Addressing the STEM gender gap has been a long-standing priority in Ireland and internationally. This study presents an evaluation of an industry-partnered WiSTEM2D program in higher education, exploring how mentorship, site visits, networking, and team projects influence female participation, confidence, career knowledge, and STEM role model aspirations. In this paper, we used Bronfenbrenner's (1992) ccological systems theory to explore the impact, if any, on students participating in the Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D program (Johnson & Johnson, n.d.). The paper presents data from 41 students through four phases of data collection, collected at both short-and longterm intervals. In the short-term, focus groups (N = 13) and pre-and post-surveys (N = 30) were conducted with participants. In the long-term, telephone interviews were conducted with participants who had previously completed the program. Findings revealed two key challenges for STEM students: low confidence and limited awareness of STEM career opportunities. Participants in the Johnson and Johnson WiSTEM2D program increased in confidence and also increased their knowledge of STEM careers at both short-term and the long-term intervals. Participants also indicated a desire to be a role model and promote STEM. Based on the findings, higher education institutions should consider industry partnerships to support female students in STEM.

Despite extensive investment, deep curriculum change is a challenging and frequently elusive process. By exploring the experiences of teachers enacting Education Outside the Classroom (EOtC), this paper examines the assets and liabilities these teachers experienced during a time of curriculum change. Drawing on Schlossberg's theory exploring adaptation to change, ten teachers from ten schools across four countries (Finland, Hungary, Ireland and Spain) participated in semi-structured interviews. Following deductive and inductive analysis framed around Schlossberg's domains of Interpersonal, Institutional and Physical Settings, this study found that teachers, working in different settings, experience different levels of assets and liabilities. Teachers' discussion did not identify many liabilities relating to the Physical Setting, potentially suggesting that the approach of taking students outside the classroom is not a major barrier to engaging in EOtC. In comparison, Institutional Supports, acting as assets and liabilities, appear to be the area that dominates teachers' considerations. In certain contexts, there appear to be tensions between interpersonal and institutional support, particularly relating to dominant beliefs. This study highlights how, at times of curriculum change, we need to consider the context more carefully, and the paper concludes by proposing key areas of consideration.

Science education research has increasingly recognised the value of learning experiences outside the traditional classroom setting, acknowledging their potential to complement and enhance formal science and environmental education. Despite studies relating to the role of Education Outside the Classroom (EOtC) in contributing to skills development, there is still a gap in exploring how these activities may contribute to scientific literacy and citizenship development. This study assesses how EOtC activities contributed to developing scientific citizenship, social and personal responsibility and scientific literacy. Mixed data were collected from 161 students, aged 6–18, from nine schools in four European countries who participated in an EU-funded project related to sustainability. Students mobilised a range of skills as they engaged in youth initiatives (a student-led initiative fostering students’ agency and integrating curricular knowledge into authentic environmental action contexts) related to environmental themes and connected with their communities by disseminating knowledge via posters, campaigns, and fairs. This research underscores the importance of experiential learning in science education. It highlights its broader impact on students’ holistic development beyond academic knowledge acquisition for activating citizenship, indicating youth initiatives as a productive venue to foster citizenship.

The United Nations’ sustainable development goals highlight the importance of embracing our natural environment through action in education. In science education, it is therefore important to enhance our understanding of pedagogical approaches that promote Education Outside the Classroom (EOC). The aim of this systematic review is to investigate EOC methods and pedagogies and examine how they can help inform students’ acquisition of scientific knowledge and skills. In total, 157 full texts were read and considered for inclusion in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. The final review included 49 empirical studies that examined EOC research between 2012 and 2021 across all disciplines. Positive outcomes are reported regarding student learning, motivation, and enjoyment, which highlight the benefits and rationale for adopting such approaches to support learning. However, a lack of longitudinal data was evident regarding the impact of the EOC experiences. This review shows that the pedagogical models underpinning the approaches to EOC were not always explicit or clearly stated. In terms of the methodological considerations, a number of gaps emerged in relation to the reporting of geographical and gender differences. We offer recommendations to implement EOC in science education and suggest areas for future research.

Internationally, the need to advance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is recognized as being vital for meeting social and economic challenges and developing a scientifically, mathematically, and technologically literate citizenry. In many countries, however, there are gender differences in the participation and achievement of girls and women in STEM education and STEM careers, usually to the disadvantage of females. This paper aims to identify challenges to female students' participation in STEM both at post-primary (secondary school) level and beyond in the Irish context. The research questions we aim to address in this paper are: (1) what are student attitudes towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics as measured through interest and perceived ability in STEM, students' valuing of STEM and students' commitment to STEM? and (2) what gender differences occur regarding students' attitudes to science, technology, engineering and mathematics? A survey was completed by 308 post-primary students in Ireland as part of a one-year research project titled "STEMChAT: Women as catalysts for change in STEM education." Data analysis compiled descriptive statistics, including response frequencies and percentages and median and interquartile range values, and compared gender differences in survey responses using the Kruskal-Wallis H Test. Results indicated that female students had significantly more positive attitudes to science compared to males while in comparison, males had significantly more positive responses to mathematics compared to females. Challenges regarding access to and understanding of STEM in the context of post-primary education are discussed.

