Evaluating pre-service teacher’s STEM literacy and self-efficacy in teaching STEM

Hong Kong has promoted STEM education in the General Studies (GS) curriculum to foster students' inventive abilities.; thus, GS teachers should allocate appropriate time for conducting STEM activities to enhance students' learning (Curriculum Development Council, 2017). The level of pre-service teachers' STEM literacy and self-efficacy will affect their teaching. This research evaluates GS pre-service teachers' literacy and self-efficacy toward STEM education. Mix-mode research will be adopted to conduct the study. Eighty responses to the questionnaire about STEM literacy and self-efficacy in teaching STEM were collected from pre-service GS teachers. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with four preservice teachers with different STEM backgrounds.

In the finding of this research, it can be found that pre-service teachers' STEM literacy and self-efficacy would be affected by their STEM background. Pre-service teachers with better STEM teaching and learning experience would have a higher level of STEM literacy. If they had a higher level of STEM literacy, their self-efficacy would also be increased. Apart from these, this research also reveals that GS students had difficulty developing STEM literacy in the GS curriculum. Based on the finding and discussion in this research, the study provides suggestions for tertiary education to enhance GS pre-service teachers' STEM literacy and self-efficacy.