Formation of Students' Readiness for Research Activities in the Context of STEM-Education

Abstract

The article presents the results of a theoretical and empirical study of the problem of students' readiness for research activities, gender peculiarities of this issue. Research activity is considered as a special type of creative activity that arises as a result of search activity and involves independent research aimed at theoretical and experimental study of phenomena and processes, substantiation of facts, identification of patterns using scientific methods of knowledge.
 STEM education is aimed at developing a personality through the formation of competencies, a natural science picture of the world, and life values using a transdisciplinary approach to learning based on the practical application of scientific, mathematical, technical, and engineering knowledge and skills to solve practical problems for their further use in professional activities and science. The authors assume that the introduction of the main forms of STEM education (STEM lesson, STEM project, STEM quest, STEM hackathon) will contribute to the formation of students' readiness for research activities.
 In order to study the main features of the formation of students' readiness for research activities, the authors of the article used theoretical and empirical research methods: theoretical analysis and generalization of psychological and pedagogical practice; survey; method of expert evaluation: longitudinal research method. To process the empirical data, the procedures of qualitative and quantitative analysis were used. The research work covered 620 7th grade students of general secondary education institutions from 5 regions of Ukraine during the 2021-2022 academic year.
 The research findings do not claim to be an exhaustive solution to the problem, but contain significant conclusions. It is necessary to further study the structure of students' readiness for research work, as well as the use of the latest forms, methods and means of its formation in the learning process.