IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2021i1p379-d714743.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Approach Enhance Students’ Mathematics Performance?

Author

Listed:
  • Suik Fern Kong

    (Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi 43600, Malaysia)

  • Mohd Effendi Ewan Mohd Matore

    (Research Centre of Education Leadership and Policy, Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi 43600, Malaysia)

Abstract

The STEM approach is a student-centred teaching and learning process that involves an inquiry process in problem-solving questions. This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the STEM approach in enhancing students’ mathematics performance. The study used a quasi-experimental design of unbalanced groups through the pre-test and post-test for treatment and control groups. The instrument included a set of questionnaires on student attitudes towards STEM implementation and the three-dimensional geometric shapes achievement test. The research samples included 14-year-old students from one of the private secondary schools in Kuching, which involved 68 students who were selected using purposive sampling. The results showed that student attitudes towards the implementation of the STEM approach were at a moderate level. In addition, the results illustrated a significant and moderate difference in mathematics performance between students who participated in the STEM approach and the conventional method using pre-test and post-test. The mean score of the post-test performance for the STEM approach was higher compared to the mean score of post-test performance for the conventional method. The results of the study demonstrated that the implementation of the STEM approach that involved both inquiry-based learning and problem-based learning was effective and able to improve the students’ academic performance. This can help teachers to vary their teaching and learning methods by increasing student interactions and engagement. Improvements can be made in the future by adding more research samples to expand the context of the study and prolong the treatment duration. Researchers can also add research variables in future studies by examining student interests and motivations towards the STEM approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Suik Fern Kong & Mohd Effendi Ewan Mohd Matore, 2021. "Can a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Approach Enhance Students’ Mathematics Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:379-:d:714743
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/379/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/379/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:379-:d:714743. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.