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The purpose of this paper is to explore the trends of Cambodian government scholarship students’ choice of academic major; the significant association between family socioeconomic status (SES) and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors, and the patterns of STEM major choices across demographic and geographical characteristics.

Descriptive analysis and cross-tabulation statistical tests were employed to analyze the data of 1,000 students drawn from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport scholarships database of 2018. The study employed a correlational study design.

Findings revealed that the Cambodian government scholarship students were more inclined to major in social science than science and engineering-related fields. Findings also positioned that students’ choice of STEM majors was significantly associated with family SES, gender and locality. Students from families with higher SES, male students and students from the provinces were more likely to choose STEM majors than their counterparts.

These findings point to some practical considerations on how to maximize low SES students’ enrollment in STEM majors at a higher education of Cambodia.

Although our society has made college more universal through vastly increased access to postsecondary education, college completion has stagnated, and the return on a college degree varies by field of study. Therefore, gaining admission to college – even a four-year college – is no longer a guaranteed ticket to social mobility. As colleges and universities attract and enroll more diverse populations of students, the barriers to student success once enrolled remain prominent concerns. To explore stratification processes regarding student success, choice of major, and completion, interviews were conducted with 41 low-income students at a large research university. These interviews illustrate the ways that students’ aspirations are lowered after entering college and how the cooling-out process functions within STEM majors. The primary catalyst facilitating the lowering of student aspirations and migration out of STEM majors was negative experiences in introductory math and science courses. Students responded to this catalyst by either lowering their aspirations or changing their behavior to improve performance in those courses. Students who were able to persist in STEM majors had a family member or mentor who helped them to frame the problem as a reflection of their behavior, not their innate ability, and to strategize behavioral changes. Institutional agents played both the role of support which helped some students maintain their aspirations and the role of steering students out of STEM illustrating the importance of the messages we send as advisors, student affairs professionals, or faculty. These findings demonstrate the ways in which the cooling-out process works in four-year institutions to perpetuate structures of opportunity within degree attainment and access to elite careers.

Using a unique data set from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), we estimate the gender starting-salary gap for college graduates from 2000 to 2010. Simulation techniques are used to estimate how the salary gap would change if women had selected the same majors or job types as men. We find that about 90% of the starting-salary gap is explainable by gender differences in majors and types of job offers – a higher percentage than found in most other studies. Duncan indexes of dissimilarity also indicate that the gender distributions of job offers by college major and type of first jobs have not become more similar over the past 10 years. Although differences in college major and types of first jobs explain most of the gender gap in starting salaries of college graduates, small but unexplained gender pay differences reveal themselves in the NACE statistics.

We focus our study on children of immigrants in science, technology, math, and engineering (STEM) fields because children of immigrants represent a diverse pool of future talent in those fields. We posit that children of immigrants may have a higher propensity to prepare for entering STEM fields, and our analysis finds some evidence to support this conjecture. Using the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88-00) and its restricted postsecondary transcript data, we examine three key milestones in the STEM pipeline: (1) highest math course taken during high school, (2) initial college major in STEM, and (3) bachelor’s degree attainment in STEM. Using individual level NELS data and country-level information from UNESCO and NSF, we find that children of immigrants of various countries of origin, with the exception of Mexicans, are more likely than children of natives to take higher-level math courses during high school. Asian and white children of immigrants are more likely to complete STEM degrees than third-generation whites. Drawing on theories of immigrant incorporation and cultural capital, we discuss the rationales for these patterns and the policy implications of these findings.

The racial and ethnic representation of individuals in the workforce is not comparable to that in the general population. In 2010, African Americans constituted 12.6% of the US population. However, African Americans represented less than 5% of PhD recipients in 2010; African American women comprised less than 1% of the degrees awarded in that same year. These disappointing statistics have sparked conversations regarding the retention of underrepresented groups with a focus on what helps to ensure these individuals will transition through the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pipeline. This chapter provides insight into the elements of the Spelman College learning environment that empower women of African descent to become agents of their success while facilitating their movement through the STEM pipeline. The chapter focuses on interventions and resources developed in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department to foster student-centered learning. Described herein are cocurricular strategies and course-based interventions are used synergistically to enhance student outcomes. The approach to curricular innovation is framed by theories related to community of inquiry (CoI), metacognition, agency, and self-regulated learning. Strategic institutional investments have underpinned these efforts. In addition to providing a snapshot of student outcomes, the authors discuss lessons learned along with the realities of engaging in this type of intellectual work to elucidate the feasibility of adopting similar strategies at other institutions.

The need to increase the number of ethnic minority students, including Black students, graduating from colleges with postsecondary degrees in STEM areas is quite popular in public discourse. Unfortunately, Black students’ oftentimes experience unique postsecondary issues that make reaching such a goal quite difficult. It makes sense that college counselors, given their role on campuses around the country, would be involved in any intervention designed to increase Black students’ representation in STEM majors. To that end, the purpose of this chapter is to detail some of the factors related relatively low numbers of Black students majoring in STEM and interventions college counselors can employ to help them overcome said factors and prepare for success in STEM majors en route to graduating with STEM bachelor’s degrees and subsequent careers.

