Abstract
This chapter concerns the effects of initiatives aimed at increasing the participation of young people (women in particular) in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) education (Parts of this chapter have been reported in more detail in two journal publications: Jensen and Sjaastad (Int J Gender Sci Technol 5(3): 317–337, 2013) and Jensen and Bøe (Int J Sci Math Educ 11(6):1437–1461, 2013)). Science education research literature concerning the effects of recruitment initiatives, and results from studies of three specific Norwegian recruitment initiatives (CERN Masterclass, ENT3R and The Girls’ Day) are presented. I suggest that these initiatives have some factors in common that may contribute to the existing knowledge of what works when it comes to motivating adolescents to engage in science and mathematics. Success factors in recruitment initiatives include a variety of experiences that enhance the interest-enjoyment value the participants attach to STEM, their expectation of success in STEM, that display the utility value of STEM and the various employment opportunities, that reduce their perception of cost through creating mastery experiences in a safe learning environment, and that raise the attainment value of STEM. The latter is particularly related to personal meetings between participants and STEM tertiary students and/or professionals who act as models of STEM identities and who may help participants define their own identities as (potential) STEM students and practitioners. Finally, important success factors in recruitment initiatives include development of the initiative over time and (where possible) prolonged ‘exposure’ of the participants, as in the case of the ENT3R project described in this chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
“Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist at CERN, invented the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989. The web was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automatic information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the world.” (http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/about/web-en.html, accessed August 2013).
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Jensen, F. (2015). The Impact of Outreach and Out-of-School Activities on Norwegian Upper Secondary Students’ STEM Motivations. In: Henriksen, E., Dillon, J., Ryder, J. (eds) Understanding Student Participation and Choice in Science and Technology Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7793-4_12
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