Examining the effect of STEM leader teacher professionaldevelopment programme on teachers lesson planning skills

As individuals living in the 21st century, it has become almost essential to be aware of and live in harmony with the requirements of this age. One of the areas that should keep up with these needs is undoubtedly education. In providing individuals with 21st-century skills, the STEM education approach has gained momentum in recent years and continues to gain importance day by day. A successful STEM application relies on teachers who have a strong command of STEM education and have developed their own design identity. This study examines the effect of the STEM Lead Teacher Professional Development program on teachers STEM lesson plan design skills. The sample for this study consists of 40 science teachers who participated in the STEM Leader Teacher Professional Development program in 2021-2022. A causal comparison design using quantitative methods was employed in this study. The data were collected by comparing the first and last lesson plans designed by the teachers during the professional development program, which were obtained from the Itslearning platform. The data were analyzed using the STEM Lesson Plan Rubric. SPSS 25 statistical software was utilized for the data analysis, employing dependent groups t-test. The analysis of the findings revealed that the mean scores obtained from the teachers last lesson plans were higher than the mean scores obtained from their first lesson plans. As a result of this study, it was concluded that the STEM Leader Teacher Professional Development Program had a positive effect on teachers lesson plan design skills. For practitioners, recommendations include diversifying the training materials, providing additional time for teachers participating in the professional development training, and increasing the number of face-to-face workshops and inter-curricular meetings. For researchers, suggestions were made to diversify data collection and data analysis methods in future studies.