Career Assessment and Counseling for STEM: A Critical Review
- 7 March 2018
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Wiley in The Career Development Quarterly
- Vol. 66 (1) , 2-34
Abstract
Career counselors must continually enhance their knowledge and skills to assist clients contemplating careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Therefore, the authors review STEM disciplines and theory‐driven strategies for assisting diverse individuals to explore, enter, and persist in STEM careers. Appropriate use of career assessments can contribute greatly to this effort. To identify available measures for STEM‐focused domains and constructs, the authors conducted a journal content analysis of stand‐alone STEM‐related career assessments from 1983 to 2016, identifying 39 articles with 153 measures. Notable results included the emergence of social cognitive theory and social cognitive career theory as prevailing frameworks for instrument development, a wide variety of disciplines and journals represented, an underrepresentation of minority samples, and untapped potential for cross‐discipline and researcher–practitioner collaboration. Useful strategies and resources for counselors and recommendations for enhancing career assessments and interventions are addressed.Keywords
This publication has 60 references indexed in Scilit:
- Research skills and STEM undergraduate research students' aspirations for research careers: Mediating effects of research self‐efficacyJournal of Research in Science Teaching, 2013
- The effects of an academic environment intervention on science identification among women in STEMSocial Psychology of Education, 2013
- Not Lack of Ability but More ChoicePsychological Science, 2013
- Self-concept of computer and math ability: Gender implications across time and within ICT studiesJournal of Vocational Behavior, 2012
- Utilizing occupational complexity levels in vocational interest assessments: Assessing interests for STEM areasJournal of Vocational Behavior, 2012
- Extending the 2 × 2 Achievement Goal Framework: Development of a Measure of Scientific Achievement GoalsJournal of Career Assessment, 2010
- Influence of social cognitive and ethnic variables on academic goals of underrepresented students in science and engineering: A multiple-groups analysis.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2010
- Development of Mathematics Interest in Adolescence: Influences of Gender, Family, and School ContextJournal of Research on Adolescence, 2010
- Social Cognitive Predictors of Academic Interests and Goals in Engineering: Utility for Women and Students at Historically Black Universities.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2005
- Learning in a Man's World: Examining the Perceptions of Undergraduate Women in Male-Dominated Academic AreasPsychology of Women Quarterly, 2002