Abstract

In today's world, where science and technology are developing rapidly, raising science-literate individuals has gained importance in order to keep up with the requirements of the digital age. In line with this, STEM education, which is the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, has become the center of attention. However, an increase in the interest in science causes an increase in pseudo-scientific beliefs, which are far from being scientific. Therefore, this study investigated whether secondary school students' hopes and goals towards STEM education and pseudoscience beliefs differ by gender, grade level, and parental education level. In addition, the correlation between the students' pseudo-science beliefs and their hopes and goals towards STEM education was also investigated. A total of 351 secondary school students participated in this study. The "Hopes and Goals Survey" and "Pseudoscience Belief Scale" were used for data collection. As a result of the study, it was found that the hopes and goals of students towards STEM statistically differ by gender, in favor of female students, by grade level, in favor of lower-grade students, and maternal education level, in favor of students whose mothers had a bachelor's degree or higher. However, despite the higher hopes and goals towards STEM education scores in students with university graduate fathers than the others, the difference was not statistically significant. It's also revealed that pseudoscience beliefs of the secondary school students differ significantly by gender, in favor of female students, and by grade level, in favor of upper-grade students. While it is noteworthy that the pseudoscience beliefs of the students with primary school graduate fathers were higher than the others, the difference was not statistically significant. Moreover, the pseudoscience beliefs of secondary school students did not differ significantly in terms of maternal education level. A positive and significant correlation was found between the students’ pseudo-medical claims and their hopes and goals towards STEM education. Moreover, there was a positive and significant correlation between the students’ pseudo-medical claims and the learning in school hope. On the other hand, there was a negative and significant correlation between the learning in school hope and pseudo-predictive claims of the students. In addition, there was a negative and significant correlation between the job satisfaction hope and pseudo-predictive claims of the students.

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