Abstract:

In today’s knowledge and information based economy there is a high labor demand for individuals who have the necessary expertise in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas. However, numerous international research studies have indicated that interest and motivation toward STEM subjects among primary and secondary school children in the member countries of the European Union has declined, and their scientific and mathematical competence (knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes) fall behind the needs of modern highly technological society. Consequently, the majority of secondary school students may choose not to continue their studies in science and technology. Since their absence from the labor market could negatively affect the economic development, it is important to identify the reasons of students’ low interest in STEM subjects. This is one of the main research objectives of an on-going larger project which studies the students’ natural-scientific, mathematical, algorithmic and problem-solving thinking, understanding difficulties, and their learning styles and attitudes towards STEM sciences, including computer science. The study sample will consist of secondary school students from one Hungarian county (Komárom-Esztergom megye), one Slovak region (Nitrianský kraj) and southern Slovakia where the Hungarian minority lives as a regional majority. The proposed research instrument (STEM assessment test) was developed with a total of 20 tasks, 4-4 tasks were chosen from school subjects of informatics, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics. The reliability of this instrument was tested by conducting a pilot study on a small sample (n = 130) of students both from Hungary and Slovakia. In this paper some results, analyses and conclusions of this empirical pilot study are presented, focusing particularly on assessment of four computer science tasks related to execution of given algorithm, analysis of given algorithm, creation of an optimal algorithm, and problem solving and logical thinking.

Keywords:

STEM, STEM education, algorithmic thinking, computer science education, secondary education.