Triggering and Maintenance of Interest in Pursuing STEM Degrees and Careers

Sunday, February 17, 2013
Auditorium/Exhibit Hall C (Hynes Convention Center)
Adam V. Maltese , Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Anna Kuchment , Scientific American, New York, NY
Heidi Wiebke , Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Recent analyses of qualitative and quantitative data indicate that student interest in STEM coursework, informal experiences and career options plays a significant role in STEM persistence, above and beyond achievement and enrollment. While these findings establish the importance of early development of career interest, how such interests develop and evolve over time to influence persistence remains unclear. A recent collaboration between Indiana University and Scientific American (SA) sought to provide greater resolution of these issues. For this effort we developed an extensive survey that built on prior research to collect information regarding when and how people became interested in STEM, their exposure to STEM in out-of-school experiences, and how their interests were maintained or lost as they matured. We solicited participants from a sample of schools that were randomly selected from a list of US colleges and universities stratified by geographic region, control (public/private), degree status (2-yr/4-yr), and size. In addition, volunteers were solicited via a survey link on the SA website. In sum nearly 8000 individuals completed the survey with 71% of completers via the school solicitation.

Data indicate that men were more likely than women to report that they initially became interested in STEM on their own. In support of earlier research, the results indicate that the majority of respondents reported their first interest in STEM occurred prior to Middle School. When asked about who supported them beyond the initial spark, men were also more likely than women to report that they were the main source of support for maintaining interest. In terms of maintaining interest over time, passion for the field and career interest were commonly reported as supports.

We also asked individuals to indicate the most significant experience – positive or negative – they had related to STEM. After coding the open-ended item regarding the nature of the event, the top five responses included classes respondents had at school, specific class content, participation in a research project, class instructional styles, and participation or knowledge of jobs in STEM. When these responses are further broken down by the effect they had on respondent persistence in STEM, most of these experiences had a positive effect, but there were significant proportions of respondents who indicated that classes, and particularly “poor teaching” had negative or strongly negative effects.

While these findings support extant research, they also allow us to dig deeper into how people maintain interest in STEM through degree and into careers. These findings are unique given the depth of information we collected on the development and maintenance of STEM interest and the inclusion of a significant portion of respondents (54%) from ‘outside’ of STEM to provide a form of comparison.