Abstract
In recent years, STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education has received widespread attention from all over the world, and there are not many studies on STEM attitudes in China. One of the reasons is the lack of measurement tools that have been tested for reliability and validity. The Chinese version STEM attitudes scale for primary and secondary schools is a multidimensional scale that measures the STEM attitudes of primary and secondary school students. It consists of three subscales: STEM interest, 21st-century skills confidence, and STEM career interest. In order to test the reliability and validity of the scale application, as well as understand and improve the STEM attitudes of primary and secondary school students, the research team surveyed and collected 566 responses from primary and secondary school students in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Shandong, Liaoning, and other places. After exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and a reliability and validity test, the scale finally retained 48 items. The scale supports a hypothetical five-factor model with good reliability and validity and can be used to assess STEM attitudes in Chinese primary and secondary schools. This research also shows that students’ STEM interests and STEM career interests showed clear variation among different genders, grades, and parental education levels.
Highlights
In recent years, STEM education has attracted widespread attention all over the world [1]
After a kmo adaptability test and Bartlett spherical test, the results showed that the kmo coefficient was 0.954; the Chi-square value was 11,257.066; the DF was 1128 (p < 0.001), which was statistically significant; and the data was suitable for Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
Petousi and Sifaki (2020) argue that any research misconduct may cause a loss of trust in the science, and in turn may lead to some socio-scientific issues [41]
Summary
STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education has attracted widespread attention all over the world [1]. 2018 evaluation results released in December 2019 show that Chinese 15-year-old students rank first in mathematics and science literacy in the participating countries (regions) [2]. Similar to many other countries, Chinese primary and secondary school students show a decline in STEM interest as grade level increases [3]. This has caused increased attention to STEM education in China, along with research on STEM education in China. Normative empirical research is rare, especially empirical research on the STEM attitudes of primary and secondary school students. According to the present study, these three elements contained in STEM attitude can be applied to Chinese practice
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