Unveiling science teachers’ attitudes, readiness and views about STEM education

The purpose of the study was to reveal the science teachers’ attitudes, views and readiness for STEM education. Another goal was to investigate the factors that help and hinder STEM implementation ability of the science teachers. According to Competency Framework for Teacher, there are some benchmarks in professional attributes, knowledge and practice in order to be called as competent teacher. When we look at the collected data regarding professional knowledge from the framework’s perspective, we saw that professional knowledge of teachers about STEM vary from teacher to teacher and from school to school. Generally, it is expected to have consensus on professional knowledge; however, according to interviews, the science teachers do not have consensus on definition of STEM yet. Therefore, it is important for policy makers and education authorities to provide compromised knowledge on STEM education. By providing such training, professional knowledge of teachers about STEM may be aligned. When we looked from the perspective of professional attribute part of the framework to the collected data, it was revealed that the science teachers have positive attitudes for STEM education and they ready to use it in their lessons. However, when we interpret data more comprehensively, the results showed that because of lack in their professional knowledge, they do not have enough self-confidence to use STEM in their lessons.

In case of professional practice, collected data showed that the science teachers used STEM education in their lessons. However, they also stated that they were unsure of its effectiveness. Differences in their definitions of STEM and in their STEM implementations in lessons revealed that they did not have consensus on practice of STEM in lessons. When look at the collected data from the perspective of framework, it could be said that in case of benchmarks of professional knowledge, attributes and practice, science teachers should show more progress. This conclusion revealed that the science teachers are still incompetent in case of STEM education.

In the study presented here, the researcher aimed to reveal the science teachers’ attitudes, readiness and views towards STEM education. To reach that aim, the authors used T-STEM questionnaire and interviews. When the results took into considerations, it could be said that majority of participants have positive attitudes towards STEM education so that they thought that STEM approach should be learned and science, technology, engineering and mathematics should be used integratedly. The other reason of positive attitude is worldwide increased attention towards STEM and STEM’s popularity as a new educational trend. The science teachers’ attitude is important for implementation of STEM education in lessons. Since teachers are the main stakeholder of the education, if the teachers actively use an approach, it can be easily accepted nationwide. Responses of interview questions showed that the science teachers reported positive intentions about using STEM in their future lessons because it is enjoyable to implement, develops collaborative learning skills and provides science based permanent learning and awareness.

The study also revealed that, although there is common STEM education awareness among the science teachers who contributed the study, they do not have consensus on concept of STEM education. This showed that although the science teachers who contributed the study have readiness towards STEM, they might not conceptualize integrative concept of STEM. With the reform practices of our country regarding STEM education, it was aimed to increase competencies of teachers and students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and providing students learning experiences that will prepare them STEM related careers (TUSIAD, 2015). However, data captured through interviews showed that STEM workshops and courses give insights on STEM; however, the science teachers could not be able to turn these insights into practice. The fact that how they should integrate STEM into their lessons still is not clear. It could be said that the science teachers’ attitudes and readiness is ready to implement STEM in their lessons, but they do not know how they should do it.

The data captured through interviews revealed that the science teachers saw lack of materials and environment as a reason for not using STEM in their classes. However, despite limited resources, STEM inspires teachers and students to be creative and innovative (Çorlu, Capraro & Capraro, 2014). In other words, contrary to general understanding STEM approach does not mean to teach already existing resources, it aims to inspire teachers and students to find innovative solutions with existing and non-existing resources to real life problems (Capraro, & Slough, 2013).

All in all, as in European countries, in our country the quantity and quality of STEM education should be increased. The result of the study indicated that since STEM is worldwide educational trend and STEM education integrated into our science curriculum, the science teachers want to learn and use STEM in their future lessons. Although some of them know and use STEM already, they are still not reached consensus among each other about meaning and practice of STEM. That is why, although the science teachers have positive attitude and readiness towards STEM education, they still need to learn how to implement STEM in their lessons. Integrating STEM into our science curriculum before the science teacher have teacher development program for STEM education seen as an unprepared decision.

Limitation and suggestion for future research

Firstly, for further studies, there are several recommendations to do this study by addressing some of the previously stated limitations. For example, this study could be conducted with teachers from different fields. Also, in order to get more generalized results, it could be conducted with more people who are teachers from different fields. Besides these, as it is stated earlier, variance value was high and one of the reasons of it was variables being the parts of same questionnaire. That is why, attitudes and readiness of science teachers can be measured with different data collection tools. As another suggestion, detailed qualitative part can be added instead of the present interview protocol to make responses to questionnaire more meaningful. Investigating reasons beneath responses in quantitative part could reveal more accurate, deeper insights regarding science teachers’ attitudes, readiness and views.