ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Educational Psychology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1506038

This article is part of the Research TopicInterconnections between cognition and emotions and the process of science learningView all 6 articles

A predictive analysis of STEM vocation through students' attitudes to school science classes

Provisionally accepted
Maria-Antonia  Manassero-MasMaria-Antonia Manassero-MasAngel  Vazquez-AlonsoAngel Vazquez-Alonso*
  • University of the Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The increasing strategic, economic, social and personal value of scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical (STEM) knowledge in current societies highlights the need for STEM professionals. However, the enrolment rates in STEM careers are decreasing, particularly for some STEM specialties, women, and minorities. This lack of STEM vocation has led to worldwide concern, warranting its research, as many factors may influence career decisions. This study analyses the relationships between students' perceptions of several characteristics of secondary school science classes and their intentions to enrol in STEM careers. It develops a gender perspective on the issue. The quantitative methodology surveys thousands of Spanish 15-year-old students who completed the Relevance of Science Education Second (ROSES-Q) questionnaire from 2021 to 2023. Some items about vocational intentions and school science classes were drawn from the ROSES-Q to explore the abovementioned relationships through linear regression analysis. The results show that students' intentions to pursue STEM careers approximately amount to one-third of the sample, and boys' rates are significantly higher than girls' rates. The items of school science classes reached their agreement peak in 'science is interesting', 'increased my curiosity' and 'the importance of science for our way of life', whereas 'becoming more critical and sceptical' obtained the lowest score''. Most gender differences in these items were not statistically significant. Six school science class items significantly predicted the students' degree of STEM vocation by sharing 46.1% of their common variance. In decreasing order of prediction power, the six significant predictors are 'liking school science better than most other subjects', 'helping to understand sustainability solutions', 'becoming more critical and sceptical', 'importance of science for our way of life', 'difficulty of school science', and 'opening my eyes to new and exciting jobs'. The implications of this study for promoting STEM vocations suggest that teachers carefully cultivate those relevant characteristics of school science classes through appropriate pedagogies and inclusive and equitable contexts for all, especially for girls.

Keywords: science education, Attitudes towards science, Participation in science, gender and science, Regression Analysis, Vocational profiles

Received: 04 Oct 2024; Accepted: 19 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Manassero-Mas and Vazquez-Alonso. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Angel Vazquez-Alonso, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, 47012, Spain

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