Primary school teachers' determination of sufficiency and attitudes towards STEM education

STEM, which is an interdisciplinary educational approach, consists of the abbreviation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This approach, which has become popular all over the world in recent years, is becoming more widespread in our country. Many countries that want to make technological and economic progress make significant investments in STEM education. Primary school teachers, who are the main actors of basic education, have duties in the implementation of STEM education. The attitudes of primary school teachers towards STEM education also affect students' percpecitive and perceptions of STEM education. In this study, it was aimed to examine the sufficiency and attitudes of teachers towards STEM education. The aim of the study is to determine the sufficiency and attitudes of primary school teachers towards STEM education. The study group of this research includes 324 primary school teachers (141 females, 183 males) who working in Batman city center, districts and villages. In the research, a mixed research design was used in which qualitative and quantitative methods were used together. The research was conducted in two successive stages. In the first stage of the study, "STEM Sufficiency and Attitudes of Teachers (T-STEM) was applied. The scale consists of 83 items and 9 categories. In the second stage of the study, the "Interview Form'', which was prepared by the researcher and given the expert opinion, was applied to determine the teachers' opinions about STEM education. According to the data obtained in the study, it was determined that the teachers' sufficiency and attitudes towards STEM education did not show a significant difference according to the gender, year of service and the region where they were employed, and their qualifications for STEM education were high. As a result of the interviews with the teachers, STEM education should be implemented starting from elementary school, this education positively improves students' attitudes towards science and contributes to meaningful learning. Most of the teachers stated that they want to apply STEM education in their classrooms but there are deficiencies in the implementation point. Primary school teachers stated that problems such as lack of materials, lack of time and lack of in-service training would create problems during the implementation phase of STEM education.