How is the choice of a STEM profession going?



In the article, the author explores the process of choosing a occupation in STEM in Kazakhstan.

Keywords: STEM, education, students, occupations, teaching.

Under the influence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution [1], choosing a STEM profession is crucial for human development. STEM [2] encompasses Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Instead of teaching each subject individually, teachers integrate STEM into projects. The two main goals are to increase STEM literacy and participation.

STEM has two additional routes: STEAM (adding Arts) and STREAM (adding Reading/Writing). STEAM enhances creativity with artistic elements in STEM projects. STREAM includes language literacy in addition to STEM and STEAM aspects.

At the core of STEAM and STREAM are STEM principles, focusing on practical problem-solving, logic, and reasoning skills. STEM is a broader concept used in selecting future specialists, primarily associated with engineering, scientific fields, IT, and mathematics.

Kazakhstan's President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, emphasized the shift towards technical specialties, stating a need for a new generation of industrial engineers. This reflects a growing demand for STEM specialties in Kazakhstan.

Analyzing government projects and reforms will determine Kazakhstan's future in STEM. This research focuses on choosing a STEM specialty amidst these developments.

The following topics will be disclosed in the research work:

1. What aspects of the system are stimulated since the initial knowledge to choose the STEM direction, what work is being carried out.
2. What is the level of interest of children.
3. How to increase the choice of a specialty in the STEM direction of students.

Literature Review

Since 1990, STEM specialty choice in the United States has risen by 79 %, from 9.7 million to 17.3 million people [6]. In the European Union, total employment increased by 8 %, with a 34 % rise in STEM jobs [7]. Worldwide, the demand and interest in STEM specialties among young professionals are growing.

Two notable trends in recent years include [8]:

– Growing student interest in real technologies and IT, leading to increased choices in professions related to technology.

– Application of the concept of “diversity” to STEM education, emphasizing equal representation among students in terms of gender and race.

Due to historical imbalances, initiatives like the Elevate Women in Technology Scholarship, MPOWER Women in STEM Scholarship, Air Products Women in Gases and Welding Scholarships, and Black Students in STEM Scholarship aim to support diversity in STEM.

The educational influence in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) stems from the USSR, emphasizing mass education, general education strength, and a focus on Natural Science and technical sciences [10]. However, CIS countries face challenges due to economic downturns, resulting in low material supply in schools and a diminished hands-on experience, affecting interest in STEM.

Considering these aspects, key observations include the shift of STEM towards technology, support for diversity in education, the USSR's emphasis on technical knowledge, and the current state of study in modern CIS countries, reflecting remnants from the USSR era. The intention is to explore these topics further in a research paper for intra-school junior research work.

Methodology

The main objectives of this research work are:

— What aspects of the system stimulate the choice of STEM direction since the initial education, what work is being carried out

— What is the level of interest of children

— How to increase the choice of a specialty in the STEM direction of students

Based on these objectives, it is necessary to collect information from students and teachers, find answers to the following specific points:

— What is the teaching methodology of the STEM direction in the world as a whole

— Are there any individual characteristics of Kazakhstan (How is education carried out in schools)

— What is the education of children in STEM?

— What is the interest of children in STEM?

— How to improve education in the STEM area.

All these questions will be used double deductive and inductive methods. Students, teachers, and professors involved in the learning process are asked questions in various ways, and conclusions are drawn from the combination of thoughts from their personal experience.

Interview

Experts with high experience in this field, i.e. teachers and career guidance specialists, will be recruited. Their personal thoughts and professional experience, through an inductive approach, will help to come to a general conclusion. The above mentioned:

— “What is the teaching methodology of the STEM direction in the world as a whole»

— “Are there any individual characteristics of Kazakhstan”

— “What is the interest of children in STEM?”

— «How to improve education in the STEM direction”

To analyze the topics, experts are asked the following questions:

1. How would you describe the term STEM?
2. Is STEM methodology important for education?
3. How is the general introduction of the STEM method carried out? Are there any peculiarities in the practice of Kazakhstan?
4. How advanced is STEM practice?
5. What is the interest of students in STEM? Are there often students who are trying to choose a specialty in STEM?
6. How to increase interest in STEM?

