Collaborative Research: A study of How Pre-College Informal Activities Influence Female Participation in STEM Careers

合作研究：大学前非正式活动如何影响女性参与 STEM 职业的研究

• 批准号: 1612375
• 负责人: Philip Sadler
• 金额: $ 94.86万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1612375&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; study; How; Pre

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. This Research in Service to Practice project will examine how a wide range of pre-college out-of-school-time activities facilitate or hinder females' participation in STEM fields in terms of interest, identity, and career choices. The study will address the ongoing problem that, despite females' persistence to degree once declaring a major in college, initially fewer females than males choose a STEM career path. To uncover what these factors might be, this study will look at the extent to which college freshmen's pre-college involvement in informal activities (e.g., science clubs, internships, shadowing of STEM professionals, museum-going, engineering competitions, citizen science pursuits, summer camps, and hobbies) is associated with their career aspirations and avocational STEM interests and pursuits. While deep-seated factors, originating in culture and gender socialization, sometimes lower females' interest in STEM throughout schooling, this study will examine the degree to which out-of-school-time involvement ameliorates the subtle messages females encounter about women and science that can interfere with their aspiration to a STEM careers. The Social Cognitive Career Theory will serve as the theoretical framework to connect the development of interest in STEM with students' later career choices. An epidemiological approach will be used to test a wide range of hypotheses garnered from a review of relevant literature, face-to-face or telephone interviews with stakeholders, and retrospective online surveys of students. These hypotheses, as well as questions about the students' demographic background and in-school experiences, will be incorporated into the main empirical instrument, which will be a comprehensive paper-and-pencil survey to be administered in classes, such as English Composition, that are compulsory for both students with STEM interests and those without by 6500 students entering 40 large and small institutions of higher learning. Data analysis will proceed from descriptive statistics, such as contingency tables and correlation matrices, to multiple regression and hierarchical modeling that will link out-of-school-time experiences to STEM interest, identity, and career aspirations. Factor analysis will be used to combine individual out-of-school activities into indices. Propensity score weighting will be used to estimate causal effects in cases where out-of-school-time activities may be confounded with other factors. The expected products will be scholarly publications and presentations. Results will be disseminated to out-of-school-time providers and stakeholders, educators, and educational researchers through appropriate-level journals and national meetings and conferences. In addition, the Public Affairs and Information Office of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will assist with communicating results through mainstream media. Press releases will be available through academic outlets and Op-Ed pieces for newspapers. The expected outcome will be research-based evidence about which types of out-of-school STEM experiences may be effective in increasing young females' STEM interests. This information will be crucial to educators, service providers, as well as policy makers who work toward broadening the participation of females in STEM.

作为增强非正式环境学习的整体战略的一部分，前进的非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划为在各种环境中使用的创新资源提供了资金。这项在实践项目中进行的研究将研究各种校外活动的活动如何在兴趣，身份和职业选择方面促进或阻碍女性参与STEM领域。这项研究将解决一个持续的问题，即尽管女性曾在大学宣布专业的程度，但女性最初比男性选择了STEM职业道路。为了揭示这些因素可能是什么，这项研究将研究大学新生对非正式活动的预科介绍的参与程度（例如，科学俱乐部，实习，STEM专业人士的阴影，博物馆，工程学，工程学，公民科学，夏令营和爱好）与他们的职业志向和助长型和自助力的茎和追求相关联。尽管有时是在文化和性别社会化中，有时降低女性对整个学校的茎的兴趣，但本研究将研究女性对女性对女性和科学的微妙信息的程度，这些信息可以干扰其对STEM职业的愿望。 社会认知职业理论将成为将STEM的兴趣发展与学生以后的职业选择联系起来的理论框架。一种流行病学方法将用于测试从相关文献，与利益相关者进行面对面或电话访谈的综述以及对学生的回顾性在线调查中获得的广泛假设。这些假设以及有关学生的人口统计背景和校内经历的疑问，将纳入主要的经验仪器中，这将是一项全面的纸笔调查，将在课堂上进行，例如英语组成，这些调查是针对具有STEM兴趣的学生，而没有6500名学生的学生则是40个大型和小型机构的较高学习的学生。数据分析将从描述性统计数据（例如应变表和相关矩阵）到多重回归和分层建模，这些统计数据将把校外经验与STEAL兴趣，身份和职业愿望联系起来。因子分析将用于将单个校外活动结合在一起。在可能与其他因素混淆的情况下，将使用倾向评分加权来估计因果效应。预期的产品将是学术出版物和演讲。结果将通过适当级别的期刊以及国家会议和会议传播给校外的提供者，利益相关者，教育工作者和教育研究人员。此外，哈佛大学天体物理学中心的公共事务和信息办公室将有助于通过主流媒体传达结果。新闻稿将通过学术渠道和报纸的报纸提供。预期的结果将是基于研究的证据，表明哪种类型的校外经验可能有效地增加了年轻女性的茎兴趣。这些信息对教育者，服务提供者以及致力于扩大女性参与STEM的决策者至关重要。