Evaluate the Attıtudes of the Pre-Servıce Teachers towards STEM and STEM’s Sub Dımensıons

Abstract

As the importance of interdisciplinary studies is on the rise, countries have developed innovative educational approaches. One of these innovative approaches is STEM. STEM focuses on interdisciplinary cooperation, systematic thinking, openness to communication, ethical values, research, production, creativity and problems, focusing on the intersection of knowledge and skills in science, technology, mathematics and engineering, it is a new learning teaching approach that aims to gain the ability to solve. In this context, the aim of this study is to evaluate the attitudes of the pre-service teachers towards STEM and STEM’s sub dimensions. Therefore; it was used as a data collection tool from attitude scale for Stem and Stem's sub dimensions developed by Keles, Kiremit and Aktamis (2017). In the data collection tool, 5 scales were developed in order to reveal the existence of the relationship between pre-service teachers' attitudes towards STEM and their attitudes towards; science, technology, mathematics and engineering. The related scale was applied to 204 pre-service teachers in various departments of the Faculty of Education at Sakarya University. In the research, the necessary correlations were made by considering the demographic characteristics such as gender, age and class of teacher candidates. The overall average and standard deviation values are taken into account, when explaining the data differences for the sub-dimensions of the scale. According to the results obtained from the relevant data collection tool, when pre-service teachers' attitudes towards STEM and STEM sub-dimensions were evaluated; especially in the Mathematics and Engineering dimensions, it was revealed that their attitudes were more positive and they were indecisive in other dimensions (Science and Technology). As a result, it is thought that the acceptance of STEM method by teacher candidate, which is an innovative educational approach of the research results, will contribute to the literature and the future studies in this field.

Technology education in primary schools: addressing teachers’ perceptions, perceived barriers, and needs

“…This finding was also evident in a recent study from Suwarma and Kumano (2019), where teachers perceived the integration of science and mathematics as less challenging and complicated than the integration of engineering and technology. In comparison to other subjects, teachers often do not clearly understand the nature of technology education, and it is, therefore, challenging to integrate technology related-topics into their teaching practices (Çengel et al, 2019;Gibson, 2009;Wang et al, 2011).…”

“…Teachers who do not feel confident about their STEM content knowledge or are uncertain about the implementation processes necessary to successfully teach STEM courses may find it difficult to integrate STEM and technology-related topics into their classrooms (Margot & Kettler, 2019;McMullin & Reeve, 2014). The integration of technology-related topics in the classroom is often considered more complicated compared to science and mathematics because teachers are uncertain about the nature and aims of technology education (Çengel et al, 2019;Gibson, 2009;Suwarma & Kumano, 2019;Wang et al, 2011). To successfully promote technology education, establish common curriculum standards, and qualify and support in-service and pre-service teacher professional development efforts, it is first essential to investigate the current status quo of the integration of technology, explore teachers' readiness to teach technology, and identify the challenges of and needs for supporting the integration of technology.…”

Development of Physics Learning Teaching Materials Based on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics

“…STEM is an approach to education that aims to integrate the four disciplines of science (S), technology (T), engineering (E), and mathematics (M) (Ercan, Altan, Taştan, & Dağ, 2016). The STEM approach not only focuses on the interdisciplinary integration of S, T, E, and M, but also focuses on systematic thinking, openness to communication, ethical values, research, production, creativity, problems, intersection of knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Çengel, Alkan, & Yildiz, 2019). The advantage of integrating STEM into all class-level curricula was mentioned by Meyrick (2011) that STEM provides students with the experience and knowledge to determine their future careers, understand the principles of engineering design for completing problem-based projects and deepen students' understanding of 21 st -century skills.…”