Motivational and Classroom Predictors of Academic and Career Choice in the Geosciences

• In Event: Engaging Male and Female STEM Students: Investigations of Learning Environments and Teacher Influences

Abstract

Objective
• Identify factors important to the recruitment and retention of individuals (particularly women) in the geosciences.

Theoretical Framework
Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) proposes that academic and career choices are based on the interaction of personal, environmental, and behavioral factors (Lent, Brown, Hackett, 1994). Regarding personal factors, we focused on gender, self-efficacy, individual interest, and identity as these have been identified as key predictors (e.g., Eccles, Barber, & Jozefowicz, 1998; Lent, Lopez, Lopez, & Sheu, 2008). In terms of environmental factors, we investigated students’ relationships with their instructors because this potentially important factor is under-researched. Regarding behavioral factors, we explored the importance of transformative experiences: learning episodes in which students use school-taught science concepts in their everyday experience to see and experience the world in a meaningful, new way (Pugh, 2011). Such experiences have been linked to STEM identities (e.g., Pugh, Linnenbrink-Garcia, Koskey, Stewart, & Manzey, 2010). However, the connection to academic and career choice has not been explored.
We focused on recruitment and retention in the geosciences as women are strongly underrepresented in this field (NSF, 2009) and research is lacking in the area (Holmes & O'Connell, 2004).

Method
Participants included 514 students from six universities (65% female). A pre-survey included measures of self-efficacy (α=.86) and interest and identity (α=.97) in relation to the geosciences. An end-of-semester survey included measures of perceived connection to instructor (α=.90) and transformative experience (Rasch person and item reliability =.96, .99). It also included three academic and career choice measures: intent to major (non-majors’ inclination toward the geosciences after taking a course; α=.98), confidence in major (majors’ confidence; α=.95), and intent to pursue a career in the geosciences (α=.99).

Results and Conclusions
We conducted three path models and found students’ interest/identity to be a strong direct predictor of intent to major (β=.37), confidence in major (β=.51), and intent to pursue a career (β=.83), controlling for students’ initial self-efficacy. In addition, we found an indirect serial mediation from interest/identity (β=.48, .73, .66) through connection to instructor (β=1.39, .70, .96) and transformative experience (β=.08, .10, .15) to all three of the outcomes (R2=.33, .41, .61). Upon further analysis we found this set of relations to vary by gender. For males, interest/identity only had a direct effect on the three outcomes—transformative experience did not significantly mediate the indirect effect (β=.07, p >.05; β=.10, p >.05; β=.10, p >.05). However, the indirect effect through the serial mediation held for females (β=.07, p <.05; β=.12, p <.01; β=.16, p <.001). Overall, the path analyses highlight the influential role of females’ connection to their instructor allowing for a greater degree of transformative experience resulting in majors to feel more confident in their degree, non-majors to think about pursuing a geoscience degree, and both majors and non-majors to contemplate a career in the field.

Significance
These results add to the SCCT model by identifying additional factors important to the recruitment and retention of women and suggests instructors can support recruitment and retention by building relationships and teaching for transformative experiences.

Authors

• Kevin J. Pugh, University of Northern Colorado

• Michael M. Phillips, University of Northern Colorado

• Julie Sexton, University of Northern Colorado

• Cassendra M. Bergstrom, University of Northern Colorado

• Eric M Riggs, Texas A&M University

• Selani D. Flores, Aims Community College