Primary School Teacher’s Beliefs and Perception of STEM Education in Indonesia

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-434-1_7How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Teacher Belief; Teacher Perception; STEM Approach

Abstract

The recent Indonesian Emancipated Curriculum, aims to provide educators flexibility in creating quality learning that suits their needs and learning environments. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is connected with this aim by fostering critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities necessary for enhancing students to the demands of a technologically advanced future. However, the absence of structured support and explicit guidance in the curriculum makes STEM integration complicated for many teachers. This study will portray Indonesia’s primary teachers’ beliefs and perceptions of STEM approaches. Investigating teachers’ beliefs and perceptions is essential as these factors significantly influence their readiness and ability to apply innovative approaches such as STEM. Understanding these perceptions helps identify the gaps which are necessary to enhance the effective implementation of STEM approaches. This research was conducted with the participation of 50 teachers who worked in primary schools in different regions of Indonesia. A questionnaire and interview survey were conducted for data collection. The results show that the lack of understanding of primary school teachers happened for some reasons, such as 1) personal belief: teachers did not have the confidence to implement STEM in their classrooms; (2) implementation barrier: no guidance in Indonesia’s curriculum; and (3) professional needs: less training and workshops for STEM education in primary schools. This study highlights the need for teachers’ professional development to boost their confidence in implementing STEM approaches in their classrooms and as input for policymakers regarding teacher’s perception of STEM learning in Indonesia primary schools.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Silvi Amaliatus Sholihah
AU  - Hesih Permawati
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/07/03
TI  - Primary School Teacher’s Beliefs and Perception of STEM Education in Indonesia
BT  - Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Mathematics Education and Innovation (ISMEI 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 77
EP  - 87
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-434-1_7
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-434-1_7
ID  - Sholihah2025
ER  -