In recent years the decline in the number of chemistry students in the level of undergraduate and graduate education in universities in our country and in the word is becoming a problem resulting an ongoing acute shortage of scientifically qualified, skilled people in the workforce. Motivated by the current shortage of chemistry professionals, our research strives to understand individual's choices of career paths in chemistry. The presented research is a part of a project that investigates and model the processes of choosing academic, industrial, and educational career paths in chemistry as well as moving into chemistry teaching. In the aspect of chemistry students, we investigate the factors and sub-factors for choosing a chemistry-related career. Our research questions include: (a) What are the distributions of the various factors and sub-factors that affect chemistry-related career choices? (b) What are the most significant factors and sub-factors and in what ways are they related? (c) how do the factors and sub-factors distribute in the aspect of gender? Our research relies on the theoretical framework of the social cognitive theory (SCT) that includes personal, environmental, and behavioral factors, we examine this factors as they related to undergraduate students when they choose a career in chemistry. The personal factor includes for example prior experience, interest, and self-efficacy sub-factors, the environmental factor includes for example influence by others and family related considerations, the behavioral factor includes for example opportunities, barriers and choices. Fifty undergraduate chemistry students, from various universities in our country, in their last year, answered a 1-5 Likert questionnaire. Ten students were interviewed. The results indicate, for example, that students’ self-efficacy in general related to success in academia and workforce is higher than their self-efficacy in chemistry. Regarding gender differences, men had higher self-efficacy regarding their success in chemistry-related career than women. Additional results will be discussed. The research contributes to the body of knowledge on STEM career development with emphasis on chemistry and can have practical consequences on choosing a chemistry-related career.

Factors that influence chemistry students to choose a chemistry-related career

256th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.