Lockhart Mary Elizabeth, Kwok Oi-Man, Yoon Myeongsun, Wong Raymond
Department of Teaching, Leaning and Culture, Texas A&M University, 4232 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843 USA.
Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, 4225 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843 USA.
Int J STEM Educ. 2022;9(1):34. doi: 10.1186/s40594-022-00351-1. Epub 2022 May 2.
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) influence almost every aspect of our daily lives. However, despite the high demand for STEM occupational talent, the STEM pipeline continues leaking, with less than one-sixth of high school students pursuing STEM majors and only 50% of entering STEM college majors matriculating into STEM fields. has been identified as the most powerful predictor of high school students pursuing an undergraduate STEM major as reported by Chang (Machine learning approach to predicting STEM college major choice, American Educational Research Association (AERA), San Francisco, 2020). Though the construct is gaining lots of attention, it remains largely ill-defined, not operationalized at the high school level, and not based upon traditional identity theory. The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument that measures high school students' science identity, the Science Identity (SciID) Scale.
Subject experts and a small group of high school students provided content validation for the proposed scale. Exploratory factor analysis revealed an optimal two-factor solution, reflecting the traditional two-dimensions of identity theory: Exploration and Commitment. Cronbach's alpha revealed good internal consistency for both factors. Finally, structural equation modeling confirmed the convergent validity of the instrument with the external variables of science achievement and science career interest. Furthermore, the divergent validity between science identity and science self-concept was also confirmed.
Initial results indicate that the SciID Scale is a valid and reliable instrument that accurately measures a high school student's standing on this construct. The soundness of this instrument will enable policy makers and practitioners to design more effective intervention programs aimed at cultivating high school students' science identity.
科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）几乎影响着我们日常生活的方方面面。然而，尽管对STEM职业人才的需求很高，但STEM人才培养渠道仍在持续流失，只有不到六分之一的高中生攻读STEM专业，进入STEM专业的大学生中只有50%最终进入STEM领域。正如张（《预测STEM大学专业选择的机器学习方法》，美国教育研究协会（AERA），旧金山，2020年）所报告的，[具体因素]已被确定为高中生攻读本科STEM专业的最有力预测因素。尽管这一概念受到了广泛关注，但它在很大程度上仍定义不明确，在高中阶段未得到实施，也并非基于传统的身份理论。本研究的目的是开发一种有效且可靠的工具，即科学身份（SciID）量表，用于测量高中生的科学身份。
学科专家和一小群高中生对拟议的量表进行了内容效度验证。探索性因素分析揭示了一个最优的两因素解决方案，反映了身份理论的传统两个维度：探索和承诺。克朗巴哈系数显示这两个因素都具有良好的内部一致性。最后，结构方程模型证实了该工具与科学成就和科学职业兴趣等外部变量的收敛效度。此外，还证实了科学身份与科学自我概念之间的区分效度。
初步结果表明，SciID量表是一种有效且可靠的工具，能够准确测量高中生在这一概念上的状况。该工具的可靠性将使政策制定者和从业者能够设计出更有效的干预计划，以培养高中生的科学身份。
