Search

This study aims to investigate the motivation and career interest in STEM fields of high school students enrolled in public schools in the districts of Kayseri in Turkey according to various factors, to ascertain the relationship between the two variables, and to present a model for the relationship between the variables. The causal-comparative research and correlation (relational) research designs, which are among the quantitative research designs, were used in this study, which involved 1,667 students from five high education institutions situated. The research employed the Career Interest Scale in STEM Fields and the Motivation Scale in STEM Fields to gather data. It has been found that students whose favorite and most successful course is about STEM have much higher motivation and career interest in STEM fields than the other pupils. According to the study, students who are considering majoring in one of the university's STEM fields have much higher motivation and career interest in STEM fields than other students do in general. Additionally, the connection between motivation and career interest in STEM fields was looked at. According to research, students' motivation in STEM fields accounts for 70% of changes in their career interests in those fields.

The purpose of this study is to examine changes in pre-service science teachers' entrepreneurship mindsets during engineering design-based activities. A holistic single-case study was used in the study. Twenty-eight pre-service teachers carried out engineering design-based activities (five weeks, 20 hours) in the science teaching laboratory practices course. The pre-service teachers' use of Entrepreneurship Mindsets (EM) in solving the water pollution problem during engineering design-based activities was examined in this study. Data were collected via engineering design challenge worksheets and public service announcements. The data were analyzed with the Extended KEEN Student Outcomes (eKSOs) rubric. Frequency tables were created in line with the sub-dimensions of EM (curiosity, connections, creating value, communication, character, and collaboration). As a result of the research, it was found that the pre-service teachers mostly used curiosity, connections, and creating value during the water treatment and wastewater assessment plant design process. Engineering is an important context for the development of EM as it creates various contexts that contribute to the development of these mindsets in pre-service science teacher education.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of STEM Curriculum designed and implemented for undergraduate programs of faculties of education. The research model is experimental. The design is a single group pre-test post-test experimental design. The study group consisted of 18 pre-service teachers studying in the Department of Science Education. In order to determine the effectiveness of STEM Curriculum, two data collection tools were prepared: "Education Module Evaluation Form" and "Interview Form". The Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was used to analyze the quantitative data and the content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. According to the findings, it was concluded that the STEM curriculum applied positively influenced the development of the competency of pre-service teachers to prepare education module (lesson plans, work sheets, measurement-evaluation tools) according to STEM education approach. It was concluded that the STEM curriculum contributed to the knowledge and skills, professional competencies and awareness of preservice teachers about preparing educational material according to STEM education approach.

In this research, it was aimed to analyze the profiles of secondary school female students considering STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers at university by collecting information such as education status of the parents, number of siblings, monthly income of the household, their favorite courses at school and the departments they intend to choose at the university. The research addressed the following question: "What is the profile of secondary school female students who consider choosing STEM careers?" This study is structured according to instrumental case study design, one of the qualitative research designs. The research data were collected from 210 female students studying in Anatolian high schools by a form in which the students' information was requested. After collecting the forms applied to a wider workgroup, female students' data were separated and the departments they intend to choose at the university were analyzed. Originally, the form has been applied to a larger sample, following the collection of the data, the data of female students was analyzed separately to see the departments that they consider at the university. The departments stated by female students were coded as STEM careers and non-STEM careers. The results obtained from the evaluation of the data are given as frequency and percentage. Regarding female students who consider preferring STEM careers, it was found that the education level of their parents is high; the number of siblings and therefore the number of people in their household is low; the monthly household income is moderate or high; and the students who like the courses directly related to STEM fields are more interested in choosing STEM careers. It is seen that more than half of the female students who want to choose STEM careers want to pursue a career in medicine. [This study was presented as an oral paper at the International Conference on Science, Mathematics, Entrepreneurship and Technology Education.]

The purposes of this study were to determine whether the departments that high school students consider choosing for their university education belong to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields or not and to reveal the relationship between their choice and gender, grade, and type of institution. The research was conducted during the second semester of 2016-2017 academic year with 2129 students from five public schools located in the Kocasinan and Melikgazi districts of the Kayseri Province in Turkey. Data were collected through a survey instrument requesting students' demographic information and the departments that they selected for university education. Afterward, the departments mentioned by the students were coded as STEM-related and STEM-unrelated departments. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 22.0 Statistic Software and frequencies, percentages, and Chi-square analysis were employed. Significant relationships were found between grade, gender, type of institution, and considering STEM-related department for university education. As a result, this study recommends that informative and stimulating activities involving STEM departments of universities should be organized for senior high school students to promote STEM fields.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career preferences in university of the students at different socioeconomic levels studying in Anatolian high schools and the relation between their socioeconomic levels and preferences. The research is performed with 886 students studying in Anatolian high schools in Kayseri province in the second term of the 2016-2017 academic year. The data is gathered via a form with demographic information and university career preferences of the students. The socioeconomic levels of the students are determined and their university career preferences are coded as STEM career field or non-STEM career field. In the analysis of the data, the SPSS 22 program is utilized. In the analysis of the data, frequency, percentage, and chi-square analysis are used. In the research, a significant relation is found between the socioeconomic levels of the students and whether their university career preferences are within the STEM field or not.

