Can a Brief Online Intervention Raise Adolescents’ STEM Expectancy and Values? A Four-Arm Randomized Trial of Goal Setting and Role Modeling
1 Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University · 2 School of Education, Deakin University · 3 Department of Education, Korea University · 4 Department of Human Development, Teachers College, Columbia University
A brief, structured goal-setting activity raised students’ confidence in and interest in STEM right after the session. Watching videos of women STEM role models did not produce a clear benefit, and combining the two in one session added nothing extra.
Students’ confidence in and valuing of science and maths tend to decline through secondary school, just before Australian students confirm their senior subject choices in Year 10. Brief psychosocial interventions can shift motivation, but most trials target a single subject, test a whole package rather than its parts, and randomize whole classrooms.
This study tested two widely used approaches separately and together, each against an active control, with students randomized individually within their classes:
Planned contrasts against the active control, gender and school-location moderation, and what the results mean for schools.
Read the findings → MethodsThe four conditions, what students did in each, how the session ran, the STEMGuide chatbot, and the motivation survey.
See the design → PartnersThe six Victorian schools that made the trial possible, what taking part involved, and how to join future studies.
Meet the schools → Open scienceThe preprint and supplement, the session protocols, the chatbot configuration and the motivation survey, free to download and reuse.
Get the files →