HOW DOES THE MAKER MOVEMENT AFFECT THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIONS' ROLES ON IMPROVING THE STEM EDUCATION?

The education system has been changed since the importance of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education was accepted as the most relevant educational requirements of the 21st century. The last changes in the Internet and new computer technologies, including those of the artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data management have pushed the new types of content and learning in order to make ready the students for the knowledge and innovation based jobs in the global economies. Hence, the school administrations have changed their policies in the spaces, labs, and studios while taking into account the new materials, the machines, the methodologies, and the curricula in order to stimulate the STEM fields in the school ecosystem. To understand the effectiveness of the school administrations in the middle schools on the STEM education by encouraging the maker movement, this research had been strategically conducted. The participants (n=24) were selected among the five middle schools in which most of the middle schools students (864) have actively participated in the maker movement. The members of the school administrations, including some of the teachers who were active in changing the spaces, the materials, the machines, the methodologies, and the curricula were involved in the depth interviews. The data were collected and clustered according to the subtitles of the research questions. Then, the clustered data were analyzed through the NVivo by conducting qualitative data analysis. On the other hand, the effects of the school administrations on the middle schools students' decisions on the STEM fields due to the maker movement, the questionnaire was used and analyzed through SPSS. The result of the qualitative data had showed clearly that the school administrations of the middle schools that were active in the maker movement were much better in changing the students' decisions on the STEM fields since the maker movement activities had accelerated the students' interests. However, those who were not very active in the maker movement could not effective in persuading the students' decisions. The leadership style of the schools administrations was the most important impact on the students' decisions due to the fact that they played important leadership roles in the maker movement in which the students' impressions related to their school administrations and to their teachers were higher than those of the students whose school administrations and teachers were not so active. As the participants had openly mentioned that the activities in the maker movement helped them to understand the skills and the talents of their students to encourage them in different fields of STEM. The quantitative data collected by the students had showed that the students were more confident in the STEM education through the maker movement since they had been supported by their teachers and their school administrations, who explained the importance of the STEM education to their parents. The students, particularly the girls who were actively involved in the STEM projects in the maker movement became more conscious about the fields that they wanted to study. Consequently, the school administrations, especially the teachers were very effective on the students to make them choose the STEM fields through the maker movement. Therefore, the maker movement could be used effectively in improving the STEM education the in the school ecosystems.