The effect of STEM-based education on express expressions and students' academic success in mathematics, attempts and levels of anxiety

The aim of the study is to examine the effects of STEM-based instruction on exponential expressions on ninth grade students' academic achievement in mathematics, their mathematics attitudes and mathematics anxiety-anxiety, their success in solving skill-based questions, and to determine the students' views on STEM. The research is a mixed method research in sequential design. In the research, pretest-posttest single-group experimental design was adopted in the analysis of quantitative data, and content analysis was adopted in the analysis of qualitative data. In the analysis of quantitative data, descriptive statistics, dependent sample t-test, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient were used. In the 2021-2022 academic year, 40 students studying in the ninth grade of two high schools in a town far from the center of Balıkesir participated in the research. Within the scope of the research, "Mathematics Achievement Scale for Exponential Expressions", "Attitude Scale for Mathematics Lesson", "Math Anxiety Scale", "Skill-Based Achievement Test for Exponential Expressions" were applied to ninth grade students. Semi-Structured Interview Form was used as a data collection tool to get the opinions of the students at the end of the STEM-based education. In the study, the data obtained from the quantitative data collection tools were analyzed using the SPSS 24.0 package program. According to the pre-test-post-test results of ninth grade students in STEM-based education and exponential expressions, academic achievements increased, there was no significant difference in mathematics attitudes, and there was a positive significant difference in mathematics anxiety-anxiety levels. Considering the quantitative data analysis results, an acceptable positive change occurred in the ninth grade students' views on STEM after STEM-based education. In the research, suggestions were made to conduct a similar research on different subjects at different grade levels and to make extensive use of STEM-based teaching.