Luttenberger Silke, Paechter Manuela, Ertl Bernhard
Institute in Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Education, University College of Teacher Education Styria, Graz, Austria.
Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Front Psychol. 2019 Jun 26;10:1242. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01242. eCollection 2019.
The proportion of women enrolled in STEM courses at university level has remained consistently low for decades. Differences, however, exist between various STEM domains: While engineering and technology appear especially unattractive, subjects such as mathematics, biology, or chemistry have better chances at attracting women. Research has mostly neglected these differences, treating STEM as an overall category. In the light of the differences in the proportions of women enrolled in and dropping out of various STEM subjects, the present study takes a more differentiated look to separately investigate the STEM subjects that have a low or moderate proportion of females. The following study focuses on female university students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in these two groups of STEM subjects, asking to what degree the academic STEM self-concept and support experienced in both school and the family contribute to the motivation to study a STEM topic. Four hundred sixty-nine female students took part in the investigation. Two hundred eighty-four of them were enrolled in STEM subjects with a low proportion of females (STEM-LPF) and 185 in STEM subjects with a moderate proportion of females (STEM-MPF). A comparison of the two samples shows that women in STEM-LPF exceed women in STEM-MPF with regard to their academic STEM self-concept and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Different variables contribute to motivation in the two samples. For STEM-LPF, a latent regression analysis found positive relationships between the academic STEM self-concept and both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, while support experienced in school and from the family was not related to motivation. By contrast, in the STEM-MPF sample, the academic self-concept was not related to motivation. Previous interest in STEM subjects in school contributed positively to present intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. An unexpected result, however, was found concerning activities in school that were designed to promote interest in STEM. Memories of these kinds of activities were negatively related to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. These measures might be experienced as intrusive support: attempts to promote STEM sometimes might backfire and achieve the opposite of what was intended.
几十年来，大学阶段修读STEM课程的女性比例一直持续偏低。然而，不同的STEM领域存在差异：工程学和技术领域对女性似乎尤其缺乏吸引力，而数学、生物学或化学等学科吸引女性的机会更大。研究大多忽略了这些差异，将STEM视为一个整体类别。鉴于女性修读和退出不同STEM学科的比例存在差异，本研究采取了更具区分性的视角，分别调查女性比例较低或适中的STEM学科。以下研究聚焦于这两组STEM学科中女大学生的内在和外在动机，探讨学术STEM自我概念以及在学校和家庭中获得的支持在多大程度上有助于激发学习STEM学科的动机。469名女学生参与了此次调查。其中284人修读女性比例较低的STEM学科（STEM-LPF），1,85人修读女性比例适中的STEM学科（STEM-MPF）。对这两个样本的比较表明，在学术STEM自我概念以及内在和外在动机方面，STEM-LPF组的女性超过了STEM-MPF组的女性。不同变量对两个样本的动机产生影响。对于STEM-LPF组，潜在回归分析发现学术STEM自我概念与内在和外在动机之间存在正相关关系，而在学校和家庭中获得的支持与动机无关。相比之下，在STEM-MPF样本中，则发现学术自我概念与动机无关。过去在学校对STEM学科的兴趣对当前的内在和外在动机有积极贡献。然而，关于学校中旨在促进对STEM学科兴趣的活动，却出现了一个意外结果。对这类活动的记忆与内在和外在动机均呈负相关。这些措施可能被视为侵入性的支持：有时促进STEM学科的尝试可能会适得其反，产生与预期相反的效果。
