IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-01946-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Key competencies acquired from STEM education: gender-differentiated parental expectations

Author

Listed:
  • Zehui Zhan

    (South China Normal University)

  • Yuanmin Li

    (Shenzhen Longhua NO.3 Experimental School)

  • Hu Mei

    (South China Normal University)

  • Siyuan Lyu

    (South China Normal University)

Abstract

Parents’ expectations affect children’s key competencies acquired from STEM education, and influence their future career development. This study aimed to determine the influence of parents’ expectations on children’s key competencies gained through STEM education, with a particular focus on gender difference. A total of 736 parents (44% fathers and 56% mothers) of children aged 3–12 (50.4% boys and 49.6% girls) participated in a two-section survey and rated the degree of importance of each key competency. Subsequently, exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the potential structure of the STEM-related competencies, and ANOVA was used to gain further insights into the gender difference tendency. Results targeted 10 most emphasized competencies which were clustered into four categories, namely the Innovation factor (Inquiring competency, Creativity competency), the Social factor (Cooperative competency, Expressing competency), the Making factor (Hands-on competency, Problem-solving competency, Anti-frustration competency), and the Learning factor (Thinking competency, Knowledge acquisition competency, Concentration competency). Results also indicated that the parents had significantly different expectations for boys and girls regarding the expressing, thinking, knowledge acquisition, concentration, and hands-on competencies. Fathers’ and mothers’ expectations only differed for children’s anti-frustration competency. These findings provide deeper insights into STEM-related competencies from parents’ viewpoints, and contribute a greater understanding of gender difference in STEM education.

Suggested Citation

  • Zehui Zhan & Yuanmin Li & Hu Mei & Siyuan Lyu, 2023. "Key competencies acquired from STEM education: gender-differentiated parental expectations," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01946-x
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-01946-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-01946-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-01946-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hsin-Wen Hu & Chiung-Hui Chiu & Guey-Fa Chiou, 2019. "Effects of question stem on pupils’ online questioning, science learning, and critical thinking," The Journal of Educational Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 112(4), pages 564-573, July.
    2. Jacqueline Ng Lane & Bruce Ankenman & Seyed Iravani, 2018. "Insight into Gender Differences in Higher Education: Evidence from Peer Reviews in an Introductory STEM Course," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 442-456, December.
    3. Thomas Buser & Muriel Niederle & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2014. "Gender, Competitiveness, and Career Choices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1409-1447.
    4. Friedman-Sokuler, Naomi & Justman, Moshe, 2016. "Gender streaming and prior achievement in high school science and mathematics," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 230-253.
    5. Lingxin Hao & Wei-Jun Yeung, 2015. "Parental Spending on School-Age Children: Structural Stratification and Parental Expectation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 835-860, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Haozhe Jiang & Ritesh Chugh & Xuesong Zhai & Ke Wang & Xiaoqin Wang, 2024. "Longitudinal analysis of teacher self-efficacy evolution during a STEAM professional development program: a qualitative case study," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sahoo, Soham & Klasen, Stephan, 2018. "Gender Segregation in Education and Its Implications for Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 11660, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Delaney, Judith M. & Devereux, Paul J., 2019. "Understanding gender differences in STEM: Evidence from college applications✰," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 219-238.
    3. Devereux, Paul J. & Delaney, Judith, 2019. "Understanding Gender Differences in STEM: Evidence from College Applications," CEPR Discussion Papers 13558, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. McNally, Sandra, 2020. "Gender Differences in Tertiary Education: What Explains STEM Participation?," IZA Policy Papers 165, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Delaney, Judith M. & Devereux, Paul J., 2019. "It's Not Just for Boys! Understanding Gender Differences in STEM," IZA Discussion Papers 12176, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Moshe Justman & Susan J. Méndez, 2016. "Gendered Selection of STEM Subjects for Matriculation," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2016n10, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    7. Friedman-Sokuler, Naomi & Justman, Moshe, 2020. "Gender, culture and STEM: Counter-intuitive patterns in Arab society," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Justman, Moshe & Méndez, Susan J., 2018. "Gendered choices of STEM subjects for matriculation are not driven by prior differences in mathematical achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 282-297.
    9. Izaskun Zuazu, 2020. "Graduates’ Opium? Cultural Values, Religiosity and Gender Segregation by Field of Study," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-27, July.
    10. Zuazu-Bermejo, Izaskun, 2020. "Graduates’ opium? Cultural values, religiosity and gender segregation by field of study," OSF Preprints yn23j, Center for Open Science.
    11. Contini, Dalit & Di Tommaso, Maria Laura & Maccagnan, Anna & Mendolia, Silvia, 2023. "Gender Differences in High School Choices: Do Math and Language Skills Play a Role?," IZA Discussion Papers 16584, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Bobba, Matteo & Frisancho, Veronica, 2022. "Self-perceptions about academic achievement: Evidence from Mexico City," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 231(1), pages 58-73.
    13. José de Sousa & Guillaume Hollard, 2021. "From Micro to Macro Gender Differences: Evidence from Field Tournaments," Post-Print hal-03389151, HAL.
    14. Bjorvatn, Kjetil & Falch, Ranveig & Hernæs, Ulrikke, 2016. "Gender, context and competition: Experimental evidence from rural and urban Uganda," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 31-37.
    15. Dreber, Anna & Heikensten, Emma & Säve-Söderbergh, Jenny, 2022. "Why do women ask for less?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Cornaglia, Francesca & Drouvelis, Michalis & Masella, Paolo, 2019. "Competition and the role of group identity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 136-145.
    17. Delaney, Judith M. & Devereux, Paul J., 2021. "High School Rank in Math and English and the Gender Gap in STEM," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    18. Kessel, Dany & Mollerstrom, Johanna & van Veldhuizen, Roel, 2021. "Can simple advice eliminate the gender gap in willingness to compete?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 138, pages 1-1.
    19. Jonathan F Schulz & Christian Thöni, 2016. "Overconfidence and Career Choice," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, January.
    20. Yuval Mazar & Uri Zilber, 2019. "Brothers vs. Sisters: The Effect of Siblings' Gender on an Individual's Labor Market Performance," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2019.16, Bank of Israel.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01946-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.