Primary School Teachers‘ Self-efficacy and Difficulties in Implementing STEAM Education

https://doi.org/10.55549/ijaste.59

Abstract

Recently, many countries around the world have paid more attention to the quality of natural and exact sciences, technology and engineering education – STEM disciplines have become extremely important in order to develop economic innovations. Educational research shows that successful integration of STEM requires content and pedagogical knowledge of these subjects, but teachers admit that they feel unprepared to apply STEM methodology. The subject and methodical, reflection and self-improvement competences of the primary school teacher are extremely important when the integration of STEAM subjects appears in the general education programs of many countries. The goal of the pilot study presented in this article is to validate in the Lithuanian sample the questionnaire designed to assess the difficulties of primary school teachers in teaching STEAM and to highlight their self-efficacy features. Statistical data analysis using SPSS 27 revealed the lack of self-efficacy of primary school teachers in teaching subjects related to the fields of chemistry and physics, which is one of the main reasons why teachers have difficulties in implementing STEAM activities. It is expected that the questionnaire will allow assess the professional development needs of primary school teachers and will help higher education institutions to improve teacher training programs.