Survey

The survey will be conducted on the Google Forms platform among students of the Ust-Kamenogorsk School of Chemistry and biology of the Nazarbayev Intellectual school (NIS Oskemen). The questionnaire is sent to schoolchildren through social networks. Students use their smartphones and computers to respond. By analyzing the individual attitudes and experiences of schoolchildren, it is possible to discover the approach to STEM learning. Thanks to the use of questionnaires, it is possible to obtain information from 50–60 schoolchildren in a convenient and effective way for Future Analysis. Thanks to the student survey, students can analyze the STEM methodology at NIS Oskemen school and provide the necessary information for Future Analysis. The survey questions cover the following topics:

– What aspects of the system are stimulated since the initial education to choose the STEM direction, what work is being carried out;

– What is the level of interest of children;

– How to increase the choice of a specialty in the STEM direction of schoolchildren.

For this reason, the questionnaire will consist of the following form:

— What class are you in?

— Are you familiar with the term STEM?

— How would you describe it if you were familiar? You can select several definitions from this list.

— How much do you think our country has developed STEM education and specialties?

— Why do you think so?

— How would you assess the development of the STEM learning approach in your school?

— Why do you think so?

— How would you rate your interest with STEM direction?

— Would you choose a profession in the STEM direction in the future?

Interview restrictions

The main thing is that the interviewees provide too subjective information that cannot be used for analysis in the future.

Survey restrictions

The main limitations of the conducted survey will depend on its selection group, which are: the inability of schoolchildren to honestly answer questions, the inability of schoolchildren to fully express their feelings and thoughts in the format of a question-answer, range.

Results

Survey

A survey of NIS Oskemen students was sent through social networks, the total number of students who answered was 52. Survey:

– What aspects of the system are stimulated since the initial education to choose the STEM direction, what work is being carried out;

– What is the level of interest of children;

– How to increase the choice of a specialty in the STEM direction of schoolchildren.

There were 9 types of questions, they are: Multiple choice, Checkbox, Linear scale, and textual answer. These types of questions can be divided into two: closed-ended question — first three; open-ended question — last.

On the issues of Table 1, it will be discussed, its type and answers to these questions. Table 2 was created to reflect the unanswered answers to 3 questions in Table 1. from specific types of 5 and 7 questions, which were in Table 3.

Close-ended questions will be discussed first, and open-ended will be afterwards.

Table 1

№	Question	Question type	Scales	Num of individual responses	Percentage
1	What class are you in?	Multiple Choice	7–8	8	15.4 %
			9–10	19	36.5 %
			11–12	24	46.2 %
			I am not a student	1	1.9 %
			Total	52
2	Are you familiar with the term STEM?	Multiple Choice	Yes	24	46.2 %
			No	22	42.3 %
			Hard to say	6	11.5 %
			Total	52
3	How would you describe it if you were familiar? You can select several definitions from this list	Checkboxes	Choice 1	18	23.7 %
			Choice 2	20	26.3 %
			Choice 3	27	35.5 %
			Other	11	14.5 %
			Total	76
4	How much do you think our country has developed STEM education and specialties?	Linear Scale	1	4	7.7 %
			2	9	17.3 %
			3	25	48.1 %
			4	13	25 %
			5	1	1.9 %
			Total	52
5	Why do you think so?	Textual Answer	Answers will be shown after
6	How would you assess the development of the STEM learning approach in your school?	Linear Scale	1	1	1.9 %
			2	3	5.8 %
			3	10	19.2 %
			4	24	46.2 %
			5	14	26.9 %
			Total	52
7	Why do you think so?	Textual Answer	Answers will be shown after
8	How would you rate your interest with STEM direction?	Linear Scale	1	7	13.5 %
			2	2	3.8 %
			3	14	26.9 %
			4	12	23.1 %
			5	17	32.7 %
			Total	52
9	Would you choose a profession in the STEM direction in the future?	Multiple Choice	Yes	25	48.1 %
			No	9	17.3 %
			Hard to say	18	34.6 %
			Total	52

Table 2

Question	Choice	Choice meaning
How would you describe it if you were familiar? You can select several definitions from this list	Choice 1	STEM as a view of the world: an approach that emphasizes problem solving, interest and innovation by combining different principles to solve the problems of the world.
	Choice 2	Professions that include scientific research, technological development, engineering design and mathematical analysis.
	Choice 3	An abbreviation that stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, covers interdisciplinary fields focused on problem solving and innovation.
	Other	Other choice, students could write by themselves.

