The ITEST Learning Resource Center at the Education Development Center, Inc., (EDC) requests funding for a convening designed to develop a theoretical framework to guide future research on youth motivation in STEM with a particular emphasis on populations most underrepresented in the STEM workforce. Two guiding questions will be the focus of the event: What is currently known about motivation in STEM for underrepresented youth? What can be done to cultivate new research around STEM motivation for underrepresented youth? The primary target audience is sociologists, psychologists, and researchers in STEM motivation and career development research, and members of the ITEST community including principal investigators, evaluators, and program directors. Secondary audiences include STEM program developers and practitioners, policymakers, and industry leaders that are building the STEM workforce.
Prior to the conference, a select number of attendees will be invited to draft white papers on topics such as motivation, self-identity, and educational practices in formal and informal settings. The white papers will be presented during the 2.5 day convening and used to guide the conversations. A unique feature will be the inclusion of 12 youth participants who will populate a pre-conference blog with reflections of their experiences in ITEST projects and respond to an online survey. Youth will be fully integrated into the meetings as presenters and participants in sessions that focus on STEM program design. The deliverables include a theoretical research framework to guide future STEM motivation research, survey data and analysis from ITEST projects related to interest and motivation, survey data from youth participants, suggestions for ITEST PIs to integrate measures into their programs, and a post-convening webcast.
The project evaluation will be conducted by MPR Associates using qualitative and survey data. Evaluation questions address planning, convening logistics, synthesis of information, and dissemination. After the convening, a final report will be published on the ITEST Learning Resource Center website. A post-convening web-conference will be held to stimulate new research projects and the development of STEM motivation instruments. It is anticipated that the convening will result in new working relationships among participants, identification of ITEST program elements that foster effective STEM motivation, career discovery, and motivation, and a map of ITEST impacts on youth motivation in STEM. New research efforts that address youth motivation in STEM should result from the research framework and the ITEST community and the field at large will be better informed about how to define, validate, and replicate motivational aspects of the STEM workforce development strategies.
(science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). This Convening brought together youth participants and principal investigators (PIs) from NSF's ITEST (Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers) program with leading researchers, psychologists, and sociologists to develop a theoretical research framework to guide future research on youth motivation in STEM, with a particular emphasis on youth from populations most underrepresented in the STEM workforce, specifically women, minorities and people with disabilities. The Convening focused on two overarching questions: (1) What is currently known about motivation around STEM for underrepresented youth? and (2) What can be done to cultivate new research on STEM motivation for underrepresented youth? Convening attendees self-selected into four working groups—Emerging Research Areas, Research Methodologies, Evaluation Practices, and Research-to-Practice Issues—which were designed to allow participants to share their perspectives on the particular topic as it was being addressed generally throughout the Convening and through the panels, white paper presentations, and other discussions, and to influence the content of the research agenda. The Emerging Research Areas working group identified six areas where additional research would be valuable: (1) individual versus group dynamics and their role in motivation in both face-to-face and online settings; (2) historical, social, cultural, and racial/ethnic influences on interest in STEM and their relationship to motivation (interest, engagement, persistence, and goal-setting); (3) developing a better understanding of barriers to motivation, how to account or accommodate for them, and, where possible, how to minimize or eliminate them; (4) the role and impact of learning environments on youth motivation, including understanding similarities and differences between formal and informal settings and how transitions between these settings impact student motivation; (5) sustaining motivation, or developing "motivational momentum"; (6) the impact of the many changes that individuals experience in self-perception and motivation as they mature, biologically and neurologically. The Research Methodologies working group identified six ways to cultivate new research around STEM motivation in youth: (1) building on existing best practices in research methodologies, instrumentation, and national databases; (2) exploring nontraditional methods of designing research on STEM motivation, many of which offer a relationship between researcher and subject that is more interactive and allows the subject more participation in the research process (the group also noted the relationship between the research method chosen and the kinds of findings and lessons that can be obtained and disseminated); (3) taking advantage of technology in all areas, including communication with colleagues, data collection, and dissemination; (4) disseminating findings to different audiences; (5) carefully defining terms and constructs—particularly motivation and the many sub-constructs that make up motivation—which is critical to quality research design; and (6) acknowledging that research designs are not static and that challenges and questions should be continually identified and addressed. The Evaluation Practices working group’s discussions over the course of the Convening highlighted technical and practical recommendations for evaluation related to youth motivation in STEM. From a technical standpoint, the working group made recommendations regarding identifying appropriate constructs, methods, and tools. From a practical perspective, the group noted several considerations for evaluation practices, such as involving stakeholders in the evaluation, accounting for projects’ processes and outcomes, evaluating fidelity and replication, and understanding the role of the evaluator. Finally, the Research-to-Practice Issues working group focused on the relationship between research and practice—including the barriers to collaborative efforts in data collection and dissemination. Underlying this group’s discussion was the more general theme of addressing the need to involve multiple stakeholders in all aspects of research, as partnerships help to both support and advance STEM education. The working group’s overarching questions included understanding how to break through systemic barriers to translating motivation research into practice, what the drivers of systemic change are, and how to foster effective collaboration among key stakeholders in the research-to-practice cycle. The full report and all materials from the convening are available from the convening website at http://itestlrc.edc.org/youth-motivation-convening.
