Level of Awareness of K-12 Teachers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education

LEVEL OF AWARENESS OF K-12 TEACHERS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (STEME): AN OPEN ONLINE COURSE

NINO A. CRISOLO

Camflora National High School, SDO Quezon Province

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE. This study aimed to determine the level of awareness of K-12 teachers towards STEME with an end view of developing an open online course.

DESIGN/METHOD/APPROACH. This study employed descriptive research design through the use of online survey questionnaire.

FINDINGS. The teachers' level of awareness on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education and their demographic profiles revealed a low to very low and insignificant correlation. This means that teachers' level of awareness on the essential qualities of STEM Education is independent of their age, gender, length in service, present rank, level taught and educational attainment. Thus, an Open Online Course on STEM Education has been developed and is revealed to be highly acceptable in all its parameters. It is recommended that the Open Online Course may be adopted by public schools in the Division of Quezon as a tool in rebranding the current STEM Education.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS. The respondents of this study were composed of 77 conveniently available teachers from 15 public schools in San Andres District, San Andres Quezon. The gathered data was analyzed and interpreted using graphs and tables supported by the use of statistical treatment; frequency count and percentage; and Pearson correlation coefficient (Pearson r). The time frame of this study was from April 2021 to October 2021.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE. This action research is vital in educating teachers about quality STEM Education amidst the global pandemic.

KEYWORDS. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (STEME), Open Online Course, Science Education Program.

INTRODUCTION

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (STEME) is an essential building block of national development and productivity, commercial competitiveness and societal wellbeing. In this regard, strong STEME requires expert teachers in delivering interdisciplinary and applied approach in the four specific discipline - science, technology, engineering and mathematics. According to Barack (2018), alignment in teaching practices across all disciplines is one way to bring more high-quality STEM learning to students, thus, supporting teachers with professional development as well as raising awareness in STEME program is indeed necessary, so, they can master the 21st century skills their students need for nation building.

In a country report prepared by Victorino (2019) for Regional STEM Symposium 2019, she claimed that one of the perceived obstacle of the Department of Education towards STEM education are lack of competent faculty and teacher capacity building. On the other hand, a journal entitled “Science and Technology and the K-12 Education Program” by Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM) suggest other impediments to STEME which are inadequate science curriculum and shortage of STEM facilities. These observations prevent the education department in creating a strong scientific culture for teaching and learning.

Meanwhile, STEM program in the basic education curriculum in the country is only being offered in the senior high school under the Academic Track. However, scholarly findings revealed that evidence based STEM curricula should begin even in the early year of the students in order to set the children on a path where they may develop their love for scientific inquiry (Hand 2017). Incorporating therefore of STEME in the initial year of basic education of DepEd's curriculum is vital in stimulating science processes skills of the learners.

The aforementioned scenarios prompted the researchers to conduct this study in order to determine the level of awareness of the K-12 teachers in STEME with an end view of developing an Open Online Course which will serves as a tool in strengthening their knowledge toward STEME Framework.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study aimed to determine the level of awareness of K-12 teachers in San Andres District in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics Education (STEME) with an end view of developing an Open Online Course for Teachers. Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the demographic profile of teacher-respondent in terms of:
1.1 Age;
1.2 Gender;
1.3 Length of service;
1.4 Present Rank or Designation;
1.5 Subject Level Taught and
1.6 Educational Attainment?

2. What is the level of awareness of the public elementary and secondary school teachers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education (STEME) in terms of:
2.1 Core competencies;
2.2 Instructional design and
2.3 Implementation?

3. Is there a significant relationship between the respondents' level of awareness toward Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) when they are group according to demographic profile?

4. What is the level of acceptability of an Open Online Course for Teachers in terms of;
4.1 Objectives;
4.2 Content;
4.3 Usefulness and
4.4 Educational Significance.

HYPOTHESIS

There is no significant relationship on the respondents' level of awareness toward Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education when they are grouped according to demographic profile.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION

The respondents of this study were composed of 77 conveniently available teachers from 15 public schools in San Andres District, San Andres Quezon. The gathered data was analyzed and interpreted using tables supported by the use of statistical treatment; frequency count and percentage; and Pearson correlation coefficient (Pearson r). The time frame of this study was from April 2021 to October 2021.

METHODOLOGY

Locale of the Study

This study was conducted in all elementary and secondary schools in the District of San Andres. These schools are Alibijaban ES, Banaba ES, Camflora ES, Camflora ES (Annex), Inanuran ES, Mangero ES, Pansoy ES, San Andres CES, Segaras ES, Tala ES, Talisay ES, Tamnao ES, Yugno ES, Camflora NHS and Camfora NHS (Annex).

Research Design

The descriptive research design were used to facilitate the study. Salaria (2012) defined descriptive research as devoted to the gathering of information about prevailing conditions or situation for the purpose of description and interpretation. This type of method is not simply tabulating facts but includes proper analysis, interpretation, comparisons, identification of trends and relationship. In addition, Kowalczyk (2015) noted that descriptive research is design to depict the participants in an accurate way. The researcher employed descriptive research because of its appropriateness leading to get an accurate findings of the study. Specifically, the descriptive survey were utilized to determine the level of awareness of K-12 teacher toward Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education (STEME).

