Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields occupy a significant role in human prosperity and advancement. This study explores the factors affecting student STEM outcomes. Traditionally, the associations of students’ own motivational or cognitive inputs to their STEM career outcomes have been investigated before. Similarly, association of teacher quality to student achievement outcomes have been made before. This paper presents a novel approach by introducing teacher quality as the contextual factor within the social cognitive career theoretical (SCCT) model using a comprehensive and robust model for teacher quality including teachers’ motivation, qualifications, and self-reported practices. This study examines the extent to which high school students’ mathematics and science teachers’ beliefs, professional background, and instructional practices relate to students’ motivation, achievement, and future career plans in STEM using a nationally representative, large dataset: High School Longitudinal Study 2009. The results indicate that science and mathematics teachers’ professional background, motivational beliefs, and self-reported instructional practices have significant impact on students’ motivation, persistence, and achievement outcomes in science and mathematics. No direct impact of teacher factors on STEM career plans are found; however, students motivational and achievement outcomes (impacted by teacher factors) do have significant impact on students’ career plans in STEM.

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People who hold multiplicistic (multiplist) epistemic beliefs about science tend to believe that scientific knowledge is always subjective and that varying opinions on a scientific matter are equally valid. Research suggests that multiplist epistemic beliefs may be maladaptive and lead to a radically subjective view of science. Little is known about the association between such beliefs and mistrust in science/scientists and the tendency to believe in misinformation. The aims of this study were to examine: (a) the degree to which multiplist epistemic beliefs about science are associated with COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and science-related conspiracy beliefs, (b) the degree to which trust in science mediates the association between multiplist epistemic beliefs about science and conspiracy beliefs, and (c) the extent to which COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and science-related conspiracy beliefs are associated with compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines. Participants were 210 undergraduate students attending a Hispanic-serving institution located in a large city in the southern U.S. Path analysis results indicated that multiplist epistemic beliefs about science were positively associated with science-related conspiracy beliefs after accounting for fundamentalism and conservatism. Moreover, trust in science mediated the positive association between multiplist epistemic beliefs about science and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs. Finally, belief in COVID-19 conspiracies was negatively associated with COVID-19 prevention guideline compliance.

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