The Effect of Stem Education on Academic Performance: A Meta-Analysis Study

ABSTRACT

STEM education is applied to raise individuals having 21st-century skills based on the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This paper aims to present the overall effect of STEM education on students’ academic achievement by analyzing 64 research findings obtained from 56 quantitative studies published between 2014 and 2021. Relevant studies were identified from the databases of scholarly publications such as ERIC, Web of Science, EBSCOHost, Google Scholar, SCOPUS, ProQuest, CHE Thesis Center. The sample was then meta-analytically examined using the CMA program. Education level, duration of the application, disciplines, and publication type were determined as moderator variables. The results showed that the effect of STEM education on students’ academic success was statistically higher (g= 1.150) in the random-effects model. A heterogeneous distribution was obtained from the sample. Further subgroup analyzes using Analog ANOVA revealed that disciplines (Qb= 921.394; p= .000), and publication type variables were statistically significant (Qb= 7.229; p= .007). With respect to the disciplines, the effects of STEM education showed the largest effect size of 1.156 in the discipline of science. Regarding the publication type, national studies were presented the largest effect size of 1.155.