How do STEM-interested students pursue multiple interests in their higher educational choice?

Abstract

Interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has lately received attention in research due to a gap between the number of STEM students and the needs of the labour market. As interest seems to be one of the most important factors in deciding what to study, we focus in the present study on how STEM-interested students weigh multiple interests in making educational choices. A questionnaire with both openended and closed-ended items was administered to 91 STEMinterested students enrolled in a STEM programme of a Dutch University for secondary school students. Results indicate that students find it important that a study programme allows them to pursue multiple interests. Some students pursued multiple interests by choosing to enrol in two programmes at the same time. Most students chose one programme that enabled them to combine multiple interests. Combinations of pursued interests were dependent on the disciplinary range of interests of students. Students who were interested in diverse domains combined interests in an educational programme across academic and nonacademic domains, whilst students who were mainly interested in STEM combined only STEM-focused interests. Together these findings stress the importance of taking a multiple interest perspective on interest development and educational choice. ARTICLE HISTORY

Dynamics in higher education choice: weighing one’s multiple interests in light of available programmes

“…The interests one wishes to pursue parallel to a programme may therefore influence which interests are pursued in a programme (e.g. Hofer 2010;Vulperhorst et al 2018). Our results illustrate this point further by showing how students carefully balance time spend on interests in and parallel to an educational programme.…”

“…The process of contrasting interests and deciding what to spend time on likely occurs intuitively also depending on the opportunity structure provided for specific engagements (Bergin 2016). Nonetheless, when confronted with a high-stake decision such as the higher education choice, interests may be weighed more explicitly (Vulperhorst et al 2018).…”

“…Students have to weigh their multiple, often diverging, interests, and have to commit to a (specific set of) interest(s), as students cannot pursue all their interests in a higher education programme (Hofer 2010;Vulperhorst et al 2018). Deciding which interests to pursue is difficult, as committing to specific interests means other interests cannot be pursued, which may lead to regretting the choice students made (Kucel and Vilalta-Bufí 2013).…”

“…Based on our findings that interests can be redefined based on the feed back of possible future programmes, we challenge this conception. In periods of transition, we can see how interests may shift as they may be reconceptualised or integrated with other interests (see also Akkerman and Bakker 2019;Vulperhorst et al 2018). Interest development theories should acknowledge that, at least in periods of transition, even developed forms of interests may change over time (Akkerman and Bakker 2019).…”

Optimization of Guided Discovery Learning Models to Increase Students' Interest in Mathematics

“…Based on the description above, it can be concluded that interest is an attitude of awareness of each individual to do something that moves themselves because there is a sense of pleasure and interest to achieve the desired goal. The level of student interest in learning can be seen and measured by: 1) feelings like pleasure (Krapp & Prentzel, 2011), 2) interests marked by reading and learning mathematics, learning without coercion, and recording mathematics lessons (Paszkowska-rogacz & Yıldız, 2015) , 3) attention that is in the form of focus in learning mathematics (Vulperhorst, Wessels, Bakker, & Akkerman, 2018) and 4) student involvement which includes activeness in participating in the learning process and doing assignments (Mumba, Mbewe, & Chabalengula, 2015) Learning outcomes that are often seen are learning achievements. Nitko & Brookhart (2011) revealed that achievements are students' knowledge, skills and abilities that have been developed as a result of learning.…”