Measuring Teachers’ Perceptions to Sustain STEM Education Development

• Published in: Sustainability Vol. 12; no. 4; p. 1531
• Main Authors: Thi To Khuyen, NGUYEN, Van Bien, NGUYEN, Lin, Pei-Ling, Lin, Jing, Chang, Chun-Yen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 18.02.2020
• Subjects: Beginning teachers; Climate change; Curricula; Instructional design; Integrated approach; Investigations; Learning; Mathematics education; Pedagogy; Philosophy; Researchers; Robotics; Schools; Science education; STEM education; STEM professions; Students; Sustainable development; Teaching methods; Technology education; Vietnam
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su12041531

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasized teachers as the cornerstone for the betterment of education. Teachers’ practices are strongly affected by teachers’ perceptions. The purpose of this study was to identify teachers’ perceptions to sustain STEM education development, regarding STEM education, STEM competencies, and difficulties in STEM implementation. We collected the data from 186 Vietnamese teachers, including STEM sub-field teachers and no STEM sub-field teachers. We used a survey method to capture teachers’ perceptions of STEM education. The one-way ANOVA was employed to examine the differences in teachers’ perceptions of STEM education in terms of the categorization of teaching experience, education background, and teaching subjects. The quantitative analysis showed that most Vietnamese teachers had positive views on STEM education. The higher educational background teachers and science teachers have the highest statistically significant scores in (1) STEM education, (2) STEM competencies, and (3) difficulties in implementation. The novice teachers have more positive views of STEM education, in terms of a better understanding of STEM education and assessing STEM competencies as being more valuable. There are no statistically significant differences in teachers’ difficulties among teaching experience groups. These results provide valuable information to design effective teacher professional development to sustain STEM education.