Attitudes of the Students Attending Out-of-School STEM Workshops towards STEM Education

Abstract

In this study, the attitudes of students toward STEM education were examined according to various demographic characteristics and mixed research method was used. 170 students ranging between 7 and 14 years old participating municipalities in a province outside of school STEM workshops in Turkey constituted the sample of the study. The sampling was determined by non-random sampling method. Data were collected by STEM Attitude Scale adapted to Turkish by Yıldırım and Selvi (2015) and semi-structured interviews with students were conducted in order to get the opinions of the students in detail. Results indicated that out-of-school STEM workshops improve students' attitudes towards STEM. In addition, STEM attitude scores of the students did not differ by gender. It was also investigated whether the scores of the students from STEM attitude scale differ according to mother and father education level. There was only significant difference in engineering sub-dimension of the STEM attitude scale in terms of mother education status. On the other hand, it was determined that STEM attitude scale scores of the students did not differ according to father education status. Semi-structured interviews showed that students had lack of knowledge about STEM education and also concluded that the achievement of a concrete result for children learning by doing affects their attitudes positively.

Keywords

• STEM,workshop,attitude,out-of-school learning

Okul Dışı STEM Atölye Çalışmalarına Katılan Öğrencilerin STEM Eğitimine Yönelik Tutumları

Öz

Araştırmada okul dışı STEM atölye çalışmalarına katılan öğrencilerin STEM eğitimine yönelik tutumları çeşitli demografik özelliklere göre incelenmiştir. Araştırmanın örneklemini Türkiye’deki bir ilin belediyesinde okul dışı STEM atölye çalışmalarına katılan yaşları 7 ile 14 arasında değişen 170 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. Örneklem seçkisiz olmayan örnekleme yöntemi ile belirlenmiştir. Veri toplama aracı olarak; Yıldırım ve Selvi (2015) tarafından Türkçeye uyarlanmış STEM Tutum Ölçeği ve öğrencilerin görüşlerini detaylı bir şekilde alabilmek için yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşmeler yapılmıştır. Sonuçlar, okul dışı STEM atölyelerinin öğrencilerin STEM'e yönelik tutumlarını geliştirdiğini göstermiştir. Ayrıca, öğrencilerin STEM tutum puanlarının cinsiyete göre değişmediği tespit edilmiştir. Öğrencilerin STEM tutum ölçeğinden aldıkları puanların anne ve baba eğitim düzeyine göre farklılık gösterip göstermediği de araştırılmıştır. STEM tutum ölçeğinin mühendislik alt boyutunda annenin eğitim durumu açısından istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir farklılık bulunmuştur. Öte yandan, öğrencilerin STEM tutum ölçeği puanlarının baba eğitim durumuna göre farklılık göstermediği belirlenmiştir. Yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler öğrencilerin STEM eğitimi hakkında yeterince bilgi sahibi olmadıklarını ve aynı zamanda yaparak öğrenen çocuklar için somut bir sonuç elde etmenin onların tutumlarını olumlu yönde etkilediği de tespit edilmiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• STEM,çalıştay,tutum,okul dışı öğrenme

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