Investigation of Pre-Service Science Teachers' Attitudes Towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

This study aims to investigate pre-service science teachers' attitudes towards Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and 21st century skills. The research design used was descriptive survey methods. The data was taken from the international class in the science education department at a university in Indonesia. The sample of 79 pre-service science teachers consists of 73 female and 6 male. The results show that the mean score of pre-service science teachers' attitudes in the STEM field is 3.87; the 21st century skills 3.79; Science 3.74; Engineering 3.41; and Mathematics 3.13. Pre-service science teachers have the greatest interest in the STEM field with 3.87 and the lowest interest in Mathematics with 3.13. The statistical test shows that there is a significant difference between STEM field and Mathematics field. Based on these results, it can be concluded that pre-service science teachers prefer STEM field compared to mathematics, so teaching science with learning approaches using Mathematics or Physics formulas is less appealing to pre-service science teachers. Therefore, lecturers can use other alternative approaches in teaching science, one of them is using STEM approach. In teaching science, it can be integrated in the field of Technology, Engineering and Mathematics so that pre-service science teachers are expected to have more interest in learning science. This study can also be adapted to measure attitudes towards the STEM field and 21st century skills in other populations.