Preschool Teachers’ Competency in Stem Education Implementation

Abstract

Teachers play a very important role in educating students since preschool. Competent teachers are those who have high pedagogical practice, high self-efficacy and in-depth knowledge in the subjects taught to produce creative and innovative students, especially in the field of STEM. The low competence preschool teachers can have a significant impact on the implementation of STEM Education in the classroom. Thus, this study was conducted to identify the relationship of the preschool teachers’ competency and the implementation of STEM education in kindergartens. The survey method was selected by randomly distributing a questionnaire to a total of 72 private preschool teachers with different academic backgrounds and teaching experiences. The findings show that there is a high positive linear relationship between the mean of competence and the mean of STEM education implementation. Therefore, strong support should be given by the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) in providing special modules or professionalism training in STEM education to private teachers to improve teacher competencies. In conclusion, high teacher competence will facilitate the implementation of STEM education in teaching and learning