Abstract:

Even though the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education, including Arts has dominantly become very strategic in the education systems, most of the school administrations, particularly those of the high schools are struggling in applying properly in their structures. More importantly, the values related to STEM are so new and ambivalent that the effective strategies are not developed. In the application and the development of the STEM of the educational administration, the school administrations mainly play important and crucial roles. Since most of the key leaders at the educational administrations spend extra time and effort, their motivation is strategically important.

In order to analyze critically the effects of the key leaders’ motivation of the high schools for STEM education, the quantitative research method had been developed in 6 different high schools in Istanbul. In this research, not only the key leaders (n=54) but also the students (n=354) had been participated to understand clearly the level of the motivation and the effects on the application of the STEM education. The STEM Assessment was systematically used together with the Motivation Assessment- the subscale of the Emotional Intelligent Test. The data were analyzed by using SPSS.

The results showed that the motivation of the key leaders at the school administration play important roles in the development of STEM education. At the school in which the motivation of the key leaders was high (91%), the adaptability of the STEM education had increased 86%. However, in the schools, particularly those of the state schools, since the motivation levels of the key leaders were not high (34%), the application of the STEM education was not high (23%). Additionally, this positive correlation between the motivation level of the key leaders and the adaptability of STEM education was seen also in the students, Motivation towards the STEM education. The students’ motivation towards the STEM education was high (87%) if the motivation of the key leaders was high (91%). The same kind of correlation was seen also in the low level motivation of the key leaders, which was (34%). In this situation, the students’ motivation was (26%).

The subscales of the motivation are also important in terms of developing and adapting the STEM education in the high school administrations. The subscales of the motivation are called achievement drive, commitment, taking responsibility, and optimism. When the four subscales of the key leaders were high, the four subscales of the students were high too particularly in the achievement drive. On the other hand, in the case where the key leaders’ the four subscales was low, the four subscales of the students was low too, specifically in taking responsibility and optimism. Therefore, the training of the key leaders at education administration is the first attempt to develop the STEM education.

Keywords:

Educational Administration, Leaders, High School Administration, STEM Education, Motivation, Assessment of STEM, Assessment of Motivation.