UTILIZING THE STEM-CIS INSTRUMENT TO EVALUATE THE REALITY OF STEM CAREER INTERESTS OF 10TH AND 11TH-GRADE STUDENTS OF SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

Abstract

One of the major priorities of many nations worldwide is to train STEM human resources to fulfill the demands of the 21st century. Given the potential scarcity of Vietnam’s STEM workforce, it is vital to ascertain students’ present STEM career interests to assist them immediately in making a STEM career decision. Therefore, the research used the STEM Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS) instrument to describe the overall picture of STEM career interest through six social cognitive career theory (SCCT) aspects. The results processed using R software with the sample of 909 students of 10th and 11th grade studying the 2018 general education curriculum at five high schools in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) show the relatively high average values of SCCT aspects in STEM careers of participants, in which the technology field is the highest, the engineering field is the lowest, and the interest between STEM fields correlates with each other. Furthermore, gender differences in STEM-CIS for each field and SCCT aspects are statistically significant, while grade levels are not. These findings will contribute to orienting the implementation of relevant educational activities in general or STEM educational activities in particular at high schools to promote STEM career pathways for Vietnamese students.