Abstract
The aim of this study is to determine the STEM awareness of academics working in education faculties and their STEM academic works affected by this awareness. The research was conducted according to a sequential explanatory design, which is one of the mixed research methods. In the quantitative part of the study, a relational type of screening model was used and in the qualitative part, a case study design was preferred. The sampling of the quantitative part was composed of 239 academics working in education faculties in Turkey within the scope of the appropriate sampling method, which was non-random. As a result of the analysis, a semi-structured interview form was prepared within the scope of 4 themes and the qualitative part was started. As a result of the research, it was determined that academics in education faculties had high mean scores for STEM awareness, and that there was no significant difference in terms of gender, professional area and department, but there was a significant difference in terms of age and title variables. In addition, the situations in which interviewed academics, whose awareness scores were high and low, were affected by STEM awareness were revealed and discussed.
Highlights
In today’s world, information and technology are rapidly developing and changing
One participant with low STEM awareness stated that STEM education contributed mostly the teacher, the student, and lastly, the course and teaching. These findings show that teacher educators with high STEM awareness believed that STEM education contributes more to students and the course and teaching, whereas teacher educators with low STEM awareness did not have any agreement on this issue
As a result of this research, it was determined that the participants of this study all had high levels of STEM awareness
Summary
In today’s world, information and technology are rapidly developing and changing. countries should constantly revise and develop their education systems and curricula based on the needs of the age in order to get ahead in their competition with others. In the Turkish curricula updated in 2011, the Ministry of National Education highlights that it is aimed to educate individuals who can generate information and use it in their daily life, solve problems and think critically, be entrepreneurial and decisive, and have communication skills (URL-1). It may not be possible for students to develop these skills if the outcomes of each lesson are given separately (Akgündüz et al, 2015). STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), one of the multidisciplinary approaches, has emerged as an effective approach in recent years
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