Date of Award

Fall 12-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

STEM Education & Professional Studies

Program/Concentration

Occupational and Technical Studies

Committee Director

Philip A. Reed

Committee Member

Michael F. Kosloski

Committee Member

Cherng-Jyh Yen

Abstract

Education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has become widely promoted in recent years. Quality STEM education could maintain or increase the number of individuals preparing for careers in these fields and increase STEM literacy for the population. Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) education has always used science to improve home life while reinforcing technology, engineering, and mathematics principles through hands on, relevant learning activities in the classroom. However, it is not usually recognized as a STEM subject. The purpose of this study was to determine what factors may affect FCS teachers’ level of self-efficacy in teaching STEM education in order to provide supports that improve teaching practices. This quantitative study surveyed middle and high school FCS teachers in Pennsylvania using the T-STEM Survey for Elementary Teachers. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The first research question explored the level of self-efficacy of FCS teachers regarding teaching STEM concepts. The second research question explored how each of the teacher demographic variables respectively predict the level of self-efficacy of FCS teachers when teaching STEM concepts. The five independent teacher demographic variables were participation in FCCLA, number of STEM courses taken, education level, number of years in teaching, and gender. Overall, FCS teachers scored highest in 21st century learning attitudes and lowest in STEM instruction. The results indicated that the independent variable number of STEM courses taken was a significant predictor of 21st century learning attitudes (β= .02, SE = .01, p = .019).

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Copyright, 2022, by Charlene Wirfel Smith, All Rights Reserved.

DOI

10.25777/yf8z-hw07

ISBN

9798371979339

ORCID

0000-0003-2851-3740

Download

Share

COinS