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September 3, 2026Education SciencesOpen Access

STEM Motivation, Identity and Interest Among Students in Two Flemish Secondary Schools: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Survey

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Authors

CKChristophe KegelsHLHaydée De LoofVTValérie Thomas

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Overview

Cross-sectional survey reveals school-dependent variations in STEM identity, interest, and motivation among secondary students, highlighting the impact of local context and teacher autonomy support.

Key Points

  • To evaluate how gender, study track, and grade level associate with secondary students' STEM motivation, interest, and identity, and to assess the moderating role of teacher need support.
  • Surveyed 317 secondary school students across two schools in the Kempenrand region of Antwerp, Flanders (Belgium) using a comparative cross-sectional design.
  • Conducted linear regression models, simple-effects analyses, and moderation analyses evaluating perceived mathematics teacher autonomy, relatedness, and competence support with Benjamini–Hochberg adjustments.
  • Differences in STEM identity, interest, and intrinsic motivation across study tracks and grade levels varied significantly between the two school environments.
  • Perceived teacher autonomy and relatedness support significantly moderated the link between study track and STEM identity, showing positive associations for STEM-track students but not for non-STEM students.
  • No total concurrent indirect associations via perceived teacher need support remained statistically significant after Benjamini–Hochberg multiple-testing corrections.

Cite This Study

Kegels et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a993626636c6408cfa7efe6https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16091425
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