Pathways of interest and participation: How STEM‐interested youth navigate a learning ecosystem

Abstract

Despite considerable efforts in recent years to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) interest and participation among youth, STEM interest during adolescence continues to decline. Recently, researchers, educators, and policymakers have used a learning ecology perspective to better understand the development and persistence of youth interest in STEM topics or activities. This study examined the dynamics of the STEM interest and participation pathways of three youth in an under‐resourced, urban community. These three cases offer insights into how youth with a strong interest in a STEM topic or activity perceived the resources that were available to them in a STEM learning ecosystem and highlight the affordances and constraints each faced in pursuit of their interests. We interviewed each youth 4–5 times during their middle school and high school years (ages 11–14). The analysis reinforces the unique nature of youth interest pathways, but also common factors that contributed to each of these pathways. The ability of youth to navigate the ecosystem depended on the availability and accessibility of both in‐ and out‐of‐school learning resources related to their interest, and the support they received from significant adults in their lives in terms of both social, cultural, and financial capital. This study offers important insights into how STEM learning ecosystems might best be structured to enable more youth to develop strong, enduring interests in STEM.

Addressing the Ceiling Effect when Assessing STEM Out-Of-School Time Experiences

“…In the case of SBS, knowing that almost half of youth participated for reasons other than interest in STEM could lead to the development of more effective educational strategies that provide a range of activities designed to engage youth in each motivational category, rather than relying on one-size-fits all programming strategies. Indeed, a recent longitudinal study of youth STEM learning pathways highlighted the importance of customizing STEM resources in the larger learning ecosystem based on the differing interests and motivations of youth in the community (Shaby, et al, 2021). For example, one youth with a strong interest in computer programming eventually lost interest because the content of the OST program he attended did not keep pace with his growing interest in learning new coding languages.…”

Family values, parent roles, and life challenges: Parent reflections on the factors shaping long‐term interest development for young children and their families participating in an early childhood engineering program

“…The majority of studies on STEM‐related interest development have used relatively narrow definitions of whether or not individuals are developing interests related to a STEM topic or activity. However, other research has emphasized the diverse, unique, and complex ways that individuals develop interests related to a variety of intersecting engagement preferences and interests (Azevedo, 2015; Pattison & Ramos Montañez, 2022; Shaby et al, 2021). Given the complexity of human experience, it is unlikely that the ongoing interests that emerge for children and families from a specific program like HSE will focus narrowly on the STEM content goals or topics.…”

“…Much of the research on interest, including STEM‐related interest, has historically been with older children, often highlighting the apparent drop in STEM‐related interest in middle and high school (e.g., Bystydzienski et al, 2015; Denner et al, 2019; Shaby et al, 2021; Staus et al, 2020). However, emerging evidence over the last several decades indicates that the foundation of STEM‐related interests 1 develops much early, even before children enter the formal education system (Ainley & Ainley, 2015; Alexander et al, 2015; Pattison & Dierking, 2018).…”

“…Through this process, the positive emotion of interest becomes linked to a constellation of related constructs as individuals build affinity, values, skills, knowledge, and expertise, all of which are influenced by new experiences and, in turn, motivate further engagement (Azevedo, 2015; Gottfried et al, 2016; Renninger & Su, 2012). In this way, interest can be seen as a central organizer for all learning, connecting disparate experiences into coherent patterns that take on a life of their own as individuals come to be recognized as people with particular interests (Renninger et al, 2015; Shaby et al, 2021).…”

Application of virtual simulation situational model in Russian spatial preposition teaching

“…Thirdly, some teachers lack a standard Russian pronunciation and adopt the traditional cramming mode, which is also difficult to mobilize students' learning enthusiasm. Therefore, teachers are responsible for cultivating students' interest in learning Russian (Li et al, 2021;Markova and Kvapil, 2021;Shaby et al, 2021).…”