Literature Review #4

(1)Visual

(2)Citation

Wang, Xuelli. “Why Students Choose STEM Majors: Motivation, High School Learning, and Postsecondary Context of Support.” American Educational Research Journal, SagePub, 2013, doi.org/10.3102/0002831213488622.

(3)Summary.

The Research article speaks on why students choose to major in STEM fields as well as using the social cognitive career theory and other ideas to determine what kinds of students will chose this career path. They find that it is highly related to the math level the student has in his senior year of high school and his nationality to the likelihood of the student choosing to pursue a STEM major to completion.

(4)Author(s).

She is the professor of higher education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

(5)Key terms.

Social cognitive career theory - developed to explain how individuals form career interests, set vocational goals, persist in work environments, and attain job satisfaction.

postsecondary barriers to STEM entrance -  having dependent children and working long hours, may redirect them from pursuing challenging fields of study such as STEM

sociodemographic differences - differ based on race, gender, and socioeconomic status.

(6)Three Quotes.
"results from this study illuminate important racial differences in how pre-college learning and motivation exert their influence on students’ intent to major in STEM." no page #

"the first year in college can be critical, and as evidenced in this study, a number of postsecondary variables are related to entrance into STEM fields of study."

" is influenced by early math achievement to a greater extent among underrepresented minority students than among White and Asian students."

(7)Value. 

This material could help me provide a counter-argument that career paths are often times determined from effects from primary institutions, rather than an economic perspective of price levels and demand shifts.