Evaluating a teacher development course for teaching stem activities with introductory internet of things concepts and ai data model training skills using the TPACK framework : Problem-solving and digital creativity

We designed a 6-hour teacher development course aimed at enhancing teachers’ competency in teaching STEM activities. The course focused on teaching teachers how to develop learners’ problem-solving abilities and digital creativity using both introductory concepts of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) data model training skills in teaching STEM activities. This study evaluated the teachers’ competency in teaching STEM activities and the outcomes of their creative ideas in solving problems using what they had learned in this course. Two hundred and one teachers from 108 primary schools attended the course, of whom 191 responded to the pre- and post-course surveys on the TPACK framework, and 176 of them produced artefacts demonstrating their digital creativity. The paired t-test results indicated statistically significant improvement on all 17 TPACK items, with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.213). In the digital creativity evaluation, 82.20% of the teachers demonstrated digital creativity and expressed their ideas in designing introductory IoT systems, and 72.77% of the teachers included AI components in their design. One future research direction is to evaluate primary students’ learning outcomes in STEM activities with these introductory concepts of IoT and AI data model training skills. Copyright © 2025 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda.