Prepared applications based on the STEM education approach on the academic and scientific process skills of the class teacher candidates

The aim of this research is to determine the effects of the applications prepared in accordance with the STEM education approach in Science and Technology Laboratory Applications-II course on the academic success of the pre-service teachers, the permanence of their knowledge, and their scientific process skills and to determine the opinions of the pre-service teachers about the STEM education approach. The sample of the research consists of 63 teacher candidates studying in the first and second groups of the second year of Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, Faculty of Education, Department of Class Education in the 2018-2019 academic spring term. While the first group of these groups was taught according to the STEM education approach (n=30), the second group was randomly determined according to the deductive laboratory approach (n=33). This research is in the quasi-experimental design model with pretest-posttest experimental group, which is one of the quantitative research approaches. In the research, academic achievement test and scientific process skill test and semi-structured interview form were used. SPSS was used for the quantitative analysis of the data, and descriptive analysis was used for the qualitative analysis. According to the research findings, it is seen that the STEM education approach increases academic achievement and scientific process skills compared to the deductive laboratory approach. In addition, in the semi-structured interview with the pre-service teachers in the experimental group, it was concluded that the pre-service teachers expressed a positive opinion about the STEM education approach.