Question 1 spread the students about the class in which they study, the fourth option was the answer to the school class NIS Oskemen, to: “7–8”, “9–10”, “11–12” and for imposters, the answer is " I'm not a student». Thus, the highest category for question 1 was “11–12” class with a result of 24 points, which is 46.2 %. Next, there were the categories of “9–10” and “7–8” with the results of 19 and 8, respectively. Only one person has chosen the category “not a student”.

Question 2 spread about the familiarity of students with the term STEM tremors with answers: “Yes”, “No”, and “Hard to say”. The greatest number of answers were for the “Yes” category, with the total of 24, which is 46.2 %. Other two categories of “No” and “Hard to say” had 22 and 6, respectively. Moreover, the combination of these two categories would have the significantly higher share of the question.

3-question had 4 optional choices, which meant students could combine these choices. there were three written answers and “Other” option, which meant students could write their own answer. Students who chose the “Other” option had the lowest share in comparison with others, only 11 responses, and every of them wrote “Don’t know” type of answer. The highest share was for the Choice 3, with 27. Choice 2 and Choice 1 reached 20 and 18, respectively.

4-question was a linear scale question, which meant students could choose between 1 and 5 to show their position regarding the question, 1 was the lowest and 5 was the highest. In question the opinion of students about the Development of STEM Education and Occupancies was asked. The highest number of students responses the “3” point, which is the middle of scale, with the total of 25. Points of “4”, “2”, “1” had 14, 3, 1 chooses, accordingly. Only 1 student chose the 5-point as the answer. Generally, the proportion of students’ responses is higher than the proportion of students responses less 3, still the highest was for 3.

6-question had a similar linear scale to choose and was asking about STEM Education in particularly NIS Oskemen were the most students studied. The highest number of responses was for the 4-point with 24 total. Next, 5, 3, 2 points had 14, 10, 3 responses, respectively. The lowest number was for 1-point with only 1.

8-question had the similar linear scale to choose and was asking about students’ interest in STEM. The highest share was for the 5-point, with overall of 17. 3-point were slightly lower in percent with 14, which is 26.9 %. Next, there were 4-, 1-, 2-points with the 12, 7, and 2 chooses, respectively.

9-question was multiple choice question, with three options to choose “Yes”, “No”, and “Hard to say”. The highest share of students was for the “Yes” option with an overall of 25. In comparison, the lowest was for “No” option with 9 responses. “Hard to say” option had 18 responses.

Table 3

Question	Choice	Num of individual responses	Percentage
Why do you think so? Answer to “How would you assess the development of the STEM learning approach in your school?”	The development of IT is great in Kazakhstan	3	5.8 %
	The education system is developing	14	26.9 %
	The education system is well-developed	8	15.4 %
	Term STEM is not popular	2	3.8 %
	Government does not care about us	1	1.9 %
	We are lagging behind other countries	2	1.9 %
	Term STEM is not popular	7	13.5 %
	Useless answers	15	28.8 %
	Total	52
Why do you think so? Answer to “How would you assess the development of the STEM learning approach in your school?	Пәнаралық байланыс бар	15	28.3 %
	Мұғалімдердің бағдар беруі	10	18.9 %
	Жеке жасалатын зертханалық жұмыстар	6	11.3 %
	Әлі дамыту қажет	6	11.3 %
	Мұғалімдер балалардың қызығушылығын арттыра алмайды/проектілерге жеткізбейді	2	3.8 %
	Мұғалімдер керемет,	4	7.6 %
	Оқушылардың қызығушылығы бар	1	1.9 %
	Қызығушылықты арттыру үшін лабораториялар, қажетті құрал жабдықтар бар	5	9.4 %
	Мектепте еркіндік бар	2	3.8 %
	Термин танымал емес	1	1.9 %
	Бесполезный ответ	19	35.9 %
	Total	53

