Attitudes and Opinions of Greek Teachers Regarding STEM Education
Eirini Golegou
University of the Peloponnese, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, Tripoli, Greece.
Manolis Wallace
University of the Peloponnese, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, Tripoli, Greece.
Kostas Peppas
*
University of the Peloponnese, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, Tripoli, Greece.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
STEM education is a means of linking the knowledge acquired at school with the skills that individuals will develop in their working lives. It is precisely because this type of education is gaining ground worldwide that it is considered appropriate to explore the attitudes and opinions of Greek teachers towards STEM education, since they are the ones who will be called upon to implement it. In order to make a change towards this type of education, it seems appropriate to be aware of the obstacles that teachers encounter in their everyday life and to what extent they think that it can contribute. The survey was carried out in the form of a questionnaire with closed questions. The sample was randomly selected and comprised 90 primary and secondary school teachers from Greek public and private schools. The teachers' participation was voluntary, and the results were analyzed using the programme SPSS.The survey showed that teachers consider learning 21st century skills to be important and that they consider themselves ready to use them. They also believe that any knowledge they have acquired has come from their own initiative.
Keywords: STEM education, teachers’ opinions, 21st century skills, teachers’ attitudes, STEM fields