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ERIC Number: EJ1458119
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jan
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2520-8705
EISSN: EISSN-2520-8713
Measuring Career Aspirations in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Education
Michael Fitzgerald; Saeed Salimpour; David McKinnon; Rachel Freed; Dan Reichart
Journal for STEM Education Research, v8 n1 p88-112 2025
There has been a sustained interest in student perceptions about STEM fields and their choice of careers over the past few decades. Research has shown that there is a decline in students pursuing STEM careers, and this has raised global concern. Despite these issues, no unistructural, broad, parsimonious and unambiguous quantitative instrument exists to probe student career aspirations. This paper highlights the background, extension and validation of an instrument, derived from a previous science-focussed high-quality instrument that allows student career aspirations to be quantitatively characterised. Participants were 1221 undergraduate students, 1003 of whom were judged to have provided good data, from 18 tertiary institutions in the USA and Canada. The resultant instrument is a reliable 20-question survey representing five clearly demarcated domains: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Education. Each scale possesses high reliability (Cronbach's alpha > 0.95), and high construct validity as determined by comparisons with their stated choices of career.
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2123/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF), Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE); US Department of Defense (DOD)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada; United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: 2013300; HQ00342110018