STEM career aspirations during primary schooling: A cohort-sequential longitudinal study of relations between achievement, self-competence beliefs, and career interests

In the globalized and rapidly changing world, the issues of young people’s educational achievement and career aspirations are extremely important. These issues are especially relevant in vocations in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), which are technologically sophisticated and important for the development of the society. Since 1990s the interest of youth for these vocations is declining. Researchers, national governments and authorities like EU operate with exact figures which clearly demonstrate a shortage of STEM graduates and a decline in number of STEM experts. The proposed project is grounded in contemporary theories of academic achievement, self-competence beliefs and vocational interests and it is structured around three main research goals: (i) to examine how students’ general and specific STEM career aspirations are formed and how they change over time; (ii) to examine how students’ academic achievement and self-competence beliefs are related to their general and specific STEM career aspirations and how the pattern of relations among them changes during the course of primary schooling; (iii) to examine how students’ general and specific STEM career aspirations are shaped by their families and gender. The project is based on a longitudinal research design, as a suitable methodological framework for responding to these complex research questions. A total of 1920 primary school students and their parents/guardians will participate in the study. Students will be grouped in three age cohorts, which will be followed longitudinally through three measurement waves. The additional goal of the project is to implement a STEM intervention program in primary schools and evaluate its’ effects by using two-group pre- and post-test randomized experimental design. The project is intended to create new knowledge useful for researchers, students, teachers as well to create knowledge-based implications for relevant stakeholders. Project team members: Josip Burušić, Toni Babarović, Marija Šakić Velić, Ivan Dević, Mia Karabegović, Leila Selimbegovic, Dubravka Glasnović Gracin, Ina Reić Ercegovac, Tomislav Jagušt, Predrag Pale, Juraj Petrović, Mirta Blažev and Mara Šimunović