Analysis of Postgraduate Theses Related to STEM Education in Turkey: A Meta-Synthesis Study

BALABAN

Turkish Journal of Primary Education

2021

The purpose of this research is to examine the descriptive content of studies examining the views of teachers and pre-service teachers on STEM education in order to shed light on the future. The content analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used to examine postgraduate theses and scientific articles in this study, which is a qualitative study. To that end, the studies under consideration were subjected to descriptive content analysis based on the aim, research designs (method, study group, data collection tools, and data analysis), results, and recommendations. A literature review was conducted for this study using the keywords "view on STEM education," "STEM," "teacher candidate," "pre-service teachers," "opinion about STEM education", "attitude," and "awareness". Seven question titles were determined by examining 23 identified studies, and an attempt was made to answer these questions. The collected data were organized into tables, and their frequency distributions were calculated. According to the results of these investigated studies, it was seen that the highest frequency was belong to the teachers' and pre-service teachers' positive attitudes and views toward STEM. Based on the research findings, the following recommendations can be made: STEM activities can be implemented in teacher education programs to increase student interest in STEM education. STEM education can be included as a practicum in teacher education programs.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Öğretmen ve Öğretmen Adaylarının FeTeMM Eğitimine Yönelik Görüşlerini İnceleyen Çalışmaların İçerik Analizi

BALABAN

Turkish Journal of Primary Education

2021

“…Many studies on various aspects of integrated curricula in STEM have been conducted. Scholars have identified numerous benefits for STEM education and have proposed meaningful changes in various cognitive, affective, psychomotor, and career domains [36][37][38][39][40][41]. For example, [37] found integrative approaches to have a positive effect in terms of academic achievement in STEM subjects, while STEM education has been shown to have a positive effect on attitudes toward STEM [38].…”

Section: Literature Review 21 Attitudes Toward Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, [13] reported a positive influence of Korea's integrated STEAM education on students' learning in both the cognitive and affective domains, particularly the latter. Also, STEM education promotes students' problem-solving ability, creativity, and collaboration-related competences [39][40][41][42]. As such, it is expected that as STEM is increasingly incorporated into the framework of integrated curricula, attitudes toward integration will be further strengthened.…”

Section: Literature Review 21 Attitudes Toward Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Engineering Students’ Soft Skills and Empathy on Their Attitudes toward Curricula Integration

Hwang

2022

Education Sciences

Recently, various integrated education curricula for STEM curricula have been provided. This research sought to investigate the effects of engineering students’ soft skills and empathy on their attitudes toward curricula integration (hereafter, attitudes toward integration). First, students’ attitudinal differences respecting integration, soft skills and empathy were examined. Second, the relationships among attitudes toward integration, soft skills and empathy were identified in terms of various sub-factors of those three variables. Third, the effects of soft skills and empathy on attitudes toward integration, as perceived by men and women engineering students, were explored. A total of 302 engineering students from three universities in Korea responded to a survey based on a three-variable scale. Analysis of the data found that: firstly, men scored higher in most of the sub-factors of two variables, namely attitudes toward integration and soft skills; women scored higher in most of the sub-factors of one variable, empathy; and that these gender differences were statistically significant. Secondly, a positive correlation among attitudes toward integration, soft skills and empathy was identified. Thirdly, it was determined that attitudes toward integration were affected significantly by soft skills and empathy. The practical implications of these findings for engineering education are discussed herein, with particular attention devoted to the issue of the cultivation of engineering students’ soft skills, empathy, and attitudes toward integration.

“…It is striking that there are synthesis studies examining the studies on STEM education in the literature. Some researchers have done a review the general trend of STEM education studies (Farwati et al, 2021;Nuraeni, Malagola, Pratomo & Putri, 2020;Nurwahyunani, 2021;Ormanci, 2020;Saputri & Herman, 2022;Sarıca, 2020;Setyaningsih, Ahmad, Adnan & Anif, 2021;Wardani & Ardhyantama, 2021;Zulaikha, Jumadi, Mardiani & Lutfia, 2021) and some researchers have examined the effect of STEM education on various learning outcomes by meta-analysis method (Amin, Ibrahim & Alkusaeri, 2022;Ananda & Salamah, 2021;Ayverdi & Aydın, 2020;Güder, Demir & Özden, 2022;Izzah, Asrizal & Festiyed, 2021;Jannah, Lufri, Asrizal & Putra, 2022;Karaşah-Çakıcı, Kol & Yaman, 2021;Kasuma, Asrizal & Usmeldi, 2022;Kazu & Kurtoglu Yalcin, 2021;Santosa et al, 2021;Saraç, 2018;Taşdemir, 2022;Triani, Asrizal & Usmeldi, 2022;Yücelyiğit & Toker, 2021). In addition, it is seen that synthesis research on digital technology-assisted STEM education studies is also carried out in the literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Digital Technology-Assisted STEM Education

Öztop

2023

J. Sci. Learn.

The purpose of this study was to reveal the effect of digital technology-assisted STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education on academic achievement. To achieve this purpose, experimental studies, including pre-test and post-test, were examined by meta-analysis. The study's data were obtained from 34 studies that met the inclusion criteria due to the searches made in the Databases of the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education, where Turkey's postgraduate theses are located. Effect sizes of 38 comparisons were calculated from these studies. The study calculated effect sizes based on Cohen’s d coefficient. The effect size obtained after the analysis was found to be d=2.582. This finding shows that STEM education assisted by digital technology greatly affects academic achievement. In addition, a significant difference was found between the effect sizes in the study according to the level of education and the subject discipline of academic achievement. This research is expected to contribute to educational practice and future research.