Non-science major undergraduate students’ high school science experiences: An exploratory case study

Abstract

Previous studies reported relatively low correlation coefficients between students’ high school science experiences and their science identities. This needs more exploratory studies to investigate the reasons for these low correlation coefficients. This article presents the high school science experiences of three nonscience major undergraduate students and the influence from their experiences, in their perspective, on their choice of a non-science major in college. Three female Hispanic non-science major undergraduate students were interviewed about their high school science experiences. Data were analyzed to answer the research question: From three female Hispanic students’ perspectives, what are some factors from high school science experiences that influenced students’ choice of non-science majors in college studies, particularly some specific factors related to their Hispanic cultural backgrounds and gender role. The most mentioned influential factor among three participants was didactic teaching styles of their high school science teachers. Another important finding was low performance/self-efficacy in math may predict students’ low interest/persistence in science but high performance/self-efficacy in math does not necessarily predict students’ high interest/ persistence in science.