Understanding of stem education among chemistry teachers in district of Melaka Tengah

Abstract

21st century system of education is very challenging since teachers are required to teach the students to solve STEM problems in various fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This study was conducted to identify the chemistry teachers' understanding on the definition of STEM education and design the STEM teaching strategy according to their understanding. The study involved 20 chemistry teachers at eleven schools in the district of Malacca Tengah and qualitative research approach was adopted. The research design of this study was case study. Open-ended questions was the research instrument used to collect data. The data were analyzed by using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that six chemistry teachers gave the meaning of STEM education as an acronym of "STEM" and used the word of "integration" in defining STEM education. The results showed that there one of the respondents did not understand the definition of STEM education and unsure how to implement STEM education. The results also reported that nine chemistry teachers were unable to design a STEM teaching. The implication of this study is to provide awareness to teachers and students that STEM education is very important in shaping the 21st century teaching and learning process.