5-question was aimed to reveal students’ opinion for their answer on 4-question. It was an open-ended question, so every participant could write their own ideas in their own words. Therefore, it was necessary to divide into specific topics in student responses. There are several major topics: “The development of IT is great in Kazakhstan”, “The education system is developing”, “The education system is well-developed”, “Term STEM is not popular”, and there were “Useless answers”, where students skipped explanation or did not have a structured and accurate answer. The highest share was for the “Useless answers” with overall of 15. The next share was for the “The education system is developing” with 14 responses, which is 26.9 %. “The education system is well-developed” and “Term STEM is not popular” had 8 and 7 responses, accordingly. The least major topic is “The development of IT is great in Kazakhstan” with 3 responses. There were other minor topics, such as “Government does not care about us”, “There are more scholarships to study STEM”, and “We are lagging behind other countries”. All of them had only 1–2 responses each.

7-question was aimed to reveal students’ opinion for their answer on 6-question. It was like 5-question and had similar properties. One response had two topics at once, so the total number responses is 53. There are several major topics: “Interdisciplinary communication”, “Teachers only show a way to learn”, “Independent laboratory works”, “Still need to develop”, “There are some facilities for laboratory works”, and similar to 5-question the “Useless answers”. Like the 5-question, the “Useless answers” had the highest share of 19 responses. Next, “Interdisciplinary communication” and “Teachers only show a way to learn” had shown the next positions in share with 15 and 10, respectively. “Independent laboratory works” and “Still need to develop” topics had similar 6 responses each, and “There are some facilities for laboratory works” had 5 responses. There were some minor topics with each less than 5 responses each, such as: “Teachers will not be able to increase the interest of children/convey to projects”, “Teachers are great”, “Students have interest in it”, “Independence in the school”, “Term STEM is not popular”.

Interview

The interview was designed to cover next main topics:

— “Жалпы әлем бойынша STEM бағытының оқыту методикасы қандай”

— “Қазақстанның жеке ерекшеліктері бар ма”

— “Балалардың STEM бойынша қызығушылығы қандай?”

— “STEM бағыты бойынша білім беруді қалай жақсартуға болады”

The responses of three interviewee, who will be called Expert 1, Expert 2, and Expert 3, will be analyzed qualitively, therefore only open-ended questions were used. Questions are shown in Methods. Expert 1 works as career counsellor in commercial organization, other two Experts work in NIS Oskemen as teachers and both of them have a considerable amount of participation in STEM Based Olympiads and competitions.

For the 1-question “How would you describe the term STEM?”, the Expert 1 described STEM as mostly the technical occupations, especially and less Education process or system, where physics and math are applied. Moreover, he mentioned the modern generation of STEM, the STEAM, which has “A” in it, meaning the Arts section. Both Experts 2 and 3 mentioned that STEM is the combination in between Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math: “The term STEM it originated from the union at the junction of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics”.

For the 2-question, “Is STEM methodology important for education?”, the Expert 1 mentioned the future need for technical occupations and the widespread Consumerism [11] type of economic relationship in the country: “This Is What Tokayev said, said by the Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayat Nurbek, our technical direction is falling, we are basically consumers”. While Expert 2 mentions the Problem-Based Learning, which is necessary in consideration of STEM and “small steps to reach the goal”(”PBL, how to solve the problems that students face on a daily basis.”), Expert 3 mentions the necessity of critical thinking and possibility to use children’s ideas in factories and workshops(”Even when they are small, in elementary grades they already give useful ideas for implementation in production.”)

For the 3-question, “How STEM is educated generally? Does Kazakhstan have specify?”, Expert 1 mentioned advanced placement of private or intellectual schools, such as NIS Oskemen in comparison with ordinary schools. According to the Expert 1, ordinary schools mostly have primitive STEM education system. “STEM is carried out only in special schools. At the rest, the STEM direction is called wrongly, and in the end they work with books, in primitive laboratories.” As both of the Experts work in NIS Oskemen, they have different experience in comparison with ordinary teachers, which they mentioned. According to Expert 2, there are some programs to study STEM sponsored by private corporations in Kazakhstan. As for the Expert 3, in China there is the program of integration factories and workshops with schools, were formers can take ideas from latter to increase efficiency. Moreover, there is huge growth of STEM in Kazakhstan, particularly robotics.

