Attitudes of pre-service teachers towards STEAM: A scale development study

It is essential for pre-service teachers to have a positive attitude towards Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) education for them to be able to successfully apply the STEAM approach. In this context, within the scope of the current research, it is aimed to develop a valid and reliable STEAM scale to evaluate the attitudes of pre-service teachers who are studying in the fields of teaching related to STEAM disciplines of education faculties, and to examine the attitudes of them towards STEAM education in terms of various variables with developed scale. In this scale development study, correlational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in accordance with the purpose and nature of the study. During the research process, the scale development steps were followed in order and validity and reliability studies were carried out. The sample of the study consists of pre-service teachers who are studying in the fields of teaching related to STEAM disciplines (Science Teaching, Mathematics Teaching, Preschool Teaching, Computer and Instructional Technologies Education, Classroom Teaching, Chemistry Teaching, Physics Teaching, Biology Teaching). In the study, the sample was selected from the population by the convenient sampling method, considering the conditions of the researcher and the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic period. In the research, a total of 715 participants from different universities and departments were reached. As a result of the examinations, the number of participants included in the analysis was determined as 561. The STEAM attitude scale, which was developed in the study, was used as a data collection tool in the research, and the personal information form prepared by the researcher was used to determine the demographic characteristics of the participants. In the study, the analyzes were carried out using the SPSS 24 and Lisrel 8.80 package program. In the process of developing the STEAM attitude scale, the steps of Literature Review, Item Pool Development, Expert Opinion Phase, Pretesting Phase, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Reliability Phase were followed, respectively. As a result of factor analysis, a scale consisting of 21 items and 3 sub-dimensions with construct validity and a reliability coefficient of .893 was created. In the second stage of the study, the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards STEAM and its sub-dimensions were examined according to the variables of gender, grade level and department. In order to analyze the data according to the variables, Independent Sample t-test (gender) and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) (department and grade level) methods were used. During the research process, the analyzes were carried out using the SPSS 24 package program. As a result of the research, it was determined that the pre-service teachers' attitude levels towards STEAM education and "21st Century Skills" and "Art and Design" sub-dimensions were "Very High", and their level of attitude towards "Engineering and Design Skills" sub-dimension was "High". On the other hand, it was concluded that the STEAM attitudes of pre-service teachers did not differ significantly in terms of the overall scale and its sub-dimensions, according to the variables of gender and grade level. When the analyzes were made according to the variable of the department, it was concluded that the "Attitudes Towards Engineering and Design Skills" levels of the pre-service science teachers were significantly higher than those of the primary school mathematics and classroom pre-service teachers.