Do outreach activities in secondary STEM education motivate students and improve their attitudes towards STEM?

Abstract

The present study investigated outreach activities, developed by STEM-based companies or universities in co-creation with secondary education with the aim to inform students about and motivate them for a career in STEM by connecting the workcontext with school-science. Although many of such activities are being offered, little is known about their effects. We investigated students' perceptions with the outreach learning environment, perceived need-fulfilment, self-reported motivation and attitudes towards STEM. Data were gathered from 729 high-school students engaged in 12 activities in the USA and the Netherlands. The students completed a questionnaire, which contained questions about four elements of our theoretical frame based on the Self-Determination-Theory (SDT). Perceived needs-fulfilment and motivation were measured using the basic-psychological-needsscale and the self-regulation-questionnaire. Attitudes were measured using the test-of-science-related-attitudes. Learning environment perceptions were measured in a previous study using subscales of what-is-happing-in-this-classroom (WIHIC), constructivist-learning-environments-scale (CLES) and classroomenvironment-scale (CES) and typified by activity characteristics. Multilevel analyses of variance were conducted for the two motivation scales (controlled and autonomous-motivation) and the two attitude scales (social-implication and career-interest). Activity characteristics explained almost all variance in these variables between activities. Specific characteristics of outreach activities that statistically significantly related to autonomous motivation and positive general attitudes towards STEM were: workshop-format, understanding science, an out-of-school component. The attitude towards a possible STEM-career was positively associated with autonomous-motivation and negatively associated with controlled-motivation. Thus, outreach learning environments indeed created opportunities to increase students' motivation in STEM and attitude towards STEM, but the impact varied according to particular characteristics of the activities. ARTICLE HISTORY

Measuring Teachers’ Perceptions to Sustain STEM Education Development

“…The sustainable development of STEM education reflects one part of the target, at least scientific skills, to promote sustainable development [3]. Successful STEM education fosters individuals in learning achievements [5,7,28,29], authentic problem-solving skills [9,30,31], interests in STEM sub-subjects, and in pursuing STEM careers [10][11][12][13].…”

“…STEM education enhances not only students' learning achievement [5][6][7] but also authentic problem-solving skills [8,9]. Besides, STEM education fosters individuals in enjoyments in STEM sub-subjects and pursuance in STEM careers [10][11][12][13]. STEM education thereby reflects parts of such a target.…”

Men, Women, and STEM: Why the Differences and What Should Be Done?

“…An initial, relatively uncontroversial intervention is outreach: educating children and young people about science-related careers, and emphasizing that these are careers that females as well as males should consider (Vennix et al, 2018;J. R. Young et al, 2017).…”

Gender Differences of Theoretical Physics of Undergraduates Major in Physics

“…Johanna Vennix et al explored the associations between students' perceptions of the outreach learning environment, motivation and attitudes towards STEM and future STEM career intentions. They founded that male students reported slightly more autonomous motivation and more interest in a future career in STEM compared to female students (Vennix, den Brok, & Taconis, 2018). Z. Yasemin Kalender et al investigated male and female students' physics identities by administering a survey in introductory calculus-based physics courses, and found gender differences in how students identify as a physics person and how their perceived recognition from others (Kalender et al, 2019).…”