For the 4-question, only Expert 1 has negative approach to the development of STEM, while Expert 2 and 3 said that STEM field has consistent growth in Kazakhstan and small flaws at the beginning can be neglected.

For the 5-question, “What is the interest of students in STEM? Are there many students choosing STEM?”, Expert 1 mentioned the low interest of students to STEM, as most of the students does not know the term. Moreover, according to the Expert 1, the only way government encourage students to choose STEM occupations for bachelor degree is giving very large number of scholarships. According to the Expert 2, there is the great start of Robotics and IT in Kazakhstan with leading positions in competitions in coming. As for the Expert 3, the increasing interest of students in sub-categories, such as Biology-Physics or Biology-Informatics was mentioned.

For the 6-question, “How to increase interest in STEM?”, Expert-1 mentioned the need for extra budget money for Robotics and other similar elective courses; more advertisement of STEM among teachers, so they would know about such field and encourage their students to participate in; and the fact that most students does not know about the STEM, therefore chooses business, medicine or arts majors. According to the Expert 2, STEM can be taught from a very young age(kindergarten) and be shown in solving small everyday problems. As for Expert 3, the learning process can be more integrated to everyday life and more project based, therefore students would be more interested in learning.

Conclusion

There came several conclusions from this research. They will be shown numerically. Firstly, STEM is necessary in modern education system, as it conveys to today’s issues and tries to solve them.

Secondly, every place has its STEM features. Private schools cannot be compared to community schools. However, the trend is that private schools have more facilities in laboratories, better faculty quality, and the greatest number of students in various competitions (For example, STEM Competitions) in comparison with community schools. Community schools are believed to be less attractive to learn STEM, as they lack facilities for laboratories, good quality faculty to teach and entertaining education process; all of which would help the interest in STEM for students.

Thirdly, there are several major reasons for students to choose STEM occupations: the accessibility of STEM careers, as there is huge number of scholarships for phys-math category occupations; The considerable development of IT and Robotics, both of which are very popular in media and considered to become the most significant part of the STEM; their personal interest arising from competitions and projects from school period, students would be interested in the things they did in school.

Fourthly, the interest of students in STEM can be described as considerably good, which means the number of students interested in STEM is significantly higher than the number of students does not interested in STEM.

Fifth, there were several suggestions to increase the interest of students in STEM: lowering the age of starting learning STEM to kindergarten level; making the education process more project/problem based; and involving higher number of everyday problems or everyday pop-culture in learning process.

References:

1. https://techcultac.pages.dev/posts/what-is-industry-4–0-the-world-s-fourth-industrial-revolution-explained/
2. https://www.niche.com/blog/stem-vs-steam-vs-stream
3. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/what-is-stem-education/
4. https://blog.prepscholar.com/stem-careers
5. https://kaz.tengrinews.kz/kazakhstan_news/tokaev-tehnikalyik-mamandyiktarga-basyimdyik-beru-kerek-332140/
6. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/01/09/diversity-in-the-stem-workforce-varies-widely-across-jobs/#:~:text=Since %201990 %2C %20STEM %20employment %20has,occupational %20clusters %20and %20educational %20levels
7. https://medium.com/@OECD/the-growing-need-for-developing-the-right-stem-skills-97fd8417d81b
8. https://primeonlineclass.medium.com/the-trends-and-innovations-of-stem-education-in-the-21st-century-ce9b5939c7b1
9. https://www.idtech.com/blog/stem-education-statistics
10. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/shkolnoe-estestvennonauchnoe-obrazovanie-v-sssr-i-rossiyskoy-federatsii-istoriya-tendentsii-i-problemy-modernizatsii/viewer
11. https://medium.com/@All_About_That_Money/what-is-consumerism-understanding-the-impact-of-consumer-culture-all-about-that-money-3e55b631b2d3