Availability of STEAM Approach Requirements among Intermediate-Stage Mathematics Teachers and Their Attitudes towards It

Abstract

The present research aimed at investigating the availability of the requirements of the STEAM approach among intermediate-stage teachers and their attitudes towards the STEAM approach in public schools of Amman city, Jordan. This was a cross-sectional study that recruited a sample of 294 intermediate-stage mathematics teachers. A researcher-developed questionnaire was used in this study. It comprised 46 items (30 items for the availability of the STEAM approach requirements and 16 items for teachers' attitudes towards the STEAM approach). The data gathered in this study was analyzed using the SPSS. The results showed that the requirements of the STEAM education approach were high. Exploring the domains of STEAM requirements revealed that the implementation domain was the highest available requirement (3.90±0.54), followed by the planning domain (3.81±0.68) was available at a high degree, and lastly the assessment domain (3.11±0.76) at a moderate degree. In addition, the results showed that the enrolled mathematics teachers had positive attitudes toward using the STEAM education approach in teaching mathematics. It was found the most positive attitudes were within the desire to apply the strategy domain (4.18±0.60), followed by the motivation and self-learning domain (4.06±0.83), thinking and problem-solving domain (3.66±1.08) and the last one was collaboration and communication domain (3.21±0.59). The study concluded that STEAM approach requirements are available to a high degree as perceived by intermediate-stage mathematics teachers and they had positive attitudes towards using the STEAM approach in teaching mathematics in the public schools in Amman city, Jordan. Keywords: STEAM, requirements, attitudes, intermediate stage, mathematics, Jordan