Comparing STEM and Non-STEM Instructor Motivation Suggests Directions for STEM Education Innovations

Abstract

This study compares the motivation and teaching practices of STEM and non-STEM instructors with the aim of discovering factors that may contribute to and can be applied to improve the retention and persistence of STEM students in higher education. Instructors completed measures of mindset, motivation, and teaching practices. We found that non-STEM instructors reported being more motivated by belief in student efficacy than STEM instructors, and they reported a greater use of evidence-based teaching practices. Subsequent analyses revealed that mastery goals predicted the use of evidence-based teaching practices for both sets of instructors; growth mindset was also a significant predictor of evidence-based teaching practices for non-STEM instructors. We propose that a pathway to STEM student success may be training and incentivizing instructors, especially those who may question students’ abilities to learn difficult STEM material.