Preservice teachers’ understanding of STEM education

Abstract

STEM Education is promoted by the government throughout Thailand, but STEM teacher training in the universities is not well developed. This study investigates the understanding of STEM education by 87 preservice teachers from the Faculty of Education in a university in Bangkok, Thailand. The preservice teachers were asked to respond to an online questionnaire about their understanding of STEM Education. Six preservice teachers who had interesting responses were interviewed for more clarification. The results showed that most of the preservice teachers perceived STEM as the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, but did not explain more about the nature of the integration. They did not explain how the four disciplines were integrated but focused on the outcomes of the integration. While the preservice teachers' ideas about the importance of STEM varied based on their majors, most participants perceived STEM as a teaching strategy. The findings of this present study indicate the importance of promoting preservice teachers’ understanding of the integrated nature of STEM and the connections among the disciplines.