The views of middle school mathematics teachers on STEM education

The purpose of this study is to investigate secondary school mathematics teachers' views on basic and advanced STEM trainings they have taken part in and the use of STEM activities in class. On the basis of this purpose, the study has been conducted by the case study, one of the qualitative research methods. The sample of the study consists of 12 secondary school mathematics teachers who have participated in basic and advanced STEM trainings in Afyonkarahisar. 11 open – ended questions prepared by the researcher have been asked to the participants. The collected data has been evaluated by content analysis method. By means of the results of the data it has been concluded that practice is more useful for teachers than theory in in – service STEM trainings. It has been determined that the deficiency of prior knowledge in advanced STEM trainings, especially in information technology, leads teachers to have struggles in STEM applications. It has been observed that most of the participants regard the in – service trainings as insufficient and they state they do not use STEM activities in their classes. On the other hand, it has been identified that the teachers consider that time is the reason for discontinuity in STEM trainings and hence, they do not use STEM activities in their courses. It has been observed that the teachers believe STEM trainings provide students with some positive features like learning by doing, developing creativity, concreting mathematics and developing different perspectives; on the other hand, they have some negative thoughts such as difficulty of practice, time and planning and inability to present a product in mathematics training. In addition, it has been determined they are of the opinion that it is difficult to relate mathematics with other disciplines. It has been observed that the teachers have opposing views on the efficiency of the learning outcomes in mathematics at a secondary school on doing mathematics – based STEM activities. In conclusion, in this study, some suggestions have been made that mathematics should be considered in the centre in STEM trainings and some trainings that can be applied at school should be organised.