Exploring Pre-service Teachers Trust in Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

When cases of pandemic diseases are made public, unavoidable discussions arise about the public loss of trust
in Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM). The discussion about trust in STEM reaches far
beyond the pandemic itself. It is fundamental for shaping the public understanding of science. Through their
science classroom, pre-service science teacher plays an essential role to developed students trust to STEM.
Therefore, it is valuable to exploring pre-service science teacher trust in STEM. Our research was carried out
on 132 pre-service science teachers (23 male and 109 female) in a state university in Indonesia. Data was
collected with the questionnaire called “Trust in Science and Scientist Inventory” which consists of 20 items.
We analyzed the data by categorizing, tabulating, and conducting descriptive statistics to the data. Further
analysis to explore the possible different levels of trust by gender was also estimated and confirmed by an
independent t-test. From the result, the participants demonstrated a neutral level of trust in STEM.
Comparisons by gender showed that male pre-service science teachers had a more positive level than female
pre-service teachers. Still, the statistical result showed the difference is not significant. The results indicate the
need to enhance knowledge of the latest issues in STEM for a pre-service science teacher to develop their trust.
We argue that trust is related to the content knowledge about science. The relation between trust and content
knowledge in science is valuable to explore in future research.