Preliminary Analysis of Attitude towards Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics (STEM) among the Secondary School Teachers in Malaysia

Introduction

The 60:40 Policy was instituted by the Malaysian’s Ministry of Education (MOE) since 1967
and the implementation was started in 1970. The 60:40 Policy aims to enroll 60% and 40% of
students into the Science / Technology and Art streams, respectively. However, the statistics in
2014 pointed out that, only approximately 45% of upper secondary students had completed
their study in Science stream or Technology / Vocational programs. Moreover, there were
approximately 15% of students who have met the entry requirement for Science / Technology
stream had decided to enroll into the Art stream. (Azian, 2015). Although the 60:40 Policy has
been implemented for almost half the decade, the targeted 60:40 ratio was still far out of reach.

Currently in Malaysian primary and secondary schools’ classrooms, STEM disciplines are
taught separately. Science and mathematics are taught as two isolated subjects in primary and
secondary classrooms as core and compulsory subjects while technology and engineering
disciplines are taught as elective subjects. The traditional and separated approaches to science
and mathematics education have, in fact, prepared some students to be capable in science and
mathematics. However, at the same time, study Sanders (2009) have shown that a large
percentage of students have lose their interest in science and mathematics at the primary and
lower secondary level. Consequently, most of them have made an early exit from pursuing
STEM fields. In addition, many of the students completed their upper secondary school with
relatively low science and / or mathematics ability.

Additionally, the examination oriented educational system have urged both the teachers and
students to focus on drilling and remembering facts and repetition of problem solving exercises,
rather than on developing students’ higher thinking skills and creativity. This situation is getting
worst when the assessment of science and mathematics was also tried to test the students’
memorization skill.

Attitudes towards Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM)

A number of researches and studies have revealed that one of the fundamental problems in
today’s school is the traditional and separated approaches. This has resulted many students fail
to make connections between the prior knowledge and the new experience or skills within the
real world contexts. The traditional didactic teaching and learning methods may lead to
memorization of factual information. The students often fail to elicit comprehension of
meaningful learning (Hafizan, Shahali & Halim, 2017; Wang et al. 2011). Often students found
difficulties in solving complex problem because they are unable to apply cohesively the
knowledge learnt from separated classrooms.

Quality and effective STEM education are vital for the future success of students and prepare
them for the 21st Century global challenges. STEM education is expected to prepare the students
to have strong foundation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In this regard,
educators and researchers are trying to seek for the best solution in order to improve the quality
of STEM education. This is to meet the goal of increasing students’ interest and achievement
in STEM fields. In fact, there was no common definition for STEM education. Neither
educators nor researchers consistently agreed what STEM education should really be.
According to Corlu, Capraro & Capraro (2014), STEM education included the knowledge,
skills and beliefs that are collaboratively constructed at the intersection of more than one STEM
subject areas. STEM education covers a larger and more comprehensive understanding than
theses individual.

Integration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

Integration of subjects is much more than a matter of simply putting different subject areas
together in a same class or teaching and learning lesson. Sanders (2009) defined that integrated
STEM education as ‘an approach that explore teaching and learning between any two or more
STEM subject areas or between a STEM subject and one or more other school subjects”. On
the other hand, Moore et. al. (2014) described integrated STEM education as “an effort to
integrate some or all the four disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics
into one teaching and learning lesson that based on connections between subjects and real world
problems” (Kelley, & Knowles 2016). As summary, integrated STEM education can provides
great problem solving opportunities for the students to experience learning STEM in a real
world situation.

Most of the research studies have focused on the students’ performance in STEM. However,
little research has so far been put together to investigate how teachers perceive STEM’s
teaching and learning. In fact, teachers are the key agent of any policy implementation which
is related to teaching and learning process. Therefore, attention paid to teachers’ understanding
and attitudes towards STEM education is an essential step in exploring the provision of the best
practice in STEM education. Teachers have different licensures and backgrounds, hence more
research are needed to gain a better understanding of teachers’ attitudes towards STEM
education.

REFERENCES
Azian, Tengku Syed Abdullah (Director, Education Planning & Research Division (EPRD), M.
of E. M. (2015). STEM Education : Policies And Prospects Toward Achieving
International Standard And Meeting National Development Needs STEM Initiative in
Malaysia Education Blueprint. Keynote Address given at International Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics High-Level Policy Forum on Evidenced-Based
Science Education in Developing Countries, 26-27 May 2015, Istana Hotel, Kuala Lumpur,
1–19. Retrieved from http://www.akademisains.gov.my/download/STEM Education_Dr
Azian.pdf

Corlu, M. S., Capraro Prof., R. M., & Capraro, M. M. (2014). Introducing STEM education:
Implications for educating our teachers for the age of innovation. Egitim ve Bilim, 39(171),
74–85.

Hafizan, E., Shahali, M., & Halim, L. (2017). STEM Learning through Engineering Design :
Impact on Middle Secondary Students ’ Interest towards STEM. EUROASIA Journal of
Mathematics Science and Technology Education, 8223(5), 1189–1211.
http://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00667a

Kelley, T. R., & Knowles, J. G. (2016). A conceptual framework for integrated STEM
education. International Journal of STEM Education, 3(1), 11.
http://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-016-0046-z

Moore, T. J., Stohlmann, M. S., Wang, H.-H., Tank, K. M., Glancy, A. W.,& Roehrig, G. H.
(2014). Implementation and integration of engineering in K–12 STEM education. In, S.
Purzer, J. Strobel, & M. Cardella (Eds.), Engineering in precollege settings: Research into
practice (pp. 35–60). West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.

Sanders, M. (2009). STEM, STEM Education, STEMAnia. Education, 68(4), 20–27.