Investigating elementary students’ STEM career development based on social cognitive career theory : a case study with E-stem intervention /

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Student Theses

2022

He, Qianwen

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

Thesis

There is increasing attention on integrating environmental education into STEM learning to advance the E-STEM (Environment, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) initiatives. This research aimed to investigate elementary students’ STEM career development based on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (a comprehensive framework for explaining and predicting career development) through an E-STEM intervention, including (1) changes in students’ perceptions of the professional; (2) changes in students’ STEM career development; (3) factors contributing to each of the four dimensions in students’ STEM career development; and (4) analysis of students’ learning in lessons designed with the “Solving-Experimenting-Making-Tool” model (the four stages model). This research applied the E-STEM intervention closely which is related to a local environmental issue in Mainland China, focusing on “eutrophication”, with an adaption of the four stages model. The E-STEM intervention was conducted in the 2019-2020 school year, with a total of 113 students from two elementary schools; 43 from School A and 70 from School B were involved in the research. The main purpose of the intervention was to assist students to investigate environmental engineer’s work on the constructed wetland to solve the “eutrophication” problem. The researcher worked with a professional in environmental fields (an environmental engineer) and participating teachers to conduct the E-STEM intervention over 2 months. The lesson implementation for students in the classroom lasted for two weeks. Data collection was arranged before and after the lesson implementation within a week. A mixed method approach with qualitative and quantitative data collection was adopted for this research. Pre- and post-drawing tests were used to explore changes in students’ perceptions of the professional. Pre- and post-surveys were applied to investigate the changes in students’ STEM career development. Students’ and teachers’ follow-up interviews were to examine factors affecting students’ STEM career development and reflections on the lessons and activities. Lessons observations were utilised for the analysis of students’ learning in lessons designed with the four stages model. Students’ interest in the lessons and activities were presented by the follow-up survey. The results revealed that students perceived that the environmental engineer was male, who worked in environmental protection through civil construction and laboratory work in the post-drawing tests. There was a significant increase in students’ STEM career development, especially in STEM self-efficacy, STEM career interest, and STEM career choice goals, after the learning experience of the E-STEM intervention. STEM self-efficacy (β = 0.380, t = 9.237, p = 0.000) and STEM career choice goals (β = 0.543, t = 14.515, p = 0.000) were the significant and strong predictors of one’s STEM career development. Data from students’ and teachers’ follow-up interviews supported that various and complex factors affect students’ STEM career development, but the STEM education experience might be the critical factor in constructing the STEM career development. Moreover, the lesson observations analysis provided empirical evidence of students’ learning and students more appreciated the hands-on experience in the Making lesson from the follow-up survey. Thus, participating teachers also provided their reflections on the lessons and activities for further investigation

LG51.H43 Dr 2022eb Heq

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/gS3sRByk