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Abstract

To explore young adolescents’ interest in engineering as a future career, we examined the influence of gender and grade level on participants’ (N = 197, aged 10–13) views of engineering. One group (107 students) viewed a brief engineering video and wrote why they felt the same or different about engineering following the video. Qualitative analyses revealed that some reported viewing engineering differently and more positively, although most did not want to be an engineer. Girls, more than boys, noted that engineers helped people. Six months after the video intervention, participants completed quantitative measures about engineering. Quantitative analyses comparing responses of participants who had seen the video, with those who had not, revealed that the video dispelled some stereotyped beliefs, but not others, with grade-level and gender effects. The findings highlight the importance of listening to adolescents’ views about engineering as a field and as a future career.

Keywords

career interests/structure of interest research content areas career-related self-efficacy lifespan/development theories career theories children/youth sample populations

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What Young Adolescents Think About Engineering

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