Children's Engagement With Parents and Educators at Informal STEM Learning Sites: The Role of Gender

• In Event: Understanding the Antecedents of Gender and Ethnic Underrepresentation in STEM: Stereotypes, Motivation, and Belonging

Abstract

Objectives. Family interactions at informal STEM learning sites (ISLS) such as museums, science centers, zoos, and aquariums are related to children’s engagement and interest in STEM activities (Callanan et al., 2020; Pagano et al., 2019). Previous research shows that parents speak differently to boys and girls about STEM toys (Coyle and Liben, 2018), yet, less is known about how children’s own engagement at STEM exhibits may differ based on their interaction with parents and educators of the same or different genders. In this study with five ISLS across the UK and the US, we investigated children's behaviour through an observational video approach to examine how children interact with parents, educators, and the exhibit they are visiting. Our main research question examined how children’s verbal, observational, and emotional engagement behaviours differ based on the gender of their parent and the educator they interact with at the exhibit.

Methods. Videos were coded using a coding system developed based on past studies (Barriault & Pearson, 2010; Callanan et al., 2017). See Table 1 for the definition of behaviours. To account for family groups and the multi-site nature of our data we fitted multilevel models. With 112 children (female = 59; 71 children interacted with an educator) and 60 parents, we assessed differences in the frequency of children’s verbal engagement, observation behaviours, and emotional responses using a series of 2 (children’s gender; male, female) x 2 (parent’s gender: female, male) mixed-model ANOVAs and 2 (children’s gender: male, female) x 3 (educator’s gender: female, male, no educator) mixed-model ANOVAs. Follow-up tests with Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons were used to probe for interactions. The duration of the participant’s exploration of the exhibit was added as a control in the analyses.

Results (Figures 1-4). The findings demonstrate that girls used more verbal engagement than boys at STEM exhibits. These verbal engagements include both inquiry-seeking and information sharing behaviour. We also found girls used more verbal engagement when they were interacting with a male compared to a female parent, but no difference based on educator gender. No differences were found for boys’ engagement based on the gender of parents or educators. For observation behaviours, we found children observed more when interacting with a male parent as compared to a female parent. No significant gender differences between boys’ and girls’ expressions of positive emotions in the presence of their parent and the educator were observed. However, we found both boys and girls expressed more negative emotions with their male parents than with female parents.

Significance. Our results suggest that within ISLS, children interact with parents and educators differently based on their gender. This may be linked to children’s perception of who is better at engaging with STEM activities at ISLS. This may also be related to adults’ stereotypes about STEM which may inform their interaction with children. The gender variability demonstrated in this study highlights the need to evaluate why girls, in particular, behave differently than boys, and how parents and educators can foster engagement in children visiting ISLS.

Authors

• Fidelia Law, University of Exeter

• Angelina Joy, Purdue University

• Luke McGuire, University of Exeter

• Mark Winterbottom, University of Cambridge

• Kelly Lynn Mulvey, North Carolina State University

• Adam Hartstone-Rose, North Carolina State University

• Adam J. Hoffman, Cornell University

• Channing Jamielle Mathews, University of Virginia

• Adam Rutland, University of Exeter