Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) influence almost every aspect of our daily lives. However, despite the high demand for STEM occupational talent, the STEM pipeline continues leaking, with less than one-sixth of high school students pursuing STEM majors and only 50% of entering STEM majors matriculating into STEM fields.…

Students' declining performance in science and mathematics is an issue of great international concern. Recently, educators and researchers have begun to focus on affective factors such as interest to better understand STEM learning and persistence. Therefore, there is a need for effective measures of STEM interest that allow it to be tracked over…

In this research, the development of the Optics Interest and Experience Scale (OIES) was discussed in the first stage, and the gender differences of prospective teachers in their interest and experience were explored with OIES in the second stage. The data were collected from 228 prospective teachers from eleven universities in Turkey. For content…

Many studies in science education acknowledge the positive effects of context-based learning on students' interest and attitudes. However, little is known about the design criteria of contextual situations generating these effects and how facets of students' situational interest are affected while learning in a contextualised setting. This paper…

This paper investigates the structure of German sixth-grade students' interest in science (N = 474; age 11-12 years) by considering different subject-related contexts (biology, chemistry, and physics) and different activities. Confirmatory factor analysis models were designed to validate the hypothetical structure of interest, connecting the whole…

This study employed the international Relevance of Science Education questionnaire to survey the interest in biology and the out-of-school experiences of Abu Dhabi secondary school students (median age 17, mean age 17.53 and mode age of 16) in the third semester of 2014. It included 3100 participants. An exploratory factor analysis was used to…

Since students have lost their interest in school science, several student-centered approaches, such as using topics that are relevant for students, inquiry-based learning, and discussion-based learning have been implemented to attract pupils into science. However, the effect of these approaches was usually measured in small-scale research, and…

The dramatic decline in youth interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) during adolescence, both in the USA and internationally, has been a phenomenon of societal concern for several decades. The Synergies project was launched to help deal with this issue. In this paper, we report findings from the first two years of our…

The aim of the study was describing the development and validation of students' perception on learning by questioning (LBQ) scale in physics. Research and Development (R & D) design was utilized in the research method. The number of senior high school students involved in the research were 224 students, composed of 95 boys (42.41%) and 129…

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.…

This paper presents findings from a two-phase mixed methods study investigating the phenomenological structure of self-relevance among ninth-grade junior high school biology students (Phase 1: N = 118; Phase 2: N = 139). We begin with a phenomenological multidimensional definition of self-relevance as comprising three dimensions: the academic…

The present study aims to analyse the effect of motivational variables and previous academic achievement on students' future choice of chemistry once this subject becomes optional in the educational system. Toward this goal, the translation and adaptation of the Science Motivation Questionnaire II (SMQII) has been undertaken in our investigation…

Although curiosity is considered an integral aspect of science learning, researchers have debated how to define, measure, and support its development in individuals. Prior measures of curiosity include questionnaire type scales (primarily for adults) and behavioral measures. To address the need to measure scientific curiosity, the Science…

This experimental study explored the impact of representation + glossary label visuals on science outcomes in a sample of 174 Grade 7 English learners (ELs). Analysis of covariance results indicated that, regardless of English proficiency, ELs in both treatment and control conditions performed similarly on reading comprehension (p = 0.26) and…

Diversifying the STEM workforce is a national concern. To address this concern, researchers, policymakers, and educators are working to increase STEM career interest and achievement in a more diverse population of learners. Black girls and young women represent a unique population of STEM learners that remain relatively untapped and largely under…