In this research, it is aimed to examine in depth the effect of design based learning (DBL) program on pre-service science teachers' on development of the decision making skills and determine the opinions of pre-service science teachers regarding the effect of the DBL program on decision making skills. For this purpose, embedded integrated design of a mixed-methods approach was employed in this study. In the quantitative part, one-group pre-test and post-test experimental design was used. In the qualitative part was used multiple-case (embedded) design. The study group for the quantitative part of the research is made up of 36 pre-service science teachers determined by convenience sampling method. The qualitative study group is made up of 6 pre-service science teachers determined by maximum variety sampling. The quantitative data of the study were collected via decision-making skills test. DBL activities worksheet and semi-structured interviews were used as qualitative data. Findings indicated that there was a significant difference between participants' pre-test and post-test decision skills measures in favor of the post-tests. In this study, it was determined that the decision process related to the design challenge revealed from the real life situations were identification of the problem, evaluation of the alternatives, decision applications, decision and application steps.

Organosliding is a game adapted from sliding puzzles to teach structural formulas of alkanes to undergraduate students. The goal of this game is to arrange the pieces of the sliding puzzle to form a Kekulé formula of any alkane. The objective is to create as many formulas as students can from one puzzle. The effectiveness of the game was evaluated using qualitative data from 60 senior preservice chemistry teachers and quantitative data from 18 junior preservice chemistry teachers. The data was collected using a SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) form, the alkane knowledge test, and the game rating scale. According to the data obtained from SWOT analysis and the game rating scale, most of the students found the Organosliding game to be very enjoyable and useful. In addition, the Organosliding game develops creativity and visual and spatial intelligence and encourages group work. The alkane knowledge test results show that the Organosliding game is very effective in teaching structural isomers and alkane formulas.

The aim of this study is to reveal pre-service science teachers' cognitive structures regarding Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and science education. The study group of the study consisted of 192 pre-service science teachers. A Free Word Association Test (WAT) consisting of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and science education concepts and semi-structured interview records were utilised to reveal their opinions regarding these concepts and inter-conceptual relations were used as data collection tools. While the WAT was implemented with all of the pre-service teachers, semi-structured interviews were carried out with only eight of the pre-service science teachers. Using two data collection tools via triangulation, enabled the researchers to obtain similar and varied findings. According to the frequencies, WAT was analysed using the cut-off point (CP) method; hence, concept network maps were composed and interviews were descriptively analysed. The findings of the study revealed that pre-service teachers' cognitive structures involved STEM disciplines and science education were quite independent from each other. Also, they could not make a distinction between science concept and science education concept, nor associate "technology, engineering and mathematics' concepts" with "science and science education" concepts.

Problem Statement: Based on developments in the 21st century technology has become a large part of the classroom experience. Teachers need to have an understanding of how technology can be coordinated with pedagogy and content knowledge in order to integrate technology effectively into classroom instruction. Self-efficacy beliefs toward technology also play a key role in technology integration. It has been shown that the beliefs of a teacher are closely linked to the technologies that they use and the way in which they use them. More specifically, the beliefs of a teacher with regards to their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) are pivotal in terms of using technology in the classroom because belief about their capability to use technology is a powerful predictor of their potential technology use. Hence, it is critical to measure pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs toward TPACK in order to identify the factors that contribute to a teacher's use of technology in classroom instruction. Purpose of this Study: The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive instrument to determine pre-service science teacher's self-efficacy beliefs towards TPACK Methods: The participants in the study consisted of 808 senior pre-service science teachers in 17 colleges for teacher education. In this study, the data was split into two random subsamples to perform factor analysis. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using one subsample (n = 420) to determine the factorial structure of the scale, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted on the second subsample (n = 388) in order to confirm the structure model obtained from the EFA analysis in cross-validation the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Self-Efficacy Scale (TPACK-SeS) for a different sample. Item total correlations and Cronbach's alpha internal reliability coefficient were utilized in determining the reliability of the whole scale and its subscales for both samples. Findings and Results: Based on the EFA results, the final version of the scale consists of an eight-factor structure with 52 items. Following EFA, CFA supported this eight-factor structure and showed a good fit with high indices. Cronbach's alpha coefficient, demonstrating the internal consistency reliability of the subscales and whole scale, were found to be high, and item total correlation coefficients were valid for the different samples. Conclusions and Recommendations: The results show that TPACK-SeS can serve as a valuable tool for teachers, educators, and researchers in evaluating pre-service science teacher's self-efficacy beliefs towards TPACK.

Background: Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is critical for effective teaching with technology. However, generally science teacher education programs do not help pre-service teachers develop TPACK. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess pre-service science teachers' TPACK over a semester-long Science Methods. Sample: Twenty-seven pre-service science teachers took the course toward the end of their four-year teacher education program. Design and method: The study employed the case study methodology. Lesson plans and microteaching observations were used as data collection tools. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-based lesson plan assessment instrument (TPACK-LpAI) and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Observation Protocol (TPACK-OP) were used to analyze data obtained from observations and lesson plans. Results: The results showed that the TPACK-focused Science Methods course had an impact on pre-service teachers' TPACK to varying degrees. Most importantly, the course helped teachers gain knowledge of effective usage of educational technology tools. Conclusion: Teacher education programs should provide opportunities to pre-service teachers to develop their TPACK so that they can effectively integrate technology into their teaching.

Laboratory activities are an important means of instruction in science; as such, they have been used in chemistry education since the 1880s. Many learning objectives can be achieved through the use of laboratory activities undertaken by chemistry students. In student-centered laboratory activities, students should know how to use an apparatus in designing an experiment. In this Activity, we describe the development and preliminary use of a game to help students learn the names and functions of common chemistry laboratory equipment. The game, Picture Chem, was played with 30 cards and a playing board. An analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats was used to improve the game. The effectiveness of the game was tested quantitatively, with results showing that students find Picture Chem to be both enjoyable and beneficial.