cross-sectional survey with undergraduate engineering students (n = 514) from 18 different schools across nine U.S. states. The survey assessed students’ self-report scores on six types of motivations to study developed based on formative research and the current literature and then collected students’ self-reported learning outcomes, current GPA, university satisfaction, engineering program satisfaction, and individual demographic factors. The data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that motivations related to family, personality, and academic expectations were consistently positively associated with all measured students’ success outcomes; motivations related to educators were associated with all four outcomes but student GPA; motivations related to course contents were associated with learning outcomes and student GPA; and motivations related to peers did not predict any of the four measured students’ success outcomes. We explain some of the unexpected results with further literature that examines engineering culture and ecology. We also make recommendations related to cognitive training, tailored engineering education, peer culture interventions, and family orientation programs.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unlocking STEM pathways: A person-centred approach exploring a teacher recruitment intervention","authors":"Hui Wang, Sophie Thompson-Lee, Rebecca J. S. Snell, Robert M. Klassen","doi":"10.1186/s40594-024-00499-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00499-y","url":null,"abstract":"This research employed a person-centred approach to evaluate the effectiveness of a recruitment intervention aimed at attracting STEM undergraduate students to the teaching profession. The study aimed to identify participant profiles based on changes of interest in teaching, examine the demographic factors associated with these profiles, and explore the outcomes associated with the identified profiles. A total of 267 participants from 18 universities in England were recruited for the study. The intervention involved presenting 12 vignettes that depicted different motivations for choosing teaching as a career. Participants rated their change of interest in teaching after reading each vignette. The latent profile analysis revealed four distinct profiles: dissuaded participants, unpersuaded participants, moderately persuaded participants, and highly persuaded participants. The highly persuaded profile reported the highest levels of self-efficacy, interest, perceived fit, and enjoyment in teaching. Participants from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to be persuaded by the recruitment intervention, but gender, ethnicity, or program levels did not significantly affect profile membership. The findings demonstrate the potential of recruitment interventions to influence the interest of STEM undergraduate students in teaching and underscore the importance of considering individual characteristics and motivations when attracting prospective teachers to the profession.","PeriodicalId":48581,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Stem Education","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}