Gender and STEM in High School: The Role of Mathematics Values, Interest, and Test Scores in STEM Career Preferences

• In Event: Gender and Educational and Occupational Choices: International Perspectives

Abstract

Objectives
Although women have made substantial progress in entering college majors and careers in biology, they remain seriously underrepresented in math-intensive fields such as physics. Our research investigated the role of math in students’ career preferences, by examining high-school students’ prior math scores, perceptions of the utility value of mathematics, math self-concept, and math interest, and mothers’ beliefs concerning ability in math, to explain gender differences in career plans related to each of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. The international study includes data from Australia and the United States and uses a longitudinal design.

Theoretical Framework
The research was guided by Eccles and colleagues’ expectancy-value theory, which holds that a person chooses to take on a challenging task – such as taking physics in high school – if the person (1) values the task, and (2) expects that she or he can succeed at it. This study incorporated two classes of values: intrinsic (or interest) value, and utility value, which is the perception of the usefulness of the task in daily life or the person’s future.

Methods
In the Australian study, students provided data at 9th and 11th grades; in the U.S. study, adolescents provided data at 9th and 12th grades. Australian students reported their final math result from the prior year as a background measure of achievement; in the U.S., school records gave 10th grade standardized mathematics test scores.

At grade 9, math self-concept, intrinsic, and utility value were measured using items developed by Eccles (e.g., How important do you think math will be to your future?). In 11th (Australia) or 12th grade (U.S.), students were asked what job or career they would like as an adult. Responses were coded using O*Net (U.S. Department of Labor, 2013) to score each occupation for the knowledge required in mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics, on a scale from 0-100.

Data
Australian data come from 331 students in the STEPS Study. U.S. data come from 271 adolescents in the Wisconsin Study of Families and Work.

Results
SEM tested whether prior math performance, mothers’ beliefs, self-concept, utility value, and intrinsic value predicted O*Net scores for careers in each of math, biology, chemistry, and physics, and whether these predictions differed by gender. For the U.S. sample, math test score predicted physics career significantly for girls but not for boys; math utility value predicted physics career plans for boys but not girls. In the Australian sample, intrinsic value predicted all but biology careers for boys, predicted instead by utility value; whereas self-concept predicted all 4 career types for girls. Mothers’ beliefs were closely tied to students’ math values and self-concepts.

Significance
It is crucial to understand the motivational factors that predict students’ preferences for STEM careers. This study points to the importance of math interest, utility value, self-concept, and prior performance in these career preferences. Such findings can inform interventions to increase students’ preparation for STEM careers. For example, we have designed a utility-value intervention to increase students’ perceptions of the utility value of mathematics.

Authors

• Janet S. Hyde, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Helen M.G. Watt, Monash University

• Jennifer Lee Petersen, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

• Zoe A. Morris, Monash University

• Judith Harackiewicz, University of Wisconsin