STEM Literacy of Students in Vocational Education

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Introduction
Developed countries with world-renowned education take an interdisciplinary approach based on core subjects taught in all educational institutions, namely Science and Mathematics, and use technologies, together with engineering methodology, as learning tools. This pedagogy is called "STEM education". STEM pedagogy is an interdisciplinary as opposed to a single subject approach (Batdi, Talan, & Semerci, 2019). In other words, STEM is not learning only science, only mathematics, only technologies or only engineering. When the four subject areas, S-Science, T-Technology, E-Engineering and M-Mathematics, are integrated, it is called STEM education. Many studies have concurred with the idea to foster an interest in the STEM field (Çetin, 2021;Vu, Harshbarger, Crow, & Henderson, 2019). STEM education has benefits for students, such as increasing achievement and improving attitudes, motivation, creating interest toward STEM disciplines, and increasing higher order thinking skills. Teachers' characteristics, perceptions, and attitudes related to STEM influence teachers' implementation of integrative STEM approaches and, as a result, these shape the learning environment (Bicer, 2021;Kartal & Taşdemir, 2021). The results of meta-analytical and meta-thematic findings indicated that STEM had a positive impact on academic achievement and development of different skills (Batdi et al., 2019).
Almost all developed countries use the STEM education approach. The U.S.A emphasized the importance of STEM education by setting up the Committee of STEM Education of the National Science & Technology Council and devising a 5-year strategic plan for STEM education development. The plan prescribes goals and pathways to teachers and students adopting a full-scale STEM education approach. (Holdren, 2013) As the U.S.
was not ranked high in world education ranking by country, STEM education was introduced to develop the quality of U.S. education (Gonzalez & Kuenzi, 2012). As for Thailand, STEM Education is part of the country's education policy (Promboon & Kaweekijmanee, 2018) . The policy relevancy of STEM Education is in line with Thailand's Industry 4.0 and Education 4.0 models, which are the pathways to becoming a developed country.

Thailand 4.0
The concept of Thailand 4.0 is not entirely new. In fact, it has existed for a long time. A few decades ago, Thailand was considered a newly industrialized country (NICs) and one of the Five Asian Tigers that was expected to become a developed country in the near future. The Four Asian Tigers have all become developed countries while Thailand was caught in the middle-income trap (Chan-o-cha, 2017). Its industry still relies on leading product owners from all over the world hiring contract manufacturers in Thailand. Thus, Thailand does not have its own original products, nor innovation under its own name (Jones & Pimdee, 2017). Thailand 4.0 refers to Thailand as an incubator of innovation and creativity. Its goal is to export goods and products developed within the country and ultimately, overcome the middle-income trap and become a developed country. In the past, Thailand relied heavily on agriculture. Farmers produced agricultural products for domestic consumption and export. Despite high production volume and the large number of workers, the margin was low.
After that, the rise in population led to cheap labor and enabled Thailand to manufacture a high volume of products and goods to export at a low cost (Maesincee, 2016). Later on, lots of investment was made for heavy industries, enabling Thailand to manufacture high value, high cost and high-quality industrial goods. Thailand then became known for its quality goods and attracted investment for mass production. Unfortunately, Thailand was consequently vulnerable to economic crises because it depended heavily on export and foreign investment.
Moreover, Thailand imported technology and manufacturing knowledge without having its own knowledge base to produce its own goods. Therefore, the development was not sustainable.
Thailand 1.0 was Thailand in the agricultural era. Many decades ago, farmers were the backbone of the Thai economy and the country was very fertile. Most of the country's income came from agricultural products and most of its workforce worked in the agricultural sector, e.g. growing rice, rubber trees, sugar cane, corn, cassava, etc. The country's forests were abundant and trees were harvested for sale. Most products were agricultural products. At present, Thailand is oversupplied with agricultural products, which are cheap and require lots of labor to produce. Although they continue to be one of the country's main sources of income, the country has lost its competitive edge in the global market.
Thailand 2.0 was defined by the rise in population, leading to the booming of factories producing cheap goods at low cost due to cheap labor. The goods were of good quality and were exported all over the world. The labor of the Thailand 2.0 era used light machines to manufacture garments, equipment, processed food and agricultural products. Many of the businesses are still operating today but with higher manufacturing costs and higher wages. As other countries can produce similar products at a relatively lower cost, Thailand can no longer compete against other countries.
Thailand 3.0 was the era when there was a lot of foreign investment supported by the government. As a result, Thailand became a manufacturing exporter with skilled labor, low manufacturing costs and tax incentives to attract investment. Products were exported all over the world, including cars, machinery, electronic appliances, computer parts, etc. Thailand became a big contract manufacturer without any technology of its own. However, when investors withdrew investment or moved their manufacturing bases, Thailand lost income and could not manufacture the products because the technology and know-how required for manufacturing belonged to foreign investors. Thus, Thailand could no longer earn income by manufacturing and exporting such products.
Therefore, Thailand 4.0 is the model in which Thailand must be independent of foreign investors and rely on local wisdom to create innovation and invention. The model includes creative economy where technology is used in manufacturing to produce high value but low-cost products which are patented in Thailand (Chan-o-cha, 2017). It also enables the Thai people to use information and communication technology to communicate and invent new high value products that require a small number of proficient workers. Thailand 4.0 is the innovation-driven Thailand.
Consequently, Thai vocational educators must shift their mindset from aiming to groom skilled workers to encouraging students to become innovative, as well as being inventors and entrepreneurs. This is a huge challenge for the management of modern vocational education (Prihantoro, 2020).

