In a unique multidisciplinary, multinational research effort, the CEHD is investigating how personality traits, executive function, and economic preferences predict academic achievement and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. The Center won a National Science Foundation grant to identify the combination of noncognitive skills, traits, and preferences that predict performance in STEM courses from fourth grade through high school. The study will also determine how these personal attributes predict choice of college major and career. The study will provide a better understanding of age-specific windows of opportunity for interventions promoting STEM achievement and the pursuit of STEM majors. Pinpointing the attributes associated with success in STEM fields will help teachers and school administrators better identify and counsel students with strong STEM potential. By confirming the predictive power of standardized measures of related traits and skills, the findings could also help schools and teachers personalize education and improve student outcomes, and support students in their goals. Principal investigator, CEHD director James J. Heckman, leads the project with co-principal investigators Stephanie M. Carlson of the University of Minnesota; Thomas J. Dohmen of the University of Bonn; and Patrick. C Kyllonen of the Educational Testing Service. Mathematica willl provide data analysis aspects of the project. Using a common measurement framework, the study will analyze samples from three sites in the United States and China, as well as data from the Australian Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Survey. Research across several fields has identified relationships between personality traits, executive function skills, and enrollment […]
The theme of the 2016 conference is Migration in Asian Countries. The conference seeks high-quality research papers that examine the effects of migration in Asian countries and the associated costs and benefits of migration. Possible topics include but are not limited to: 1) evaluating the effects of migration on left behind children’s skill development, 2) marriage, family structure, and migration, 3) assessing the effects of migration on local labor market outcomes, 4) migration and consumption/savings, 5) migration and housing market.