Speaker
Description
During the past decades, researchers have identified many factors crucial for the development of interests, ability self-concepts, and eventually career choice. Concurrently, practitioners have developed and implemented short- and long-term intervention programs to foster girls’ and young women’s interest in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Some of these are theoretically informed and others are not, and they capitalize on various factors (e.g., role models, hands-on experiences, mentoring, gender segregation). Some evaluations of these interventions exist, for different age groups, on various outcome levels, with different scientific quality (e.g., randomized control trials vs. pre-post measurement), and in different contexts (laboratory-based vs. applied) and cultures. The aim of the present paper is to provide a critical review on interventions that try to increase girls’ interest in STEM fields: How strong is the evidence regarding different factors? We will critically evaluate this. Can recommendations be deduced from this evidence, such as: Which age group(s) should be targeted? How long should interventions last? Are different interventions needed for different domains? Have any factors been overlooked? We are planning to conduct a meta-analysis summarizing the available evidence. That way, we hope to provide guidelines for practice in addition to an agenda for future research.
