 |
Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 18, Issue 2, Article 6 (Dec., 2017) |
In this study, we used survey research design to examine teachers’ perceptions about STEM education. We developed and applied the STEM questionnaire which comprises open-ended and closed-ended questions about teachers’ beliefs and understanding regarding STEM education.
The participants in this study included 154 teachers from STEM workshops organized by IPST from March to May 2015. They came from both private (n = 12) and public (n = 27) schools all over the country, and included 26 kindergarten, 31 lower primary, 66 upper primary, 19 lower secondary, and 8 upper secondary teachers aged between 23 and 68 years old. Their teaching experience in schools averaged 13.7 years (minimum is 1 and maximum is 47 years). The majority of the teachers (85%) had a bachelor degree. Teaching assignments for this sample consisted of 90 STEM subjects, 60 non-STEM subjects, and 4 unidentified teaching subjects.
Data CollectionThe data was collected using a survey questionnaire given before the STEM workshop, which included 3 parts:
Part 1 asked about the background information of the participants (e.g., age, education background, teaching experience).
Part 2, measured of teachers’ awareness, prior experiences, understanding, concern, and interest regarding STEM education. It used a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not concerned) to 4 (strongly concerned). The open-ended question “In your opinion, what is STEM education?” was at the end of this part.
Part 3, participants selected their preference from several STEM teaching approaches, each represented by a diagram with brief description. Based on Bybee’s notions, there were nine proposed STEM perceptions’ diagrams (in Appendix A).
To check instrument validity before using instrument, a group of 55 science and mathematics in-service teachers were asked to comment on the readability of the items in the data-capturing tools. These teachers agreed that all items were relevant and should remain in the study.
The participants’ ages, years of experience in teaching, teaching level, and their perception of the STEM teaching approach, were analyzed using descriptive statistics including frequency, mean, standard deviation. We used the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine whether changes in independent variables (i.e., age, teaching level, teaching subjects) had significant effects on teachers’ concern about STEM disciplines.
To analyze qualitative data from the open-ended questions, the researchers used interpretive methods (Erickson, 1986), in which the participants’ own meanings and points of view were sought. An iterative process of coding, memo writing, focused coding, and integrative memo writing (Emerson et al., 1995) was followed. All coded themes from the analysis were cross-checked by the research team. The open-ended question was analyzed in the first-level analysis. We gathered the teachers’ answers about the definition of STEM education into the spreadsheet and noted the similarities and differences to categorize teachers’ responses. In the second-level analysis, the data was coded and rearranged into the categories cross-checked by the research team. Table 1 provides an example of coding representing teachers’ definition of STEM education. Codes were then grouped and refined to generate categories, for example, “STEM is an integrated teaching approach” and “STEM is a science teaching”.
Table 1. Examples of codes and categories emerging from teachers’ responses.
Codes “STEM education is a teaching approach that uses the inquiry process to engage students’ learning.”
STEM education is an inquiry-based teaching approach
“STEM education is a science-teaching approach that mixes with other concepts to solve specific problems and find answers.”
STEM education is a science-teaching approach
“STEM is a science- and project-based teaching and learning approach.”
“STEM education is a teaching approach in which students apply scientific concepts to solve problems.” “STEM education is an approach that integrates several type of knowledge for learning.” STEM education is an integrated science, math, engineering, and technology approach
“STEM is an approach that focuses on integration and connection of STEM concepts.”
