Promoting U.S. and Ghanaian Students' STEM Interest, Self-Efficacy, and Global-Mindedness Through Binational STEM Programming

• In Event: Unpacking the Learning and Benefits of STEM Engagement Across Formal and Informal Learning Contexts

Abstract

To be successful in today’s collaborative and increasingly global STEM fields, potential STEM workers need not only STEM skills, but also soft-skills, especially global competence, to ensure they can navigate these dynamic fields. Moreover, we need more students who are diverse, skilled, and culturally competent entering the STEM workforce (Langdon et al., 2011). The current study examines outcomes of a bi-national out-of-school program (the World Smarts STEM Challenge) aimed at promoting both STEM skills and global competence skills by partnering US and Ghanaian adolescents as part of a virtual STEM challenge.
Students worked in bi-national teams (10 teams in total) over a 10-week period to identify a global STEM challenge based on the UN sustainable development goals and to design and build a prototype of a solution for this challenge. Example student prototypes addressed diverse challenges including approaches to more environmentally-friendly transportation, managing plastic waste, improving approaches to preserving food and developing stable, renewable energy sources. Students completed survey measures assessing STEM interest and self-efficacy (Nugent et al., 2015) as well as global competence skills (OECD, 2018) as they began the challenge and upon completion of the challenge.
Participants. In Ghana, 84 adolescents from government schools took part in the Challenge and all participated in the study, with almost all participants completing both pre-and-post-test measures (pre-test N = 84, post-test N = 78, Mage= 17.19 years, 41.67% girls, all of Ghanaian heritage). In the US, 54 adolescents from public schools took part in the Challenge and 49 participated in the study, with most participants completing both pre-and-post-test measures (pre-test N = 47, post-test N = 49, Mage= 13.98 years, 63% girls, 50% Black/African-American, 17.4% Latina/o/e/x/Hispanic, 15.2% White/European-American, 17.4% other, multiracial or prefer not to say).
Procedure. Each participant’s parents received an IRB-approved opt-out parental notification form along with the registration materials. Participants assented to participation before beginning the study. Links to the surveys were shared by the team mentors and online on team Canvas pages and participants were reminded to complete surveys.
Measures. Participants completed STEM interest (14 items) and self-efficacy (20 items) measures (Nugent et al., 2015) as well as measures of global competence capturing awareness of global issues (7 items), self-efficacy for global issues (6 items) and global-mindedness (6 items) (OECD, 2018).
Results. Multi-level models were computed using the Mixed Command in SPSS 28 accounting for nesting of students in country and teams. Findings revealed small, but significant increases in all constructs, see Table 1. Additionally, there were some gender differences. While male participants did not demonstrate increases after the Challenge in STEM self-efficacy, or STEM interest, girls did.
Discussion. Although effect sizes were small, findings provide evidence that bi-cultural out-of-school STEM programs can significantly increase adolescents’ STEM interest and efficacy as well key global skills that may be important for the STEM workplace. Additionally, findings suggest that these types of programs may be especially beneficial for girls, who are historically underrepresented in many STEM fields and often face exclusion from STEM domains (Robnett & John, 2020).

Authors

• Kelly Lynn Mulvey, North Carolina State University
  Presenting Author

• Adam Hartstone-Rose, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amaris Mohammed
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Bever
  Non-Presenting Author