Students Attitudes towards STEM based on Gender

Abstract

Increasing demand for workers at various skill-levels in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is motivating government and schools to increase the quality of graduates with STEM competencies. Teachers and institutes have been working to develop integrated education programs. One of their efforts is implementing STEM integrated learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate students attitudes towards STEM differed by gender through survey study. The participants were 52 seventh grade junior high school students (69,23% female and 30,77% male) who were studying at Junior High School in Aceh. Questionnaires were used to examine students attitudes towards STEM after integrated STEM learning was conducted in mathematics lesson. The results of this study indicate that female students showed more positive results compared to male students in all component of STEM. The results also indicated that technology/engineering became the dominant preference among male students and following by 21st century skill and mathematics. Meanwhile, 21st century skill became the dominant preference among female students and following by technology/engineering and mathematics.