Girls’ Interest In Engineering Is Incongruent With Skill Levels
With Engineers Week just wrapping up, it seems like the perfect time to share Couragion’s latest research on students’ engineering interest and skill levels.
Our latest NSF-backed research involves students who completed Engineering Challenges and answered self-reflection questions within Couragion’s app. In the Engineering Challenges, students take on the role of an engineer and experience work-based learning by completing authentic job tasks. Students also had the option of completing a Career Quest which presents them with career context via videos featuring diverse career role models. The Career Quests show a typical work day, sample job tasks, the work environment, post-secondary pathways, and job demand and growth.
The study involved a sample size of 796 users who completed a total of 1,506 Challenges. 40% of the data set’s population were female, while 47% were people of color. Furthermore, 60% of the data set’s population were high school level, while 40% were middle school level.
In studying the engineering disciplines, girls scored an average of 8% higher than boys. When students completed Career Quests prior to completing the engineering Challenges (thus boosting their career context), the score delta increased further with girls scoring an average of 12% higher than boys.
Unfortunately, this stronger performance did not translate to stronger interest to pursue engineering. While an almost equal number of girls (82%) and boys (81%) agreed they enjoyed learning the engineering skills, girls’ interest in pursuing engineering careers was 23% lower than boys. It is disappointing to see that girls’ strong skill and enjoyment levels did not translate to interest in pursuing engineering careers. If this can’t be addressed, the workforce is missing out on top talent.
However, the data did offer a glimmer of hope – if girls completed a Career Quest featuring a female role model, their interest level increased by 16%. This indicates that it is critical to expose students, especially girls, to career literacy featuring diverse STEM role models. And the data supports the importance of initiatives, such as Engineers Week, in boosting students’ knowledge of engineering careers.
If you would like to learn more about our engineering data or Challenges, please reach out via email (info@couragion.com).
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1660021. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.