An Investigation of the Views on the Integration of Science Technology and Mathematics in a Mathematics Teacher Education Program

Year 2015, Volume: 32 Issue: 1, 3 - 15, 01.01.2015

Ali Delice , Emin Aydın , Gökhan Derin Ömer Yaşın

Abstract

STEM is a new concept for Turkey. Interest is increasing in the academic community of the related fields and

especially in the field of education of science and mathematics. At the practical level there are sparse

individual efforts of practice in high schools by teachers of science and mathematics. Therefore our primary

aim is to understand how this idea is reflected in the minds of teacher candidates of the related fields in a nonintegrated

mathematics-science program. We also analyzed the curricula followed in the above programs.

Our sample consisted of 349 teacher candidates from the departments of mathematics, science and computer

education and instructional technologies education who were in their final years. For this inquiry we use a

mixed methods strategy. We use both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data comes from the

scale developed by the researchers “The integration of STEM” and also from a questionnaire for the

demographics of the sample. Qualitative data comes from the programs used in the departments. Document

analysis method and descriptive & inferential statistics techniques, are used to analyze data from the scale

and from the questionnaire. Findings of the study suggest positive attitudes towards STEM integration.

Findings also indicate similar and different attitudes with respect to the department. Reasons for these were

discussed with regard to the current literature and to the curricula of the departments under study.

Keywords

STEM integration, Teacher education, Attitudes towards STEM

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