Research Instrumentation

An online checklist questionnaire were used as the main instrument in gathering the data. Terms and conditions indicating the purpose of the survey and assurance of the confidentiality of the data were presented along with the questionnaire. Part I of the questionnaire were designed to provide the demographic profile of the respondents while Part II aimed to determine the level of awareness of the respondents toward Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education (STEME). It was piloted to fifteen (15) K-12 teachers from San Andres District to justify the instrument's validity. These non­respondents have provided valuable information on the questionnaire's design, word construction, and reliability of measurement scales. Meanwhile, the output of this study had undergone series of content evaluation using a self-made questionnaire to assess the content, instructional design, student assessment, technology and course evaluation and management.

Data Gathering Procedure

Upon approval, through the District Supervisor, the link, containing the questionnaire was sent to the school leaders of the fifteen (15) public schools in San Andres. The gathered data served as the basis for developing an Open Online Course for Teacher.

Statistical Treatment

The gathered data were treated and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The demographic profile was determined with the use of percentage frequency distribution and the usual descriptive statistical measures, namely: arithmetic mean, standard deviation (SD), and percentage frequency distribution. The significant relationship between the level of awareness of the teacher-respondents toward Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (STEME) and the aforementioned variables was established using the Pearson correlation coefficient (Pearson r). To interpret the response regarding the level of awareness that the respondents have, the four Likert Scales were used: 4 is interpreted as Fully Aware (3.25-4.00), 3 is interpreted as Moderately Agree (2.50-3.24), 2 is interpreted as Merely Aware (1.75-2.49), and 1 is interpreted as Not Aware (1.00­1.74).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Table 1

Distribution of the Respondents According to Age

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Data shows that 26 or 33.77 % of the 77 respondents are in the age bracket 25 to 29 years old. It is followed by age ranging between 30-34 with 13 or 16.88 and 20-24 years old with 11 or 14.29 % . Seven or 9.09 % have ages ranging from 35 to 39 years old while five or 6.49 % are in the 40-44 age range category. Meanwhile, 4 of 5.19% of the teachers belongs to 45-49 age bracket and another three of 3.90% are aging from 50-54 years old. Furthermore, four teachers are in the age range of 55-59 and another four are aging 60 and above.

The graph further shows that majority of the teachers are below 35 years of age which corresponds to 50 respondents or 64.94 % of the distribution. This implies that the teachers in this study are still young in service.

According to Graham et al. (2020), more years of teaching experience do not by themselves translate into high quality practice. In addition, teaching is a complex and multidimensional activity which requires ongoing professional learning and support.

Table 2

Distribution of the Respondents According to Gender

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As shown, out of 77 respondents, 60 or 77.92 % are females and 17 or 22.08 % are males. The graph further shows that majority of the respondents are female teachers. This implies that the distribution of the respondents according to gender is dominated by female teachers.

In the study of Martin & Marsh (2005), they claimed that motivation is more of a student factor than a teacher factor, and the greatest results are achieved as a result of individual efforts and motivation. Thus, the performance of the students is not dependent on the gender of their teacher.

Table 3 Distribution of the Respondents According to Length of Service

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Out of 77 respondents, 26 or 33.77% are in the service for 2 to 5 years, 16 or 20.78% already spent 6 to 10 years in the service, 12 or 15.58 % have 0 to 1 years of experience, 11 or 14.29 % have 11 to 20 years of teaching experience, another 11 or 14.29 % are over 26 years in the teaching profession and only 1 or 1.30 % are in the service for 21 to 25 years.

The figure further shows that half of the teacher-respondents have at most 5 years in the service. This accounts for 38 respondents or 49.35 % of the distribution. Meanwhile, in a research findings of Graham et al. (2020), reveals that teaching quality of new teachers having 0-3 years of experience is not low. On the other hand, there were some evidences of declining teaching quality teachers with 4-5 years experience.

Table 4

DISTRIBUTION OF THE RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO PRESENT RANK OR DESIGNATION

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Data shows 56 or 72.73 % are in the Teacher I position, 10 or 12.99 % hold the Teacher II position, 5 or 6.49 % are designated as Teacher III, and 6 or 7.79 % are master teachers. Five (5) of which are Master Teacher I and one Master Teacher II. It can be gleaned from the table that majority of the respondents hold Teacher I position. This implies that respondents of this study are dominated by Teacher I.

Table 5

DISTRIBUTION OF THE RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO KEY LEVEL OF STAGES TAUGHT

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As shown, 53 or 68.83% of the respondents are teaching in the Elementary Level, 11 or 14.29% are Junior High School Teachers and 4 or 5.19% are in teaching in the Senior High School. Meanwhile, 9 or 11.69% of them are kindergarten teachers. It can be noted that the majority of the respondents were teachers teaching from Grade 1 to 6.

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