The year 2020 brought many changes to our everyday life but also our education system. Universities needed to change their teaching practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Words like “digital media”, “online teaching” and “online learning” were present in all of the discussions. The main issues here were the technical infrastructure of students and universities all over the world. However, to have good technical infrastructure does not mean that everybody is also ready to use it. Thus, the present study focused on the issue of university students’ readiness for online learning. The quantitative research goal was to evaluate German university students’ readiness for using digital media and online learning in their tertiary education and compare them with students from the United States. Overall, 72 students from the researchers’ university in Germany and 176 students from multiple universities in the United States completed the Student Readiness of Online Learning (SROL) questionnaire. Results show substantial differences between the two groups of students, with U.S. students being more ready for online learning. The results and limitations were discussed, and practical implications and further ideas were provided.

Females and people belonging to ethnic minorities tend to be underrepresented in science occupations. The goal of this paper was to investigate the needs of students of different gender and ethnicity in terms of vocational orientation in order to tailor future interventions to their needs. This paper finds that students of different gender and cultural background differ in their preferences in terms of vocational orientation in science. Two studies were conducted: (1) secondary school students (N = 450) were asked about their current activities and needs in terms of vocational orientation; (2) university students’ (N = 342) retrospective views on their vocational orientation were investigated. Among the secondary school students (1), we found no significant differences in science aspirations, when differentiating between students’ culture and their gender. However, females with migration background tended to wish for information from different sources than other students (contacts with university, teacher feedback, i.e., more formal/professional sources). Male participants without migration background tended to rely more strongly on informal sources such as online video platforms. This study (2) confirmed the finding that more professional feedback would be beneficial. These findings suggest that vocational orientation in science should be more specific to the target group in order to reach those who are currently underrepresented in science.

Females and students of non-dominant ethnicity are less likely to aspire to science careers. However, overcoming discrimination in science and chemistry is a challenging task, especially in vocational orientation. Thus, there is a need for strategies to support young women in their identity formation in science and chemistry. This article presents a scheme for supporting young women’s science identity formation in conversations about vocational orientation. The goal is to support young women in developing a positive attitude towards careers in chemistry. This attitude is part of cultural chemistry capital. The scheme was developed based on a study conducted as part of the project DiSenSu. Here, coachings for vocational orientation for young women in science and chemistry are provided, following the idea of Science in Public. In the coaching, the attitudes towards science and chemistry were determined using quantitative data. Based on these results, coaches conducted conversations with the participants. Qualitative analysis of 11 conversations revealed strategies coaches used to support young women in their vocational orientation. The study shows how the participants’ attitude towards careers in chemistry is used as a starting point for coachings. Also, it provides strategies that can be used to promote young women’s cultural chemistry capital.

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Berufsorientierung ist eine zentrale Aufgabe von Schulen und soll auch im Rahmen des Chemieunterrichts erfolgen. Dies ist eine Herausforderung aufgrund der Stereotype bezüglich Gender, sozialer Schicht und Ethnizität in Chemie und den Naturwissenschaften. Diese Studie untersucht, (i) inwieweit angehende Lehrer:innen für Berufsorientierung professionalisiert sind und (ii) wie sich die Mitarbeit der Lehramtsstudierenden in einem Projekt zur Berufsorientierung in Chemie für Mädchen mit Migrationshintergrund (DiSenSu) auf die Professionalisierung der Studierenden auswirkt. Die qualitative Analyse einer Gruppendiskussion zwischen drei Lehramtsstudierenden zeigt, dass das naturwissenschaftliche Lehramtsstudium unzureichend auf die Berufsorientierung vorbereitet. Durch die Mitarbeit im Projekt DiSenSu konnte hingegen eine Professionalisierung erwirkt werden. Die Studie legt den Bedarf an evidenzbasierter Ausbildung für Berufsorientierung in Chemie offen. Die Erkenntnisse und Materialien aus dem Projekt DiSenSu können als Grundlage zur Verbesserung der Ausbildung dienen.