Although science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) study paths and STEM work fields may be relatively difficult and therefore not appropriate for everyone, too many children prematurely exclude STEM-related study and work options, based on negative images of the field or negative ability beliefs. In the present article, we provide an overview of the literature from different research perspectives that shows that study choice and career decisions made by young adults have their roots in earlier in childhood. In our view, the literature reviewed points to three interrelated factors that are important in the study choice and career development of children aged 8-16: knowledge, affective value, and ability beliefs and self-efficacy building. Based on this review, we argue that knowledge of the STEM field, and of the self in STEM activities, and parents' and teachers' knowledge of the early circumscription processes of children aged 8-16 needs to be broadened. Also, negative and often-stereotypical affective values adhered to STEM study choices or careers among parents and teachers need to be countered. With regard to ability beliefs, we argue that we should focus more attention on turning pupils' entity beliefs into incremental ones.

This article provides a description of a novel, attitude‐focused, professional development intervention, and presents the results of an experimental pretest‐posttest control group study investigating the effects of this intervention on primary teachers’ personal attitudes toward science, attitudes toward teaching science, and their science teaching behavior. The training course integrated an explicit focus on attitudes towards (teaching) science with an inquiry‐based learning approach and refrained from recipe‐like, pre‐structured, and content‐based instruction examples. Results show that the training course had profound positive effects on primary teachers’ professional attitude towards teaching science. Teachers improved in self‐efficacy beliefs regarding science teaching, felt less dependent on context factors, and enjoyed science teaching more. In addition, the training course had positive effects on teachers’ personal attitude towards science, including improved self‐efficacy and relevance beliefs, and decreased anxiety. Furthermore, there was a large effect on teachers’ science teaching behavior in the classroom and on the number of science related activities they engaged in during their personal lives. These results show that an attitude‐focused approach is more effective in changing teachers’ attitudes and science teaching behavior compared to merely being engaged in science teaching. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 710–734, 2015.

In this article, we present a valid and reliable instrument which measures the attitude of in-service and pre-service primary teachers toward teaching science, called the Dimensions of Attitude Toward Science (DAS) Instrument. Attention to the attitudes of primary teachers toward teaching science is of fundamental importance to the professionalization of these teachers in the field of primary science education. With the development of this instrument, we sought to fulfill the need for a statistically and theoretically valid and reliable instrument to measure pre-service and in-service teachers' attitudes. The DAS Instrument is based on a comprehensive theoretical framework for attitude toward (teaching) science. After pilot testing, the DAS was revised and subsequently validated using a large group of respondents (pre-service and in-service primary teachers) (N ¼ 556). The theoretical underpinning of the DAS combined with the statistical data indicate that the DAS possesses good construct validity and that it proves to be a promising instrument that can be utilized for research purposes, and also as a teacher training and coaching tool. This instrument can therefore make a valuable contribution to progress within the field of science education.

Despite the large body of research on students' educational and career choices in the field of technology, design, and science, we still lack a clear understanding of how to stimulate more students to opt for a study path or career within the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). In this article, we outline a new theoretical framework to describe how students' implicit belief about the malleability of their intelligence can be an important precursor of their STEM educational and career choice behavior. Based on the different bodies of literature about STEM choices and about students' implicit beliefs about their abilities, we present three hypothetical pathways, in the form of testable models, that describe potential relations between the implicit theories that students may hold regarding the malleability of their STEM ability and students' intentions to pursue a STEM career. Each pathway outlines a specific mediating factor influencing this relation: (a) self-efficacy beliefs, (b) stereotypical thinking, and (c) motivational beliefs. These pathways provide more insight into the underlying mechanisms that may affect STEM choice behavior. In our view, such a theoretical underpinning is a necessary prerequisite for further scientific investigation into the potential relations between students' implicit beliefs about their potential development, relevant psychological variables, and STEM choice behavior. Furthermore, we believe it provides a theoretical foundation for practical interventions that aim to stimulate STEM choice behavior.

This paper presents a validation study of a questionnaire to measure primary children's images of and attitudes towards curiosity (the CIAC questionnaire). Policy documents and scientific studies on twenty-first century learning increasingly promote the value of stimulating children's curiosity in primary school. However, no well-established measurement instruments yet exist to assess children's curiosity within educational settings. To fill this void, we focused on the measurement of children's perceptions of curiosity, as important precursors to children's potential curiosity-driven behavior. Based on attitude and curiosity theory, we developed seven components of children's images of and attitudes towards curiosity. We translated these components into corresponding measurement scales, which comprise the CIAC. Results of a validation study among 737 children (ages 8-13), using factor analyses, largely confirmed the factor structures of the image and attitude scales and indicated good convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, we provide evidence for the predictive power of children's images and attitudes on their motivation to be curious.