Lin Li, Lee Taehun, Snyder Lori Anderson
Department of Psychology, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States.
Department of Psychology, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea.
Front Psychol. 2018 Oct 23;9:2033. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02033. eCollection 2018.
Research pertaining to STEM interest and persistence continues to be a top priority in the educational research arena. The current study employed a person-centered approach to examine the impact of math self-efficacy and various distal predictors, such as individuals' demographic information, beliefs about math, and social group identification, on STEM interest and intentions. Specifically, we conducted a latent profile analysis (LPA), thereby inferring three homogeneous subgroups of individuals or latent classes from their response patterns on the 18-item sources of math self-efficacy measure. Our analyses showed that individuals' ethnicity, implicit theories of math ability, and other group orientation were predictive of class membership (Mastery, Moderate, and Unconfident). We also found that there were significant differences in interest in STEM subjects, interest in STEM activities, individuals' majors, and retention grade point average across the three latent classes. Our findings support the importance of math self-efficacy in choice of major as well as overall academic performance regardless of whether a student is in a STEM field or a non-STEM field.
与STEM兴趣和坚持度相关的研究一直是教育研究领域的首要任务。当前的研究采用了以人为本的方法，来考察数学自我效能感以及各种远端预测因素（如个人的人口统计学信息、对数学的信念和社会群体认同）对STEM兴趣和意向的影响。具体而言，我们进行了潜在剖面分析（LPA），从而根据个体在18项数学自我效能感测量源上的反应模式推断出三个同质的个体亚组或潜在类别。我们的分析表明，个体的种族、数学能力的内隐理论以及其他群体取向能够预测类别归属（精通、中等和不自信）。我们还发现，在这三个潜在类别中，个体对STEM学科的兴趣、对STEM活动的兴趣、个人专业以及留校平均绩点存在显著差异。我们的研究结果支持了数学自我效能感在专业选择以及总体学业成绩方面的重要性，无论学生是在STEM领域还是非STEM领域。
