Development and validation of an instrument to access elementary school preservice teachers’ understanding towards STEM education

Abstract

The instrument could be an important tool to measure the current situation of preservice teachers’ understanding of STEM education at the elementary school level. The study aimed to develop and validation of the scale of instrument test of elementary school preservice teachers’ understanding of integrated STEM. The scale of the instrument was developed based on the items results of theoretical background review and the experts’ suggestions with the total number of participants in this study is 124 Indonesian elementary school preservice teachers’ understanding from the university at the central regions of Indonesia were voluntarily selected to fill out the test. The primary component analysis generated by the components and sub-components of each item could be measured by the Cronbach’s alpha of .940 value and the finding indicated that the scale is valid and reliable to interpretation as a vehicle for evaluating the elementary school preservice teachers’ understanding of STEM education. The implication of this study was about the possibility to implementation STEM into the classroom which is related to improve 21st century skills.