Students' views, attitudes, identity, self-concept, and career decisions: Results from an evaluation study of a STEM program in Singapore

The prevalence and growing necessity for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has resulted in many Singaporean schools developing and implementing STEM-based educational programmes. However, due to the novelty of an interdisciplinary STEM programme, few evaluation studies on the effectiveness of such programmes in influencing students’ engagement and aspiration towards STEM have been reported in the literature. STEM capital was used to assess the effectiveness of a particular STEM applied programme that many government schools in Singapore implement. The constructs used were students’ views about STEM lessons, students’ attitudes towards STEM, self-concept in learning STEM, construction of STEM identities, and career decisions in STEM. An online survey with 10 items per construct was administered to students from 13 schools and a total of 151 students participated in the survey. Rasch analysis was then performed on the survey results. Based on the results, although students have positive attitudes towards the applicability and necessity of STEM in the society, students are disinclined towards problem-solving and expressed low STEM self-concept. This could affect the formation of students’ identity in STEM as they perceive themselves to be passive learners rather than active contributors of STEM, thus potentially affecting students’ individual interest and continual engagement in STEM. Based on our findings, future research can focus on improving STEM learning centred around problems. Also, teachers and STEM programme providers can be trained to help develop students’ self-concept in regard to STEM.