The relationship between secondary students' STEM career interests and teachers' STEM attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs

Two of the most important problems of the century we live in the history of humanity, in which we witness the rapid changes in technology and industry, are how to raise future generations and what their career choices will be. For this reason, it is of great importance to examine the factors that affect secondary school students' career interests in STEM fields. From this point of view, in this study, the effect of teacher-based factors (attitude, self-efficacy) on secondary school students' professional interests in STEM fields was examined. In this study, in which the survey model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, and the relational survey design, which is one of the survey model types, are used, the variables that may affect the STEM career interests of secondary school students, the attitudes of mathematics and science teachers towards STEM education, and STEM practices self-efficacy were examined separately. The sample of the research is in secondary schools in Kırşehir province in the 2021-2022 academic year; It consists of 421 secondary school students studying and 160 mathematics and science teachers working. In the data collection process, the Interest Scale for Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering Professions adapted to Turkish by Koyunlu Ünlü, Dökme and Ünlü (2016) for students, and the STEM Attitude Scale developed by İnam (2020) for teachers and Yaman, Özdemir and Akar Vural (2018) STEM Applications Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale was used. In the analysis of the data, both descriptive analyzes and one-way analysis of variance ANOVA and t-test for independent groups were used. In addition, a linear regression analysis was conducted on the prediction of students' STEM career interests by teachers' STEM attitude and STEM practices self-efficacy. The results show that the level of interest of students towards STEM professions is positive. It was determined that students' STEM career interests differed significantly according to gender, grade level, pre-school education status, father's education level and monthly income of the family. It was determined that teachers' STEM attitudes and STEM practices self-efficacy were generally positive. There was a positive low-level relationship between students' interest in STEM career fields and teachers' STEM attitudes, and a moderately significant relationship between STEM practices self-efficacy. Suggestions were made to the relevant stakeholders in order to increase the students' interest in STEM professions.