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Considerable progress has been recently made in increasing enrolment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) study programs. High drop-out rates in STEM programs, however, tend to undermine the beneficial effects of all current attempts to increase student enrolment in these programs. The European readySTEMgo project aims at reducing these high dropout rates in STEM programs. More specifically, the main goals of the project are threefold. The first target is to identify all key predictors of study success (i.e., key STEM skills) in the first year of university. Second, by means of existing instruments, a diagnostic test will be developed to identify students at risk of dropping out. Third, the project aims at constructing an effective intervention tool in order to support those students at risk. Ultimately, the outcomes of the readySTEMgo project could directly target Grade 12 students who are struggling with the upcoming choice of a study program by identifying and remediating students with an increased propensity to dropout in the subsequent year. As such, this tool will enable secondary school students, teachers and guidance counselors to tackle potential problems before the onset of students? university career. The majority of studies investigating dropout in STEM programs and predictors of study success in the first year have been conducted in the US and the readySTEMgo project aims at filling this gap by implementing a large-scale transnational study in Europe. More specifically, the project will be carried out by six university institutions in different parts of Europe (Hamburg University of Technology [Germany]; University of Zilina [Slovakia] ; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven [Belgium]; Budapest University of Technology and Economics [Hungary] ; Aalto University [Finland]; and University of Birmingham [UK] ). As a theoretical basis, we endorse the operational definition of college readiness by Conley [1]. Conly discriminates between four key dimensions: (1) Key cognitive strategies (e.g., inquisitiveness ? problem solving); (2) Academic knowledge and skills (writing ? research ? core academic subject knowledge); (3) Key academic behaviors (metacognitive self-monitoring ? mastery of study skills); and (4) Contextual skills and awareness (university as a culture). To date, a large number of studies have successfully identified potential predictors of study success although it should be noted that the list is long and that there is little agreement on the key predictors. It is commonly accepted that a strong prior curriculum, high prior achievement and positive academic self-efficacy beliefs are among the main predictors of successful completion of the first year. In this SEFI presentation, an overview will be presented of the entry requirements for entering a STEM study program and the most recent dropout rates in the participating countries. Based on Conley?s framework, the predictive role of the following variables will be discussed in greater detail: prior curriculum & achievement, academic skills (academic language skills, scientific reasoning) motivational factors (self-efficacy beliefs, goal orientation, goal commitment & intrinsic motivation), self-regulatory learning strategies (time management, effort regulation), and student approaches to learning (deep vs surface). In this respect, special emphasis will be placed on first generation students (i.e., students where neither parent graduated from university) and the academic challenges that these students might experience [2]. Finally, a longitudinal research plan will be presented in order to quantitatively investigate first year drop-out. ispartof: pages:1-8 ispartof: Proceedings of the 43rd Annual SEFI Conference pages:1-8 ispartof: Annual Conference of European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) location:Orléans, France date:1 Jul - 3 Jul 2015 status: published |
