B. The Research Problem and Questions
It is common practice throughout many Arab nations
that subjects such as science and mathematics are taught
separately as ‘silos’ through a discipline-based approach
with limited connection to real life situations. For
teachers to shift from their comfort zones of teaching in
the ‘silos’ and promote for an ‘integrated’ STEM
education learning model, there is a need to identify how
teachers perceive such integration and implementation in
addition to identifying the factors, from their point of
view, which could facilitate or hinder the enactment of
such integrated practices.
Nonetheless, for teachers to introduce STEM education
into their schools several aspects should be taken into
consideration. These include teachers’ deep content
knowledge, strong belief in innovative teaching strategies
that has at its core student centred teaching,
interdisciplinary learning to building bridges across
subjects, and the development of strong teams that are
able to create a culture of success in schools through
professional communities. There are claims that the
number of mathematics and science teachers with handson experience working in STEM education is limited and
teachers may also lack educational background in STEM
according to a finding by NSF that 30% of science
middle school teachers lack in-field training [NSF 2012,
cited in 10].
In order to promote STEM education, this study seeks
to identify teachers’ perceptions regarding STEM
education and its interdisciplinary nature, identifying the
factors that facilitate or hinder such a form of instruction
in their schools. Being one of the first studies on STEM
education in Saudi Arabia, the research questions focus
on the following:
What are science teachers’ perceptions of STEM
education?
What are the factors that facilitate and hinder
STEM education practices?
II. RESEARCH METHODS
The authors opted to administer a qualitative
instrument. The instrument was used consecutively to
strengthen the quality of evidence that would help
identify how teachers perceive STEM education and code
their perceptions using a grounded theory approach to
data analysis. The study used focus group interviews to
discuss science teachers’ familiarity with and perceptions
of STEM education and interdisciplinary activities
conducted in their schools. The 21 participating teachers
involved in the focus groups represented 21 different
middle schools in Riyadh from a total of 418 schools.
Teachers were randomly grouped on their arrival at the
local district office, where the focus group took place,
into five groups.
A. Participants
Participants of this study included middle school Saudi
science teachers in local educational districts in Riyadh.
These districts were chosen because they are part of the
partnership program with the centre which is sponsoring
this study. All teachers involved were science middle
school male teachers who agreed to participate on a
voluntarily basis and signed a consent form that was
approved by Institutional Review Board. A total of 23
teachers were involved in the study. We anticipated
requiring teachers to administer three key instruments
developed by the authors. These were lesson plan
protocol, reflective paper, and a semi-structured interview
protocol. Only two teachers were able to agree to work
with the authors and commit to participating due to the
limited time they could afford to spend on the study yet
others teachers’ interest in such an innovative topic was
noted.