The effect of STEM-based laboratory practices on science teacher candidates' scientific creativity, scientific process and 21st century skills

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of STEM approach on the scientific creativity, scientific process skills and 21st century skills of pre-service 3rd grade science teachers' performing STEM applications within the scope of "Science Teaching Laboratory Practices I" course. A one-group pretest-posttest weak experimental design was used in the study. The study was conducted with 29 pre-service science teachers studying in the 3rd grade of a state university in Balıkesir province in the 2024-2025 academic year. "Scientific Creativity Test", "Scientific Process Skills Test" and "Multidimensional 21st Century Scale" were used as data collection tools in the study; these scales were applied to pre-service teachers before and after the application. SPSS 20.0 statistical program was used to analyze the data obtained. Since the data did not fit the normal distribution, they were analyzed with Wilcoxon signed-rank test. In line with the findings obtained, it was observed that the STEM approach did not create a significant difference in all three skill areas, but it was also observed that the total scores of pre-service teachers in these skill areas had a positive increase. As a result of the study, suggestions were made on how pre-service teachers can benefit more from such applications.