Abstract:

It is of utmost importance to take an active role in today’s technological era and raise individuals with 21st century skills, have higher skillsin terms of problemsolving, critical thinking, decision making and are responsible. The present study isaimed to investigatethe effect of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education on science process skills through meta-analysis. In this context, articles, master's theses and doctoral dissertations in Turkey were examined. Certain criteria were adopted to determine theeligible studies for the meta-analysis. The studies that were conducted in Turkey, examined the effectiveness of STEM on scientific process skills and reported sufficient statistical data such as means, standard deviations and sample sizevaluesfor the calculation of effect sizes were included in the meta-analysis. 43 studies that met these inclusion criteria were analysed in the meta-analysis. The mean effect size was calculated under the random-effects model. It was revealed that STEM education has a positive and medium effect on scientific process skills with an estimated effect size of 0.597. Moderator analyses showed that publication type, sample group and sample size did not moderate the effectiveness of STEM education on scientific process skills. As a result, it was found the effect of STEM education on science process skills did not vary based on publication type, sample group, and sample size in this meta-analysis study. Apart from the effect of STEM education on scientific process skills, the effects of academic achievement, laboratory activities, grade level and different courses on scientific process skills can also be examined. Process-based observation and investigation can be carried out regarding the level of the impact of scientific process skills in daily life.

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