Abstract From 2017 to 2019 the International Science Council funded a project investigating the gender gap in science disciplines. The aim of the project was to collect and analyse data on the gender gap and to create a database of good practices for encouraging girls and young women to study and pursue education and careers in the mathematical, computing, and natural sciences. In this article, we draw on our work in the Gender Gap in Science project to (1) explain the nature of the gender gap problem, (2) give examples of initiatives that scientists can take to help solve the gender gap problem, and (3) offer guidelines on how to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to address the gender gap in science.

Set amidst the backdrop of concerns related to the entry of students to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers, this study seeks to understand the Professional STEM Identity status of STEM undergraduate students and STEM professionals. This study utilizes a cross-sectional research design to compare participant scores in the categories of affirmation, in-depth exploration, practices, commitment, and reconsideration of commitment in the Professional Identity Status Questionnaire (PISQ-5d). Cluster analysis was performed on the scores to indicate five Professional STEM Identity statuses: achievement status, foreclosure status, moratorium status, searching moratorium status, and diffused status. We initially envisaged that those in STEM careers would have more established STEM identities reflected in higher numbers in an achievement status category; however, this was not the case. These findings raise questions about the dominant approaches used in career guidance for STEM. We conclude that a more fluid and less fixed understanding of Professional STEM Identity may better guide research in the area of STEM and inform institutions that encourage strong affinities to particular STEM careers.

This research intends to provide understanding of the impact that a module consisting entirely of collaborative interdisciplinary science tasks had on students’ group work behaviour, attitude and motivation. It was hypothesised that implementing a module based entirely of group tasks would develop positive attitudes and increase student accountability. Previous research indicates that large introductory modules in higher education fail to nurture student motivation to engage with course work. In this study 303 students completed surveys and focus groups that examined the level and nature of group work, student feelings towards group work, and student motivation to complete tasks and attend timetabled class sessions. The findings suggest that in order to complete the science tasks, students typically completed sections individually and consolidated their individual parts to form a complete solution. Collaboration occurred when students completed numerical aspects of the task as students felt these sections demanded group members to share ideas. Collaborative work can promote positive student attitudes, increase students efforts to work on tasks and attend timetabled class sessions. These findings imply that collaborative work may act as a means of promoting attendance and facilitating student engagement in module activities throughout the semester. This study highlights the need for educators to assess learning outcomes achieved in higher education and to distinguish between tasks that promote working collaboratively and collaborative learning.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify whether or not females believe they associate with the culture of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by investigating the perceptions of female students currently enroled in STEM courses.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents data from a survey on female STEM students’ “Perspectives of women in STEM”, “Parents’ Science qualification”, “Supports in their STEM Course” and their “Science identify” through a social capital lens. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyse the data.FindingsThe main findings were that female STEM undergraduates believe social bias, balancing work and family life and lack of role models are the main cause of less women in STEM professions and leadership positions. There were statistically significant differences between how male and female students identified with certain traits, with less females claiming to be intelligent and know about latest discoveries than males.Research limitations/implicationsTo eradicate stereotypical views of scientists, it is recommended that Irish higher-education institutions introduce initiatives to increase the socialisation of STEM females within female networks and develop female students’ self-awareness of their own capabilities. The expansion of STEM networks could act as a means to facilitate female students adopting positive science identities, increasing their science capital.Originality/valueIn Ireland, there is a paucity of literature relating to females’ experience of STEM in higher education. This paper provides evidence that despite their engagement with STEM, female undergraduate students subscribe to the stereotypical image of the scientist. This study highlights the need to change the culture experienced by female STEM undergraduates in Ireland so as to improve the experiences and trajectories of women in higher education.

Irish science education is aiming to develop post-primary students’ knowledge of and about science through the introduction of ‘nature of science’ (NOS) in the new junior cycle science specification. This study aimed to investigate pre-service science teachers’ views about a particular aspect of NOS, namely the aims and values of science. Aims and values in relation to science can be considered from epistemic, cognitive, cultural, social, political, moral and ethical perspectives. In this paper, we focus on the epistemic, cognitive and social aims and values of science to provide a broad overview and investigate pre-service science teachers’ understanding of them. Qualitative methods are used to highlight two case studies that provide an in-depth record of how pre-service science teachers interpret aims and values of science. Although the sample is limited in terms of its generalisability to pre-service teacher education at large, the study provides a framework for (a) what to target and investigate about NOS in science education, particularly about aims and values of science, and (b) how pre-service science teachers are likely to make sense of such relatively new curricular goals. Implications for pre-service science teacher education are discussed.

An interdisciplinary science course has been implemented at a university with the intention of providing students the opportunity to develop a range of key skills in relation to: real-world connections of science, problem-solving, information and communications technology use and team while linking subject knowledge in each of the science disciplines. One of the problems used in this interdisciplinary course has been selected to evaluate if it affords students the opportunity to explicitly display problem-solving processes. While the benefits of implementing problem-based learning have been well reported, far less research has been devoted to methods of assessing student problem-solving solutions. A problem-solving theoretical framework was used as a tool to assess student written solutions to indicate if problem-solving processes were present. In two academic years, student problem-solving processes were satisfactory for exploring and understanding, representing and formulating, and planning and executing, indicating that student collaboration on problems is a good initiator of developing these processes. In both academic years, students displayed poor monitoring and reflecting (MR) processes at the intermediate level. A key impact of evaluating student work in this way is that it facilitated meaningful feedback about the students’ problem-solving process rather than solely assessing the correctness of problem solutions.