Early Academic achievement
Previous research pointed out that gender is an important variable to be taken into account to better understand differences in student achievement in first-year higher education in general, [7], [33], [34] and in STEM programs in particular [33] and this study provides further insights. The person-oriented research perspective allowed us to focus on academic achievement differences between the various motivational profiles within both gender groups.
For male students, different early achievement outcomes were associated with the different motivational profiles, after controlling for prior achievement and prior study track. Male students with high levels on both motivational dimensions had a significantly better achievement compared to male students with low levels on both dimensions. These findings matched the expectations about the explanatory value of academic self-concept and autonomous motivation regarding academic achievement [9], [21], [30], but have now also been found within specific student groups characterized by both motivational characteristics. Moreover, when the mean levels of academic self-concept in the male clusters are taken into account, it seems that academic self-concept is more important for academic achievement than autonomous motivation. In the preparatory steps of this study, we also found stronger correlations between academic self-concept and achievement than between autonomous motivation and achievement. Marsh et al. [40] had similar observations and demonstrated that prior academic self-concept predicts subsequent academic achievement, beyond what can be explained in terms of academic interest.
Contrary to the expectations, female STEM student's motivational factors were not found consistently related with prior high school results, nor with early academic achievement after controlling for prior achievement and prior study track.
The absence of a significant correlation between prior high school result and academic self-concept for female students might be related to the particular context of female students in transition from secondary school to university STEM programs. Most self-concept studies have studied the relation between achievement and self-concept in longitudinal studies in primary or secondary education, in order to elucidate the causal relation between both variables (self-enhancement model, skill development model, reciprocal effects model, see [27]) and possible developmental effects. In such longitudinal studies, pupils are studied while they progress from one grade to another, but they remain in the same school and education type. In this context, a closer association between achievement and self-concept can be expected, although this is not always the case and gender differences have been described: a five wave-longitudinal research in Belgian secondary education found no evidence for self-enhancement or reciprocal effects model for female students [49]. When students go through transitions between different education types (eg. from secondary to higher education), it can be expected that associations between prior achievement in secondary education, and self-concept at the start of university might weaken. Such a transition requires adolescents to adjust to a new environment with challenging demands, and might result in feelings of uncertainty and a declined self-concept, especially for female students [34]. It can be expected that the absence of central exams or an admission procedure, as is the case in Belgian higher education, might increase uncertainty for some student groups who already have a lower self-concept, such as female students. Taking into account the context of the study, the observed absence of correlation between prior achievement and self-concept of female students underlines the necessity for more detailed investigations about the evolution in motivational variables during transition, taking into account gender and context characteristics. Especially in the contexts of STEM education on higher education level further research is needed.
Also the absence of a significant association between autonomous motivation and subsequent early academic achievement for female students is intriguing. A possible explanation might be related to the minority status of female students in STEM university programs. This might lead to stereotype threat [50], increased pressure and thus also to higher levels of controlled motivation that would possibly counteract the beneficial effects of autonomous motivation. However, the absence of differences in controlled motivation between male and female students does not point towards a negative effect of controlled motivation on autonomous motivation. Another possibility is that stereotype threat experienced during the semester could cause a more rapid decline in autonomous motivation levels of female students. In this study, motivation was measured at one time point only, the very beginning of the academic year, so we can not speculate on changes in motivation levels during the semester. Although a longitudinal study on the effects of stereotype threat experienced by female college students in biology and biochemistry courses did not show an effect of prior stereotype endorsement on subsequent autonomous motivation [51], more longitudinal research is needed to investigate possible context effects on shifts in motivation and academic self-concept levels of college STEM students, also in more ‘masculine’ courses like physics, mathematics and engineering.
Another explanation may be that more subtle gender differences must be taken into account, such as social desirability bias affecting female reporting behavior. Although in ethics research, it was shown that this bias confounded observed gender differences [52], to our knowledge, no gender sensitive models of student motivation have been developed within existing SDT research or research on academic self-concept. This facet might be important to explore in future motivation studies in STEM education.
Most of motivational research has focused on primary and secondary education students, while the few studies on higher education students were mostly in gender balanced or female dominated study programs such as educational or psychological sciences. It is possible that the female students in STEM have higher levels of motivation compared to female students in non-STEM, since they made a gender-atypical study choice. It might be possible that the absence of a significant effect might be due to ceiling effects, but this has to be further examined in additional studies with increased levels of sample size for male and female students.
Another optional explanation might be related to the fact that our study took place in Belgium, on STEM students during the transition to university. The Belgian context is particular since entry to almost all university programs (including STEM programs) is free to all K12 students leaving secondary education. However, the variance between school levels, study tracks and individual students is high, and there is no central exam at the end of secondary education. Although most incoming students are aware that STEM programs require prior mathematics knowledge, they have no objective information on whether their individual mathematical knowledge and skills are sufficient to start a STEM program, and they are not able to gauge how “good” they are compared to other STEM students. Thus, also the BFLPE [48] might influence the experience of incoming (female) students during transition, and this particular context might cause a greater variation in motivational variables, and result in a decreased association with achievement for particular students.
The fact that real grades and not standardized tests were used as achievement indicators might also contribute to the observed small (for male) and absent (for female) association between motivation and achievement: it has been suggested [53] that high stakes school grades also reflect motivational properties, in contrast to low stakes standardized tests. Thus, it is possible that this effect is greater for female students due to their higher motivation levels, and that the absence of significant effects of motivational constructs for female students, after controlling for prior school grades, is related to the use of this achievement indicator.
The above mentioned possible explanations are all hypotheses that must be further examined in future research. It does show, however, that the interplay between motivation, gender and cognitive variables in STEM programs, is complex and should also take into account other contextual variables.