Can a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Stem) approach enhance students’ mathematics performance?

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.