Abstract:

Introduction:
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is important internationally to develop economies and societies in the 21st century. With the advent of the 4th industrial revolution this has never been more relevant or true… As teachers we have to prepare learners for a future that we cannot predict, but we do know that STEM knowledge and skills will become even more important that they have been up to now. South Africa has a huge shortage of STEM skills, and as a country we lag behind most when it comes to science and math proficiency (Hoadley et al, 2009).

In South Africa Intermediate Phase (grade 4 to 6) teachers are expected to teach all the school subject according to the policy on minimum requirements for programmes leading to qualifications in higher education for early childhood development (DHET, 2017). This means that all teachers being trained for teaching in the Intermediate phase must be qualified for teaching STEM subjects. In South African schools in the intermediate phase Science and Technology is taught together in a subject called Science and Technology, and Mathematics is taught as a separate subject. The fact that Science and Technology is taught as one subject is the ideal opportunity for knowledgeable teachers to embrace some STEM integration principles, but at the same time could cause Technology as a subject to fall by the wayside due to a greater focus on Science in the curriculum (DBE, 2011).

Aim of the study and research question:
The aim of the study was to determine what the perceptions of second year pre-service intermediate phase teachers at a South African university are with regard to how they view STEM and the teaching thereof. The research question for this study was thus: What are the perceptions of second year pre-service intermediate phase teachers of STEM and the teaching thereof in the intermediate phase?

Methodology:
This paper reports on a mixed method study using questionnaires to obtain both qualitative as well as quantitative data.
The sample used for this study included the whole cohort of second year pre-service intermediate phase teachers at a South African university.
data were collected using an adapted version of a STEM perception questionnaire developed by Srikoom et al (2017) including open ended questions as well as Likert scale questions, providing both qualitative as well as quantitative data.

Results:
The students who participated in the study were found to have varied and wide ranging opinions on what exactly constitutes STEM and how it should be taught. The majority of the respondents agree that STEM is a combination of some or all of the STEM subjects in some way, but perspectives vary on how the teaching of STEM should be approached.

Conclusion:
Most of the students who took part in the study have a sense that STEM involves some kind of integration of or overlapping across the STEM subjects. This is heartening when considering the future of STEM education. They do not however have a common understanding of how STEM is to be approached in South African classrooms. The findings of this study will enable lecturers to better equip future teachers to teach STEM in a meaningful way.

Keywords:

STEM, STEM Perception, Teacher training.