Abstract
There is an international shortage of skilled workers in the STEM field. Therefore, it is also recommended that out-of-school learning places be incorporated into STEM education. Nevertheless, there is a research gap regarding their suitability for promoting STEM career aspirations. To close this gap, an intervention that promotes STEM career aspirations is needed. In this study, a revised version of such an intervention approach is evaluated at an out-of-school student lab. A particular attempt was made to diversify STEM stereotypes, for example, through videos with AI content, thereby contributing to a reduction in perceived masculine defaults. It was assumed that the intervention would improve career-related STEM self-efficacy beliefs, career-related STEM outcome expectations, individual STEM interest, and STEM career aspirations, regardless of gender, but even greater among students who identify with the female gender role. Furthermore, an increased situational interest in the intervention content among those students was assumed. This could not be confirmed, as students identified as female or male. The only significant results were a decline in STEM interest among female students and not among male students, as well as lower self-efficacy beliefs among female students, regardless of testing time. The intervention should be further revised and evaluated. In particular, it is important to draw the students’ attention to the videos more extensively, to create identification potential through an AI avatar, to focus the task formats more on cooperative work, and to reduce their scope and complexity. An instrument for assessing STEM stereotypes should also be incorporated.
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APA 7th edition
In-text citation: (Romanik & Wegner, 2026)
Reference: Romanik, M., & Wegner, C. (2026). Challenges of a gender-sensitive intervention study using image-generating AI to increase STEM career aspirations.
Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society, 2(1), Article 7.
https://doi.org/10.20897/jirais/19544
AMA 10th edition
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Romanik M, Wegner C. Challenges of a gender-sensitive intervention study using image-generating AI to increase STEM career aspirations.
Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society. 2026;2(1), 7.
https://doi.org/10.20897/jirais/19544
Chicago
In-text citation: (Romanik and Wegner, 2026)
Reference: Romanik, Max, and Claas Wegner. "Challenges of a gender-sensitive intervention study using image-generating AI to increase STEM career aspirations".
Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society 2026 2 no. 1 (2026): 7.
https://doi.org/10.20897/jirais/19544
Harvard
In-text citation: (Romanik and Wegner, 2026)
Reference: Romanik, M., and Wegner, C. (2026). Challenges of a gender-sensitive intervention study using image-generating AI to increase STEM career aspirations.
Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society, 2(1), 7.
https://doi.org/10.20897/jirais/19544
MLA
In-text citation: (Romanik and Wegner, 2026)
Reference: Romanik, Max et al. "Challenges of a gender-sensitive intervention study using image-generating AI to increase STEM career aspirations".
Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society, vol. 2, no. 1, 2026, 7.
https://doi.org/10.20897/jirais/19544
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In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Romanik M, Wegner C. Challenges of a gender-sensitive intervention study using image-generating AI to increase STEM career aspirations. Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society. 2026;2(1):7.
https://doi.org/10.20897/jirais/19544