Teachers’ beliefs about STEM education based on realisation of the ‘‘Energy as a Value’’ Project in the Slovenian School System

• Autores: Andreja Drobnic Vidic
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 33, no. Extra 1 (Parte B), 2017 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Current Trends in K-12 Engineering Education), págs. 408-419
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The cross-curricular projectEnergy as a Valuedescribed in this study involved almost all subjects in the K-12 curriculum ofthe so-called technical gymnasium. It became the framework for an effective Science, Technology, Engineering andMathematics (STEM) education. Although the project offered interdisciplinary connection of all STEM subjects,promoted problem-based learning and pointed out to applications of subjects’ contents to engineering profession it wasnot added up as a successful one. Teachers’ satisfaction was questionable at the end of the four-year project time. Teacherswere notinitiators for a new project. The Engineering Education Beliefs and Expectations Instrument for STEM educationis used in order to find the reasons for such an ambitious project not being carried out again. The instrument documentsteachers’ beliefs and expectations about pre-college engineering instruction, college preparation, and career success inengineering, and compares teachers’ views. It is applied to teachers of technical gymnasiums in Slovenia that teach STEMsubjects in order to find out if there are differences between beliefs of teachers that carried out theEnergy as a Valueprojectand teachers from other technical gymnasiums, as well as differences between beliefs of mathematics/science teachers andtechnology-based/engineering teachers. The results of statistical analyses give answers about obstacles that teachers whocarried out the ambitious STEM education in a particular school system might be confronted with