Outreach Program, Cognitive Variables and STEM Identity: Mediation and Longitudinal Mediation Study of Middle and High-School Students’ Career Aspirations
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate cross-sectionally and longitudinally the direct and indirect effects of a STEM outreach program in Ontario, Canada, on middle and high-school students’ STEM career intentions through STEM self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest and identity. The STEM outreach program provided students with hands-on, investigative and exciting workshops aiming at increasing interest in STEM disciplines and careers. Mediation and longitudinal mediation analysis procedures were employed to analyze a secondary data to answer the following research questions: 1) To what extent did the STEM outreach program influence high-school students’ STEM career choice goals directly and indirectly through STEM self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest and identity? 2) To what extent did the direct and indirect effects of the STEM outreach program on middle-school students’ STEM career intentions through STEM self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest and identity change from Phase II to Phase III? The research questions and analysis were guided by social cognitive career theory’s interest-choice model and science identity theory. The findings from the analysis revealed that students’ STEM self-efficacy, outcome expectations and identity were found to be significant mediating predictors of the association between the outreach workshops and high-school students’ STEM career goals. It was also found that the change from Phase II to Phase III in the indirect effect of STEM outcome expectations on the relationship between outreach workshops and middle-school students’ STEM career pursuits was statistically significant. The results presented theoretical and practical implications. The findings not only supported the hypothesis of and prior literature by the interest-choice model and science identity theory but also contributed to the advancement of theoretical understanding of the influences of contextual, cognitive and identity variables on the process of career development. This was done by examining the cross-sectional and longitudinal mediating effects of STEM cognitive and identity variables on the association between STEM outreach workshops and STEM career pursuits that have not been sufficiently addressed in the present studies. The study findings were also believed to present useful insights for teachers, district and school administrators, and stakeholders of overseeing STEM outreach programs to design and implement integrated and inquiry-based learning experiences.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.006 | 0.011 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".