The new wealth of nations: How STEM fields generate the prosperity and inequality of individuals, companies, and countries

Podobnik, Boris; Crawford, G. Christopher; Lichtenstein, Benyamin; Lipić, Tomislav; Wild, Dorian; Zhang, Xin; Stanley, H. Eugene

doi:10.1016/j.chaos.2020.110323

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Introduction Around the world there are calls for increased participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM) subjects. The advancement of STEM skills and understanding is important, not only to the prosperity of nations but also to the prosperity of individuals (Podobnik, Crawford, Lichtenstein, Lipic, Wild, Zhang, & Eugene, 2020). In countries around the world, STEM learning is promoted and, despite the importance placed on STEM subjects (Taştan, Davoudi, Masalimova, Bersanov, Kurbanov, Boiarchuk, and Pavlushin 2018), there are increasing concerns about the decline in students' motivation towards learning science (Wang, Chow, Degol & Eccles, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

Investigating Relationships Between Learning Environment Perceptions, Motivation and Self-Regulation for Female Science Students in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Aldridge

Rowntree

2021

Res Sci Educ

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The global lack of student motivation towards learning science and gender imbalance in STEM careers provided the impetus for this study, which had two key aims: (1) to examine the influence of female students’ perceptions of the psychosocial learning environment on their motivation towards and self-regulation in science learning,; and (2) to investigate the influence of their reported motivation on their self-regulation of effort. Data were collected from 338 female students in grades 6 to 9 science classes across 16 government schools in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Structural equation modelling was used to explore the hypothesised relationships, which indicated that there were statistically significant relationships between learning environment perceptions, motivation and self-regulation. The results provide exigent information to both teachers, policy-makers and researchers with regard to the influences of the psychosocial learning environment on female students’ motivation towards science, as well as the influence of motivation towards science on their self-regulatory behaviour within science classroom settings.

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confidence: 99%

Investigating Relationships Between Learning Environment Perceptions, Motivation and Self-Regulation for Female Science Students in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Aldridge

Rowntree

2021

Res Sci Educ

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“…As in other countries (Ceci et al, 2009), one such field in Germany is occupations related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM; German Federal Statistical Office, 2023). Indeed, the employee dearth in STEM fields is considered as one of the most important threats to societal wealth (Podobnik et al, 2020). Thus, the shrinking overall percentage of STEM university students and students pursuing a vocational STEM career after high school (German Federal Statistical Office, 2023) is a societal challenge.…”

Section: Occupational Aspirations In the Sevtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeling joy × feeling competent: Predicting math-related occupational aspirations from math grades, gender, and parents’ occupational background via motivational beliefs.

Nishen,

Streck,

Kessels

et al. 2024

Journal of Educational Psychology

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Educational science has consistently examined what drives adolescents to aspire to occupations in math-related fields-and which factors, such as gender stereotypes, may drive them away. In this study, we utilized a large longitudinal data set (N = 1,092) to test whether past grades, gender, and the math level of mothers' and fathers' occupations predicted the math-relatedness of German adolescents' occupational aspirations 1 year later in 10th grade controlling for mathematical competence, intelligence, and socioeconomic status, among other factors. First, we examined whether motivational beliefs-math intrinsic value and math ability self-concept-mediated these relationships. Second, we used a latent interaction approach to test whether intrinsic value and ability self-concept interacted to predict the math-relatedness of aspirations, an important yet understudied prediction of expectancy-value theories. The intrinsic value of math, but not ability self-concept fully mediated the effect of math grade on aspirations. Gender differences could partly be explained via intrinsic value, but a substantial effect remained. The math level of mothers', but not fathers' occupations was positively associated with the math-relatedness of their children's aspirations, but this effect was not mediated by motivational beliefs. Exploratory analyses examined these relations separately for boys and girls. Regarding our second aim, there was a significant interaction showing that intrinsic value only predicted the math-relatedness of aspirations among students with a high-ability self-concept. This latter finding points to the importance of continuing to investigate not only main effects but also interaction effects within the framework of the situated expectancy-value theory. Educational Impact and Implications StatementOur study showed that students with better math grades, boys, and those whose mothers' occupations require a high level of math aspire to occupations that are more related to math independent of their actual math competencies, social background, intelligence, and further variables. We found that this was partly due to the fact that students with better grades and boys enjoyed math more. In turn, those students who simultaneously enjoy math and also feel highly competent in it aspire to occupations that are the most related to math. This means that only enjoying math (without feeling competent in it)-or vice versa-is not enough for a student to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, or math.

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“…In this area, studies often focus on institutional arrangements that help minorities pass their initial handicap by improving their academic experiences (Chang et al., 2014). The inequality issue has also a reverse implication, as firms and individuals characterizing the STEM area contribute more to wealth inequalities than their non‐STEM counterparts (Podobnik et al., 2020).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

To be a STEM or not to be a STEM: Why do countries differ?

Bruno

Faggini

2021

Growth and Change

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This paper proposes a theoretical analysis and an empirical investigation on simultaneous choices of an enrolment and discipline field, comparing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to non‐STEM fields, to enlighten economic variables influencing students. The cross‐country analysis of 35 countries in the period 2013–2016 tries to disentangle factors shifting students from one choice to another and why countries differ in directing students toward specific disciplines. The results show that expenditures in R&D convince more students to choose STEM disciplines, whereas population density and the expected years of schooling have a negative impact on the percentage of STEM enrolments. As a whole, it appears that STEM enrolments are chosen for investment motives, whereas non‐STEM enrolments are less guided by economic factors and more dependent on a consumption effect.

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The new wealth of nations: How STEM fields generate the prosperity and inequality of individuals, companies, and countries

Cited by 13 publications

References 21 publications

Investigating Relationships Between Learning Environment Perceptions, Motivation and Self-Regulation for Female Science Students in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Investigating Relationships Between Learning Environment Perceptions, Motivation and Self-Regulation for Female Science Students in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Feeling joy × feeling competent: Predicting math-related occupational aspirations from math grades, gender, and parents’ occupational background via motivational beliefs.

To be a STEM or not to be a STEM: Why do countries differ?

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