Examining the views of secondary school students on STEM education

The attitudes of middle school students toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) play a crucial role in their interest, motivation, and achievement in science courses. A positive STEM attitude enables students to perceive science not merely as a school subject but as a meaningful domain of learning connected to real-life contexts. Developing favorable attitudes toward STEM enhances students' self- efficacy perceptions and achievement expectations in science, thereby encouraging active classroom participation. Thus, a positive STEM attitude emerges both as a cause and as a consequence of strengthened attitudes toward science.In this study, a cross-sectional survey design, one of the quantitative research methods, was employed. The study sample consisted of 954 middle school students: 6th grade (n = 338), 7th grade (n = 240), and 8th grade (n = 376). Among the participants, 48.1% (n = 459) were male. Data were collected using the Attitude Toward STEM Scale adapted into Turkish by Özcan and Koca (2019) and the Attitudes Scale for Science Course developed by Taşkın and Aksoy (2019). Data analysis was performed using SPSS. Prior to the data analysis, outliers and missing values were removed. The normality assumptions of the dataset were then tested, and non-parametric tests were applied in the analysis. The results revealed that students generally held positive attitudes toward STEM education. Among the subdimensions, the highest scores were observed in 21st-century skills, whereas the lowest were related to mathematics attitudes. Gender-based analysis showed significant differences only in the engineering and technology dimension, in favor of male students. However, attitudes toward science did not differ by gender. A significant difference was found in students' attitudes toward science across grade levels, indicating a decline in attitudes as grade level increased. Considering the rapidly increasing demand for a technology-oriented workforce both in Turkey and worldwide, fostering positive attitudes toward STEM and its components at early ages holds strategic importance for both individual development and societal progress.