Examining the predictors of STEM career interest among upper secondary students in Finland

ABSTRACT

Declining interests in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) related careers are concerning at a time when the society is becoming more reliant on complex technologies and science. Our study examined the predictors of students' STEM career interests within cohort data (N = 601) collected from Finnish general upper secondary schools. We created a SEM research model based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory, to explore how (1) Career outcome expectations, (2) Natural science subject interests, (3) Mathematics self-efficacy beliefs, (4) Receiving career information from various sources, (5) Support for mathematics studies related to (6) students’ STEM career interests. A structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis showed receiving career information from various sources had a positive effect on STEM career interest. Likewise, mathematics self-efficacy beliefs positively related to natural science subject interest which, in turn, contributed to students’ interest towards STEM careers.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• STEM career interest
• subject interest
• upper secondary education
• self-efficacy
• social cognitive career theory

Acknowledgements

We thank the sample of upper secondary school students from Oulu for providing their time and effort responding to our study survey that formed the main data for this study. We also thank the upper secondary student counselors and teachers, who shared their experience and time when preparing the survey and conducting it, the upper secondary principals directing the process at schools, and the staff of the City of Oulu, Department of Education and Culture, for giving their time and generous support for this study. We are also grateful to the Marbella International University Center for kindly providing their support, knowledge, and excellence to our study. Further, the authors thank the Finnish Ministry of Education, the University of Oulu and the Finnish.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland; The University of Oulu Scholarship Foundation and Faculty of Education and Psychology and The Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Satu Kaleva

Satu Kaleva, MEd, is a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Education, University of Oulu. Her developmental work has focused on building and examining school and work life collaborations. Her current research investigates secondary students’ awareness of future work life by examining the background factors of the students’ educational and occupational interests and choices, entailing both quantitative and qualitative analysing methods.

Ismail Celik

Ismail Celik is a postdoctoral researcher in the Learning and Learning Processes Research Unit at the Faculty of Education, University of Oulu (Finland). He holds a PhD in educational technology. His research areas cover social media use, technology integration models in education, epistemological beliefs, artificial intelligence, and learning analytics. His research has been published in journals including Journal of Educational Computing Research, Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, and Education and Information Technologies.

Gloria Nogueiras

Gloria Nogueiras holds a PhD in Education, is currently an associate professor at Marbella International University Centre in Málaga, Spain. As a researcher, she aims to explore higher education students’ epistemological development from a process-oriented perspective, resorting to both qualitative and dynamic systems methods. In this quest, she focuses on students’ emotional experience and investigates the potential of resources such as self-assessments, blogs, or dialogical podcasts when promoting students’ self-direction. Her teaching involves courses on learning, educational psychology, and developmental psychology addressed to Psychology students.

Jouni Pursiainen

Jouni Pursiainen is a professor at the University of Oulu. His current research interests include the effects of subject choices in the upper secondary school, especially on the student selection of the universities. His recent national duties include memberships in the Board of LUMA (STEM) center Finland, in the Matriculation examination Board.

Hanni Muukkonen

Hanni Muukkonen, PhD, is a professor in Educational Psychology at the Faculty of Education, University of Oulu, Finland. Her research focuses on collaborative learning, knowledge creation, learning analytics, and professional development. In the current projects, she has focused on learning analytics on students’ academic paths and understanding of student transitions across educational levels.