Addressing Global Issues: The Perspectives of Teachers on the Role and Benefits of Stem Education

Abstract

The Earth’s complex challenges necessitate specialized STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) knowledge, leading to increased demand for STEM education across various fields. The effectiveness of STEM education relies on teachers’ perceptions of its benefits and their recognition of its importance in addressing global issues. The focus of this study was to examine the opinions of teachers regarding the merits and purpose of STEM education and its application to global problems. The research design for the study was a descriptive survey. A convenience sampling method was adopted to recruit 100 teachers from senior high schools in Ghana for the study. A 10-statement closed questionnaire on the Likert scale was developed for data collection. The data was processed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 30 and both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Findings indicated that most of the SHS teachers had a very high level of agreement on the positives of STEM as it: 1) Enhances students’ higher level of critical thinking; 2) Encourages the spirit of innovation and curiosity in students; 3) Increases students’ cognitive skills; 4) Develops problem-solving skills among the students; 5) Develops responsible citizens of the students. The findings also revealed that teachers had a significantly high level of consensus concerning STEM education for addressing important global issues including enabling students to access and understand the real-life problems, providing students with the knowledge to respond to the global issues, providing students with knowledge to minimise pollution, making students cognisant of the sources of renewable energy and water, and enabling students to vision new agriculture and food production systems. Finally, no statistically significant differences were found in the views within gender of male and female teachers with respect to the benefits and role of STEM in solving global problems. The study suggests that STEM education should be from the bottom up (elementary school to higher education) and that students should have STEM skills to respond to the world’s concerns.