Science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) education is critical for fostering medical students' scientific research capabilities, innovative thinking, and interdisciplinary problem-solving skills, which are essential for adapting to technology-driven medical advancement. The aim is to construct a STEM competence assessment scale applicable to students majoring in clinical medicine in medical colleges and universities, and to investigate the current situation of students' STEM competence through this scale, so as to provide methods and tools for the improvement of STEM teaching in medical education. Through literature review and expert consultation, the dimensions and items of the scale were designed. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, root mean square error of approximationOf Approximation and Cronbach α coefficient were adopted to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale. The finally constructed assessment scale encompasses 4 dimensions, namely knowledge, attitude, behavior and competence, with a total of 45 items in all. The survey results of 1010 students majoring in clinical medicine showed that the Cronbach α coefficient of the scale was 0.933, indicating good internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the model had an excellent fit (χ2/df = 3.646, Root Mean Square Error Of Approximationroot mean square error of approximation = 0.051), and each dimension had relatively high structural validity. The STEM competence assessment scale developed in this research has relatively high reliability and validity, which can effectively reflect the comprehensive performance of medical students in STEM education, and provides an important tool for the evaluation of the effect of STEM education and the improvement of medical education.
Wang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.