THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DESIGN BASED STEM ACTIVITIES ON PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS AND STEM TEACHING INTENTIONS

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of design-based stem activities on pre-service science teachers’ problem-solving skills and integrated stem teaching intentions. the study group consisted of 24 third grade pre-service science teachers who are enrolled in a mid-size public university in the aegean region of turkey in 2017-2018 fall semester. the study adopted an explanatory sequential design. the data were collected by problem solving skills, integrated stem teaching intention questionnaires and laboratory sheets. the questionnaires were administrated as pre-test and post-test before and after implementation of design based stem activities in science teaching laboratory applications i course. laboratory sheets were used in interpreting quantitative data. the results revealed that design-based stem activities improved pre-service science teachers’ problem-solving skills and integrated stem teaching intentions. based on these results, suggestions are made for introducing design-based stem activities into teacher education programs.