The Impact of COVID-19 on the Academic Plans and Career Intentions of Future STEM Professionals

Abstract

Future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals are a key part of dealing with disasters like that of the coronavirus disease of 2019, but the pandemic may result in a gap in individuals joining the STEM workforce. In the present work, we offer a picture of our students’ identity as scientists and intentions to pursue a science career from before and after the transition to online instruction that occurred as part of the initial phase of the pandemic response. Additionally, we asked our students to describe the ways this transition has affected their academic plans to provide an in-depth look into their intentions. Data collection involved the administration of a questionnaire to first-year general chemistry laboratory students at the beginning and end of the spring 2020 semester (January–May). The data indicate that there was no significant change to our students’ identities and intention to pursue a career in science during spring 2020, and our students written responses indicate that they are making short-term academic changes that could affect their graduation date but do not suggest any serious changes to career plans. We conclude that the initial transition to online instruction due to the pandemic had a minimal effect on our students’ career intentions, and future work can use this data to better understand the long-term effects of the pandemic on STEM students.

Undergraduate Biology Students Received Higher Grades During COVID-19 but Perceived Negative Effects on Learning

“…The transition to remote learning had a negative impact on students' interest in their biology major or interest in learning about scientific topics in about a third of the students. A similar study of students enrolled in a general chemistry course at a large public university in the southern United States found no significant change to students' identities and intention to pursue a career in science due to COVID-19 (Forakis et al, 2020). However, we did not find any demographic differences in student responses to questions about science interest, which is encouraging given the importance of increasing representation of women, Black students, Latinx students, and students that grew up in low-income households in STEM.…”

COVID-19 and the abrupt shift to remote learning: Impact on grades and perceived learning for undergraduate biology students

“…The transition to remote learning had a negative impact on students’ interest in their biology major or interest in learning about scientific topics in about a third of the students. A similar study of students enrolled in a general chemistry course at a large public university in the southern United States found no significant change to students’ identities and intention to pursue a career in science due to COVID-19 [76]. However, we did not find any demographic differences in student responses to questions about science interest, which is encouraging given the importance of increasing representation of women, Black students, Latinx students, and students that grew up in low-income households in STEM.…”

“…Thus, even though it has been shown that students, on average, learn more from active learning [67,68], students' perception of learning might not match their actual learning. A meta-analysis showed that student perceptions of their learning are more strongly related to affective outcomes, such as motivation and satisfaction, and have a much weaker relationship to learning outcomes, such as scores [69]. However, one reason for this may be that grades are often not an accurate measure of student learning [70].…”

Analysis of Anxiety, Motivation, and Confidence of STEM Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Students are affected because their classes were interrupted, and they were expected to rapidly adapt to the unique expectations of online learning. Forakis et al (2020) asked their students by responding to a survey to describe the way this transition has affected their academic plans to provide an in-depth look into their intentions. The challenges of COVID-19 impacted the university students' graduations (Saw et al, 2020).…”