Abstract
STEM education plays a critical role in addressing contemporary ecological, technological, and social challenges; however, STEM teaching in many classrooms remains disconnected from students’ real-world experiences and local community contexts. The place-based STEM teacher professional program (PbSTEM-TPP) was developed to support teachers in integrating ecological and community perspectives into STEM instruction through sustained professional learning communities. This mixed-methods study involved 25 in-service science teachers from 10 public schools and 514 students in grades 4-6 over a 32-week implementation period. Data collection included pre- and post-surveys using the teachers’ self-efficacy toward STEM practices scale (T-SESTEM) and the TPACK-Place instrument, along with classroom observations, reflection logs, coaching records, interviews, and student artifacts. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired-samples t-tests, and effect sizes, while qualitative data were analyzed thematically. The findings revealed statistically significant improvements in teachers’ self-efficacy across all five T-SESTEM subscales, including interdisciplinary STEM lesson design, inquiry and engineering design facilitation, technology and data use, place-based ecological integration, and community engagement and collaboration (dz = 1.66-5.00). Significant gains were also found across all dimensions of TPACK-Place competencies, indicating enhanced teacher capacity to integrate technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge within contextualized STEM learning environments. Qualitative findings further demonstrated shifts toward more inquiry-based, interdisciplinary, and community-connected teaching practices. In addition, students showed increased ecological awareness, responsibility, collaboration, and civic participation through engagement with authentic local issues and place-based STEM activities. In conclusion, the PbSTEM-TPP provides an effective and context-responsive model for strengthening teacher self-efficacy, enhancing TPACK-Place competencies, and supporting interdisciplinary STEM learning grounded in ecological and community contexts.
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Type: Research Article
EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 22, Issue 7, July 2026, Article No: em2866
https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/18849
Publication date: 24 Jun 2026
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