Science – Technology – Engineering Aspirations of Students in Relation to their Participation in Science Activities, Status of Science Laboratories and Science Classroom Behavior

STEM is an uprising and most sought after area which holds pertinence for the newer generations, this creates a good opportunity to assess science aspirations among students and understand the factors responsible for its evolution. But after developing an understanding from the previous literature it was found that not much focus has been given to understand science aspirations in light of the practical implementation of scientific principles by the students such as opportunities of inquiry with engagement in science-related activities or experimentation. Therefore, the given study focuses on students’ science, technology, and engineering aspirations in relation to their participation in science activities, science laboratory environment (infrastructure and access) and science classroom behavior of students. Participation of students in science activities was studied under four different categories of in school/ out of school and structured/unstructured activities, wherein students were found to engage more with out of school and unstructured activities. Science laboratory environment depicted a poor picture with laboratories highly lacking in terms of infrastructure, accessibility to laboratories was also limited as around 62% of students had never visited science laboratories while others had never participated in the practical performance of experiments. Participation in science activities reflects a positive relationship with aspirations which therefore implicates towards more involvement of students with in school science activities as compared to out of school, especially in rural areas. Also, school administration needs to work more towards the organization of structured science activities for students. In terms of science classroom behavior it seems to build upon that students reflecting highly efficacious classroom behavior do not guarantee long term participation in science hence teachers should use other assessment procedures to judge students value for science.

Keywords – STE aspirations, Participation in science activities, science laboratory environment, science classroom behavior