Indonesian Students’ STEM Career Motivation: A Study Focused on Gender and Academic Level

The STEM field is facing challenges related to uncertainties about the required number and composition of this skilled workforce. Measuring STEM career motivation of students at an early grade is crucial to improving the quality of science learning and engaging more students in STEM fields. This study focuses on the gender and academic level issues related to STEM career motivation. A total of 1583 elementary and middle school students participated to investigate four research questions: (1) Is the STEM-CM instrument generalizable across the group with a different gender? (2) Do gender and academic level impact on students’ STEM career motivation? This study reveals two DIF related gender on STEM-CM. Additionally, students’ motivation to pursue a career in STEM decline significantly from elementary to middle school. The factors that influence students’ motivation on STEM career is discussed.