Marison Sudianto Manalu, Chun-Yen Chang
This study explores the attitudes of Indonesian primary students toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and their interest in STEM-related careers. We conducted a survey using the students’ attitudes toward STEM (S-STEM) instrument, collecting data from 166 fourth and fifth-grade students (93 females and 73 males) in North Sumatra and West Java provinces, Indonesia. By employing latent profile analysis (LPA), we categorized student interest in STEM into three distinct groups: high, moderate, and low interest. Surprisingly, our findings indicate no significant differences in interest based on grade, gender, school location, or school type. The insights gained from LPA highlight the importance of customized educational strategies to promote effective STEM engagement in Indonesia. This research underscores the role of attitudinal profiling in enhancing STEM education implementation and nurturing future STEM careers. © 2025 by the authors; licensee Modestum. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Graduate Institute of Science Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute for Research Excellence in Learning Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Biology, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, Indonesia
