Evolution and Persistence of Students' Astronomy Career Interests: A Gender Study

Autor/inn/en	Bergstrom, Zoey; Sadler, Philip; Sonnert, Gerhard
Titel	Evolution and Persistence of Students' Astronomy Career Interests: A Gender Study
Quelle	In: Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education, 3 (2016) 1, S.77-92 (16 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2374-6246
Schlagwörter	Gender Differences; Evolution; Middle School Students; Astronomy; National Surveys; Student Interests; Career Development; Age Differences; STEM Education; Statistical Analysis; Leisure Time; High School Students; Probability; Predictor Variables; College Freshmen; Student Surveys; Regression (Statistics) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Geschlechterkonflikt; Middle school; Middle schools; Student; Students; Mittelschule; Mittelstufenschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Astronomie; Studieninteresse; Berufsentwicklung; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; STEM; Statistische Analyse; Freizeit; High school; High schools; Oberschule; Studentin; Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung; Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie; Prädiktor; Studienanfänger; Schülerbefragung; Regression; Regressionsanalyse
Abstract	This article uses U.S. survey data (N = 15,847) to characterize the evolution of student interest in an astronomy career in the period between middle school and the beginning of college. We find that middle school students have a relatively high interest in astronomy, which sharply declines with every phase of their education. However, many of the students who leave astronomy--particularly male students--feed heavily into other STEM disciplines. Through statistical modeling, we find that students who spend extracurricular time observing stars, tinkering with mechanical or electrical devices, or reading/watching science or science fiction are significantly more likely than students who do not engage in these activities to hold an interest in pursuing an astronomy career at the end of high school. We also find that females who observe stars during extracurricular time show a greater improvement in their odds of pursuing astronomy than males do. Furthermore, we find that these out-of-school-time activities are better predictors of astronomy interest than commonly studied academic predictors. We discuss the implications of these findings on future extracurricular programming for students. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01