Academic views on concepts related to STEM education approach

It is thought that the fields of study in the world of today and the future will be very different from the past, and therefore, the studies and ideas of the universities and the academicians working in these universities are considered important. For this reason, the aim of this study is to determine the opinions of academicians working in education faculties about STEM education which is one of the innovative science education approaches that emerged as a result of the developments in contemporary education process. STEM education approach aims to prepare individuals for development and innovations by bringing together different disciplines and to ensure that they keep up with the educationally changing world. Considering that STEM education approach encompasses and unites more than one scientific discipline, it is understood that a multi-faceted research is needed to clarify the situation and qualitative research methods are preferred in our study in order to bring different opinions together. In this context, individual and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 72 (seventy-two) academicians working in the Faculty of Education and the word association tests distributed during these interviews were completed by the academicians. As a result of our study, it is revealed that sustainability, environment and 21st century concepts are closely related to science, mathematics, engineering and technology. However, there is no connection between these concepts and Turkish culture, so it is thought that our education system should be open to new regulations.