The Effects of STEM Education on the 7th Grade Students’ Critical Thinking Skills and STEM Perceptions

Abstract

Critical thinking and STEM career perception are important in 21 th century and STEM education is necessary to promote middle school students' critical thinking skills and STEM perception. In this research we aim to research the effects of engineering design-based STEM education on the middle school students' critical thinking skills and STEM perceptions. In this case study, STEM activities were developed according the subjects of "Reflections in Mirror" and "Absorption of Light" and prepared activity booklet. The activities implemented with 30 seventh grade middle school students in Istanbul province for five weeks (20 course hours). While student solved the design problems in the housing estate and designed "Safe and Eco-Friendly House Estate", the teacher guided students in this process. To solve the problem/ground design challenge, they did five mini designs and five researches/experiments in six teams of five students. The quantitative data were performed California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and STEM Perception Test as pre and post-test and analysed statically. Semi-structured interviews were performed to support quantitative data and analysed descriptively. STEM education developed students' critical thinking skills and STEM perceptions positively and also it had indirect effects on their career awareness.

Physics electronic teaching material-integrated STEM education to promote 21st-century skills

“…In addition, the STEM content in the electronic teaching material also influences the results obtained. This is in line with previous research which has proven that STEM is relevant to apply in developing students' critical thinking skills (Hacioğlu & Gülhan, 2021;Mater et al, 2020). These results are also related to the fact that the process of generating problem solutions in a STEM context affects the development of students' critical thinking skills (Mater et al, 2020;Rizaldi et al, 2020;Savran Gencer & Dogan, 2020;Sumarni & Kadarwati, 2020).…”

“…These results are also related to the fact that the process of generating problem solutions in a STEM context affects the development of students' critical thinking skills (Mater et al, 2020;Rizaldi et al, 2020;Savran Gencer & Dogan, 2020;Sumarni & Kadarwati, 2020). STEM accommodates student activities to be more active in groups to solve a problem by evaluating all the ideas obtained and making decisions to solve the problem (Hacioğlu & Gülhan, 2021). In other words, PETMS assists students to build their own knowledge by encouraging them to be active in learning, identifying possible solutions, selecting data or information, giving opinions about the selected data and finally being able to provide possible problem-solving.…”

The role of STEM Education in improving the quality of education: a bibliometric study

“…A review of the literature revealed that STEM evolved out of government policy, especially from within the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Marrero et al, 2014). NSF first used the acronym SMET for science, mathematics, engineering, and technology in the early 1990s, but determined that this acronym sounded too much like "smut", and then STEM was born in 2001 (Hacioglu & Gulhan, 2021;Marrero et al, 2014;Sanders, 2009).…”

“…STEM education delivers learning benefits to students since students can explore their creativity to solve a problem through some disciplines (Suratno et al, 2020). When students apply STEM in context, it makes connections between school, community, work, and the global enterprise with the ability to compete in the new economy (Bruce-Davis et al, 2014;Hacioglu & Gulhan, 2021). STEM education aims to equip students Preprint version of: Jamali, Seyedh Mhboobeh., Ale Ebrahim, Nader.…”

Mastery of STEM-Based Research Approach of Science Teachers In Jakarta

“…STEM education focuses on three themes: acquiring problem solving skills, being innovative and able to design because STEM in education aims to bring individuals at an interdisciplinary level covering the fields of Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (Korkmaz et al, 2020). STEM education is also evaluated as a bridge between education and career for students (Hacioglu & Gulhan, 2021).…”