Exploring pre-service teachers’ STEM readiness in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand: Comparative insights from teacher education programs

Information from the abstract

STEM education has become a central agenda for enhancing human resource quality and global competitiveness. This study explored pre-service teachers’ readiness to implement STEM teaching in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, with particular attention to their conceptual understanding, implementation ability and experience, perceived barriers and institutional support, and attitudes toward STEM education. Using a qualitative descriptive multiple-case study design, the study involved 74 pre-service teachers from four universities, supported by data from 41 lecturers/supervisors. Data were collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, microteaching observations, and document analysis. The findings indicate that pre-service teachers across the countries generally demonstrated positive attitudes and conceptual readiness, with questionnaire mean scores ranging from 3.43 to 4.17, while practical opportunities to implement integrated STEM teaching varied across national contexts. Malaysia demonstrated more structured opportunities for project development, engineering design, microteaching, and technology-supported STEM practice, while Thailand showed distinctive experiential opportunities involving coding, robotics, and sustainability-oriented STEM activities. Indonesia showed an emerging but more fragmented pattern of STEM implementation, indicating ongoing efforts to strengthen curriculum alignment, practical teaching experiences, mentoring, and institutional support. Interview and observation findings further indicate that collaborative curriculum design, interdisciplinary collaboration, mentoring, technological resources, and sustained professional development influence pre-service teachers’ readiness to implement STEM teaching. The study concludes that STEM teaching readiness is a context-dependent and developmental process shaped not only by individual competence but also by the alignment of policy, curriculum, pedagogy, technology, and institutional support. Strengthening these conditions can support more coherent and sustainable STEM teacher education across Southeast Asia.

Why this record is monitored

This record has an Impact Signal of 83/100 based on recency, source, collaboration, and bibliographic signals. It prioritizes monitoring and is not a judgment of research quality.

Related topics: STEM Education · Science Education and Pedagogy · Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques