Home⇛International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research⇛vol. 6 no. 11 (2025)

Students’ Attitude Toward Science and Interest in STEM Careers

Ronald C. Dumapias

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are con-sidered important areas in today’s society. However, it can be ob-served that fewer STEM graduates enter the workforce and contrib-ute to the nation’s progress. This can be attributed to students' lack of interest in pursuing STEM careers. One factor influencing the in-terest in STEM is the students' attitude toward their science sub-jects. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between attitudes toward science and students’ interest in careers related to STEM. Further, this research investigated which aspect of attitudes toward science can significantly predict the level of inter-est in pursuing STEM. An online survey was conducted on 243 grade 9 students of Pasig City Science High School to gather data regarding their attitudes toward science and their interest in STEM careers. The survey results were analyzed using the Pearson correlation co-efficient and multiple regression analysis. Results revealed a mod-erate positive relationship between the students’ attitude toward science and their interest in STEM careers (r = .54, p < .001). Mean-while, multiple regression analysis disclosed that the aspects of at-titudes toward science, namely the students’ interest in science, their value for science, and their confidence in science, can predict their interest in STEM (F(3,239)=85.43, p < .001, R2 = .52), explain-ing 52% of the variance. However, among these aspects, the stu-dents’ value for science is the most predictive and was the only sig-nificant predictor (B = .65, p < .001). Hence, it is essential to foster interest and a positive attitude towards science among junior high school students, enabling them to develop a passion for pursuing a STEM career.



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