Elementary Students' Perceptions of STEM Professionals

Autor/inn/en	Luo, Tian; So, Winnie Wing Mui
Titel	Elementary Students' Perceptions of STEM Professionals
Quelle	In: International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 33 (2023) 4, S.1369-1388 (20 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Luo, Tian) ORCID (So, Winnie Wing Mui)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0957 7572
DOI	10.1007/s10798-022-09791-w
Schlagwörter	STEM Education; Student Attitudes; Elementary School Students; Scientists; Professional Personnel; Grade 4; Grade 5; Grade 6; Careers; Sex Stereotypes + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? STEM; Schülerverhalten; Scientist; Wissenschaftler; Personalbestand; School year 04; 4. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 04; School year 05; 5. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 05; School year 06; 6. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 06; Career; Karriere
Abstract	One of the goals of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is to promote students' understanding of and interest in STEM careers. However, young students often hold stereotypical perceptions of STEM professionals. This study aimed to apply two newly developed checklists to explore upper elementary students' perceptions of scientists, engineers, and technologists as STEM professionals. A total of 564 valid responses were collected from fourth- to sixth-grade students. The data were collected using an instrument revised from the Draw-A-Scientist Test (Chambers in Sci Educ 67(2):255-265, 1983). Content analysis was conducted on students' drawings and written descriptions of the STEM professionals' work with the newly developed checklists and a categorization process, and inter-rater reliabilities were calculated to ensure trustworthiness. Results show that both girls and boys drew more male than female scientists, engineers, and technologists. Moreover, students tended to associate scientists with laboratory-related features, engineers with building construction, and technologists with technological products. In addition, students' perceptions of scientists, engineers and technologists fell into seven major categories of careers, and students overwhelmingly placed inventors and programmers into their presentations of scientists and technologists, respectively, rather of engineers. The results indicate that gender stereotypes existed pervasively in the students' perceptions of scientists, engineers, and technologists, with engineers being the most stereotyped. Moreover, the students associated engineers with various professions related to civil construction and did not see many other engineering professionals as engineers, implying that students generally have a naïve understanding about engineering. The mechanism underlying the formation of these stereotypes and potential countermeasures are discussed. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01