Investigating career aspirations of high school students towards stem fields: Interests, perceptions and attitudes

This study aims to investigate the career choices of tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade students in regard to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), the factors influencing these choices, students' interests, perceptions and attitudes toward the STEM fields, and high school teachers' opinions on STEM integration. Additional aims were to positively influence individuals' interests, perceptions and attitudes toward this field and to examine the effects of the activities that are expected to form a basis for the future studies. The population of this survey research; a screening model, consisted of high school students in İzmir and Siirt, Turkey. The sample included 1656 high school students (571 tenth graders, 575 eleventh graders, 542 twelfth graders) studying at different high schools (science high school, Anatolian high school, religious vocational high school and Anatolian vocational high school) in İzmir, Turkey and 64 high school students studying in the tenth and eleventh grades of an Anatolian high school in Siirt. Turkey. The data collection in the study was designed and formed according to the convergent parallel design, a mixed methods design. Quantitative data were collected using the STEM Career Interest Survey, STEM Attitude Test and STEM Perception Test Scale. Students' career choices and ideas on their careers and teachers' ideas on STEM integration, which were the qualitative data of this study, were collected through the questions of semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistical analyses, t tests and content analysis were performed on the obtained data. The obtained results from the analyses indicated that high school students' career choices regarding STEM fields were significantly effected by the type of schools, their genders and the level of their classes. In addition, participants' career choices were significantly effected by social factors along with socio-economic factors. However, the results indicated that high school teachers have not adequate knowledge about the STEM integration. Considering the results, conducting studies on how to effectively guide high school students in determining their career choices regarding STEM fields may providable contributions to the literature. Keywords: STEM, career choice, interest, perception, attitude, high school students.