Because the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education continues to be recognised around the world, we developed and validated an instrument to assess the learning environment and student attitudes in STEM classrooms, with a specific focus on engineering and technology (E&T) activities in primary schools.…

Context-based approaches can bridge the gap between abstract, difficult science concepts and the world students live in. However, the relevance of specific contexts to different groups of learners, and its stability over time, have not been extensively explored. This study used four datasets, collected in different formal and informal settings, to…

This study examined the perceptions of 6th grade middle school students regarding physics and physics-related careers. The overarching goal of this work was to understand similarities and differences between girls' and boys' perceptions surrounding physics and physics-related careers as part of a long-term effort to increase female interest and…

There are many things that can influence a child's career path. Parents and teachers are first to come to mind. But simple exposure to a certain career may also influence a child's choice of a career. There is always a need for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs. We look at elementary students who have attended an expo designed…

The integration of an undergraduate science content course and science methods course into a single combined course for preservice teachers, including a precourse field experience, was undertaken at a small, liberal arts college. The conceptual framework for this new delivery system was grounded in the "Next Generation Science Standards…

Besides viewing knowledge about the nature of science (NOS) as important for its own value with respect to scientific literacy, an adequate understanding of NOS is expected to improve science content learning by fostering the ability to interrelate scientific concepts and, thus, coherently acquire scientific content knowledge. However, there is a…

We investigated students' perceptions related to psychological constructs in their science classes and the influence of these perceptions on their science identification and science career goals. Participants included 575 middle school students from two countries (334 students in the U.S. and 241 students in Iceland). Students completed a…

Engineers and policymakers have expressed concern that too few students enter the engineering pipeline. This has led to many efforts to engage students in engineering in after-school programs, summer programs, and more recently, in school curricula. The expectation is that, through these efforts, greater numbers of more demographically diverse…

Successful STEM learning depends on the interaction of affect, cognition, and application of ideas. Simply put students who are unwilling to persist in STEM based endeavors do not suddenly develop into scientists, mathematicians, engineers or computer scientists, nor do they seek out STEM related courses or STEM based careers. The purpose of this…

This study compares the inquiry competence of the 8th-grade students participating in the science and environmental education program GLOBE in the Czech Republic with a sample of students of the same age not participating in the program from the Slovak and Czech Republics. Inquiry competence is analyzed as a set of variables representing students'…

Response-shift bias occurs when participants' initial constructs, such as self-efficacy in teaching science, are incomplete because they do not fully conceptualize something they have yet to experience. This study examines whether elementary pre-service teachers can consistently evaluate constructs such as self-efficacy and attitudes toward…

This study investigated changes in elementary school students' (n = 140) situational interest as a function of achievement goal orientation profiles and task characteristics. The authors repeatedly measured situational interest during a simulated science learning task in 2 task conditions that differed in the concreteness of the task elements. The…

Middle school students from low-income and minority backgrounds (n = 166) were targeted to participate in a 2-year, intensive, hands-on science and technology intervention to increase their interest in biomedical and health sciences. Qualitative student responses collected during the 2nd year of participation revealed positive attitudes toward the…

Considerable research has focused on how best to satisfy modern societies' needs for skilled labour in the field of science. The present study evaluated an intervention programme designed to increase secondary school students' motivation to pursue a science career. Students from 3 schools of the highest educational track participated for up to 2…

To explore young adolescents' interest in engineering as a future career, we examined the influence of gender and grade level on participants' (N = 197, aged 10-13) views of engineering. One group (107 students) viewed a brief engineering video and wrote why they felt the same or different about engineering following the video. Qualitative…