The purpose of this quantitative study is to explore the differences and relations among how Black science, technology, engineering and mathematics-life and health sciences (STEM-H) and non-STEM-H students develop a sense of belonging and community at a Hispanic serving institution (HSI).

This paper used findings from a survey that collected both numeric and string data. Surveys were administered via e-mail.

There were a limited number of significant findings related to STEM-H students believing that faculty would be sensitive to their needs and that they would be part of the community. String data provide more data about positive and negative experiences related to belonging and community.

It was a single-institution study in New Mexico. Therefore, it may not mirror other HSIs across the country. Also, there were only 84 participants. This number is relatively low compared to the 465 Black students identified at the institutions. Thus, it is clear that not all voices are heard in this study. Finally, this study used preexisting scales to measure a sense of belonging and a sense of community. Because of this, the questions were not customized to the region.

This study introduces STEM-H as a viable area of study. It examines Black STEM-H students enrolled at an HSI using two scales for sense of belonging and sense of community.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of mobile assisted language learning (MALL) in vocabulary learning among English foreign language learners in China with a lens on academic major difference. This study hypothesizes that academic majors including Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM differentiate the learners’ perception of computer self-efficacy (CSE) and MALL learning performance as well as moderate the effect of CSE on language learning performance.

Sample data for this study were collected from 200 university students enrolled in both STEM and non-STEM majors. Under the quasi-experiment, this study had been conducted vocabulary training, pre-test, post-test and a questionnaire. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, a statistical analysis technique based on ANOVA and regression were used to analyze the data.

The results support hypotheses that CSE, learning score and satisfaction are rated higher for STEM students than non-STEM ones and indicate the effect of CSE on language learning performance is stronger for STEM students than non-STEM ones in using MALL.

This paper addressed important issues in language learning on the academic major difference. The findings would be the guidelines for educational organizations to motivate and stimulate students with sustainable self-confidence important not only for improvement in students’ language learning achievements and outcomes but also for the advancement of mobile technology in language learning.

Within the next decade, countries like the U.S. will face a daunting challenge to increase the preparation of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to meet expected workforce demands for nearly 2.2 million more trained professionals in these fields (National Science Board, 2004, pp. 3–7). The U.S. also needs to ensure that its STEM workforce also represents women and students from African American, Chicano and Latino origins – individuals who historically have been underrepresented in the sciences but who now comprise a growing percent of the K-12 pipeline and of the diverse population who will use STEM knowledge and applications in the future.

Strengthening the nation’s technological workforce, competing and expanding its relevance in the global economy, and maintaining personal as well as homeland security will be highly dependent on the quantity, quality, and diversity of the next generations of scientists, engineers, technologists, and mathematicians. Production of a diverse generation of human resources with relevant, competitive skills is critical. However, so too is the need to raise an enlightened citizenry with cross-cultural experience and cultural awareness competency, with a broad worldview and global perspectives. These requirements are critical to understanding the challenges and opportunities of scholarly activity in a pluralistic global environment and positioning ourselves to capitalize upon them. Scholars with cross-cultural experience and competency are empowered to adapt and work collaboratively, nationally and globally, with scholars of different races, geopolitical, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds. Development of effective strategies to transform science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments for inclusion and to broaden the participation in STEM across cultures, socioeconomic standing, race, and gender in higher education has been a dominant topic of pedagogical interest of national priority in the last several decades. However, success in these endeavors is achievable only through systemic change and a cultural shift to address the underlying root causes of socioeconomic disparity, gender, and racial disparities and a paucity of cultural awareness among all educational stakeholders. STEM departments can only be truly transformed for inclusion through the development of sensitive, creative, and student-engaging curricula and targeted recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in STEM. Formation of well-coordinated alliances spanning educational sectors, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and community engagement and outreach are also critical to promoting inclusive and broad participation in STEM education.

The first section of the chapter gives an introduction to various challenges, obstacles, and hindrances that prevent a successful transformation of K–12 science education as well as STEM departments in higher education for inclusion. The second section discusses historical perspectives of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (UAFS) – the institutional profile, missions, and visions of UAFS as a regional university. Policies and strategies for addressing the socioeconomic disparity, faculty gender, and racial disparities and cultural competency awareness at UAFS are also highlighted in this section. Other approaches including targeted efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented minority students, provision of financial assistance for students from low-income families, and a creative “Math-up” curriculum innovation to promote inclusive and broad participation in STEM at UAFS are highlighted in the latter section of the chapter. Formation of alliances between UAFS, local K–12 school districts, and governmental and non-governmental agencies to promote broad participation in STEM at UAFS are discussed. The last section of the chapter provides recommendations for adaptation and sustainability of strategies and efforts aimed at transforming national STEM departments for inclusion.