Comparison of Science Process Skills with Stem Career Interests of Middle School Students

Abstract

This study was aimed to examine the relation between the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) career interests and science process skills of middle school seventh grade students. Method of this study was the relational survey method. The study was conducted on the basis of voluntariness and participants were 133 seventh grade students (69 females and 64 males)

The Relationship between Turkish Middle School Students’ 21st Century Skills and STEM Career Interest: Gender Effect

“…The researchers explained their study results by claiming that individuals who think that they have 21 st century skills developed positive attitudes toward STEM careers. Other studies found a relationship between problem solving and creative thinking-both 21 st century skills-and STEM career interest, which also supports our results (Arevalo & Ignacio, 2018;Cooper & Haeverlo, 2013;Zorlu & Zorlu, 2017). Having 21 st century skills arguably improves students' interest in and tendency to pursue STEM careers (Baran et al, 2015), which is logical because individuals' skills guide their career choices (Savickas, 1991) and skills are career path indicators (Al-Abri & Kooli, 2018).…”

“…There are no studies in the literature investigating the relationship between students' 21 st century skills and their STEM career interest. Similar to the present study, findings from Zorlu and Zorlu (2017), Cooper and Haeverlo (2013), and Arevalo and Ignaco (2018) showed a significant and positive relationship between middle school students' problem solving skills, digital age literacy, and creative thinking and their STEM career interest. Our finding is thus supported by the literature, which is not surprising considering that individuals working in STEM careers should have 21 st century skills, and that individuals tend to choose careers suitable to their skills (Savickas, 1991).…”

The Influence of Attitude, Interest, Teachers and Peers on Entrepreneurial Career Intention

“…However, a study by [18] found that interest was a significant factor in influencing students' entrepreneurial career intention with a value of 70.0 percent (R² = 0.70). However, in this study, it is found that interest has the biggest influence on entrepreneurship, so the advantage is expected to be used to influence and develop individual attitudes even though attitudes are relatively stable and difficult to change [78,80]. In addition, teachers' guidance has a value of (R² = 0.49) while peers have a value of (R² = 0.57).…”

Çocuk Gelişimi Programı Öğrencilerinin Okul Öncesi Dönem Çocuklarına Yönelik STEM Temelli Hazırlanan Etkinlikler İle İlgili Görüşleri

“…This result is similar to the results of the studies conducted by Şahin (2014) and Sungur Gül and Marulcu (2014). It is also seen that the STEM approach has an important place in developing scientific thinking skills (Strong, 2013;Zorlu & Zorlu, 2017).…”

“…Bu sonuç, Şahin, Ayar ve Adıgüzel (2014) ve Sungur Gül ve Marulcu'nun (2014) yaptıkları çalışmaların sonuçlarıyla benzerlik göstermiştir. Yine STEM yaklaşımının, bilimsel düşünme becerilerini geliştirme de önemli bir yeri olduğu görülmektedir (Strong, 2013;Zorlu ve Zorlu, 2017).…”