ANALYZING STEM STUDENT INTERESTS IN DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

STEM Education and Critical Thinking Skills are important 21st-century skills. STEM Education is necessary to promote secondary school students’ critical thinking skills. These skills are very important for teachers to respond to students. Pakistan is in the preliminary stages of integrating STEM Education in institutions like other developing countries in the world. Unfortunately, most of the secondary school students in Pakistan are unaware of STEM Education and teachers are not applying critical thinking skills in classrooms. The objectives of the study mainly deal with; to identify the importance of STEM Education in the teaching-learning process; to find out the factors affecting on critical thinking skills that can develop an interest in students in STEM Education and suggestions for how to improve critical thinking skills in students regarding STEM Education. This study was descriptive. The population of the study was secondary school students. Data was collected from 200 secondary school students through a questionnaire. The result of the research shows that critical thinking skills develop interests in students towards STEM Education.