Wei Cheng Mau Hypothesis

In the fascinating article “Factors that influence persistence in science and engineering career aspirations,” author Wei Cheng Mau is trying to inform the reader of the factors that influence career decisions to join or lean away from the scientific and engineering fields. He focuses primarily on how differences in race and sex affect the way people think about pursuing science and engineering fields. He also takes into account self concept, parental expectations, educational involvement, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement. He evaluates how these factors contribute to the decision making of teens by making a survey that will pull key information from the surveyed students. The hypothesis’ made by Wei Cheng Mau are general statements, yet they are proven true through the experiment/test that he ran. The hypothesis’ he creates include the following:
“Hypothesis 1:
24,599 students were asked if they had a general knowledge of the field they would like to get into in the future. Of the 24,599 students, 827 students were interested in pursuing careers in science or engineering. Of the 827, 176 continued with the same intentions a few years later in their lives. Of the 827 students, 26.5% of males identified they were interested in staying in the SE area. Females on the other hand, only had a 12.1% persistence rate. (Hypothesis 1) Meanwhile for Hypothesis 2, no variation was found according to the race of the students. (Hypothesis 2) In terms of the success rate in the fields, it was shown that persisters (students who stuck with SE fields through everything) scored much higher as far as academic proficiency. (Hypothesis 3) Lastly, it was shown that the combination of race and sex in the same test showed some variation. (Hypothesis 4) Overall, Mau successfully showed the differentiations between factors that determine whether or not students pursue scientific or engineering