THE DETERMINATION OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS STEM

The study aims to determine the attitudes of high school students toward STEM. During the development of the survey, a pilot study and the main study was conducted. The pilot study was conducted primarily for the collection and statistical analysis of the research data. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis was carried out for the pilot survey. The statistical results show that the pilot study was reliable and acceptable. The main study was conducted for the comparison and discussion of the research data. The sample of the study comprised 2118 high school students in 12 high schools during the academic year 2018-2019 in Izmir, Turkey. The results showed that the mean score of students' attitudes on STEM decreased from 9th grade to 12th grade in both the metropolitan and suburban areas of the city. Results for gender differences show that the mean score of male high school students' attitude towards STEM was higher than the mean score of female high school students in both metropolitan and suburban areas.