Industry 4.0
As Thailand is developing the Thailand 4.0 model, its industrial sector must align and shift towards the Industry 4.0 model to support the country's move to being one that does not depend on any one industry but, on the other hand, being the country whose industries use creativity and technology to replace people in the manufacturing process (Puriwat & Tripopsakul, 2020) . The levels of development are as follows: Industry 1.0 was the era in which Thailand focused mainly on producing and manufacturing agricultural products and they were the market leaders for exporting goods and processed goods. Human labor was used to produce agricultural products. Farmers were the backbone of the Thai economy. While agriculture is still one of Thailand's main industries, it is faced with oversupply, low prices and it is still labor intensive.
Industry 2.0 was the era of light industry using a large number of workers with low wages doing mainly handiwork. Goods such as, garments, textiles, weaving and handicrafts were manufactured in small factories by many workers and skilled craftsmen. Their wages were low and the products were manufactured mainly for export. The capacity was limited. There were many categories of industries and most of the workers were unskilled or semi-skilled.
Industry 3.0 was the era which focused on manufacturing for export and required many skilled workers.
Investments were promoted using tax and expense incentives. Investments were made in heavy industries including chemical, petroleum, automotive and electronics industries, making Thailand one of the biggest manufacturing bases in the world due to its low wages but high-quality workers and low production costs.
However, Thailand became the country of contract manufacturers without having its own innovation or products.
Industry 4.0 is the model that will shift towards technological adoption. Machines are used in manufacturing with people as controllers of the machines. The model focuses on the design industry with high value but low production costs, using a small number of workers manufacturing high-technology and innovative products of a high quality and high economic value, generating far more income than investing in older models of industry.

Education 4.0
Thailand has a clear policy that aims to become a developed country in order to overcome the middle-income trap and cease being a production hub without its own technology. The goal of this policy is to achieve what is called "Thailand 4.0" or "Digital Thailand". The development will be stimulated by innovation and information technology that drives the economy and society, in order to ensure that Thailand can compete on the international scene in terms of creativity in working and developing products. National human resource development must be adjusted to align with the present era, hence the Education 4.0 model (Hussin, 2018). The model focuses on enabling Thai people to create new products using innovation and become self-made entrepreneurs, instead of climbing the corporate ladder. Therefore, teachers in vocational schools must change how students learn, and how they teach. They must also adjust their assessment to align with the change.
Teachers must focus on 21 st century skills and encourage students to use their creativity to invent and grow their start-up mindset, rather than wanting to become employees. Therefore, teachers are the key to education reform that could lead to the sustainable development of the country. Thailand has been trying to implement the Education 4.0 model for many decades. It was stated in the education reform of 1999, which attempted to implement child-centered classroom management. The order of educational development is as follows: In the past, Education 1.0 model focused on content and knowledge. Teachers were the center of learning as teachers managed classrooms and students followed the teachers. Learning required memorizing as much knowledge as possible. The curricula were designed in a way that students must memorize content in order to pass tests. The goal was to create workers to work in the public sector or be hired by companies.
Education 2.0 was the era when technology was adopted to facilitate learning. Electronic and modern instructional media were provided, allowing students to learn by themselves. Students were the center of learning and teachers acted as facilitators who created and provided appropriate media and technologies to help students learn. Media and technology were used to promote learning so that students could learn anywhere and anytime. It was the era of the information society. Students were taught to support technology.
Education 3.0 was the era when students could learn independently. Knowledge was abundant and could be acquired from any type of media. Students were the center of learning and teachers only gave suggestions, advice and recommendations, as well as providing students with sources of knowledge. Students could gain knowledge without only relying on classroom learning. Workers were able to compete because of this knowledge.
The Education 4.0 model focuses on teaching students how to learn. It emphasizes analytical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, creativity and collaboration. Students must do hands-on practice and apply knowledge to foster innovation while teachers encourage students to use their creativity to create output (Almeida & Simoes, 2019). Teachers create learning processes which allow students to create products and develop students to become entrepreneurs. Thus, students are taught to become part of the digital society.
The key to Thai Vocational Education 4.0 is the teacher who drives changes in education. The teacher must be loved and trusted by students so that they are willing to learn and follow the teacher (Salmon, 2019). The teacher is the parent-like role model for students. Therefore, changes in education and educational reform must be encouraged and driven by the teachers who are the enablers of education (Chalapati & Chalapati, 2020).

STEM Education Standards
Thailand's Ministry of Education emphasizes the importance of STEM Education and has prescribed it as part of the education policy. Within five years (2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021), STEM Education should be taught in every school (Office of the Education Council, 2017). The Ministry of Education formed a committee for developing a STEM curriculum in schools. The committee defined STEM as an educational management approach that encouraged students to learn and allowed them to integrate knowledge from the sphere of science, technology, engineering design processes and mathematics (Chomphuphra, Chaipidech, & Yuenyong, 2019). Learners then use the integrated knowledge to connect the dots and solve real-life problems, as well as developing new processes, products and learning skills for the 21 st century (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2008). The committee also defined the six steps of learning activities in the STEM approach as follows: Step 1: Identify a real-life problem to be solved/innovation to be developed Step 2: Gather relevant data and ideas Step 3: Design problem solving method ( Science + Math & Technology) Step 4: Plan and implement the problem-solving method (Engineering) Step 5: Test, evaluate and improve ( Engineering) Step 6: Present how to solve the problem, results of problem solving or innovation development

STEM Education Integration
The main objective of STEM Education is to integrate knowledge from the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics into another subject. Therefore, the level of integration is different across subjects depending on conditions and the scope of instructional management handled by the teacher (Changtong,536 The four levels have the following descriptions. The disciplinary STEM education approach means learning knowledge and skills for each STEM subject in isolation. (The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology, 2013) Examples are: learning the basics of electricity in a science class, learning the basics of electricity in a technology class, learning the basics of electrical circuits in an engineering class and learning how to calculate an electricity bill in mathematics. In each class, students learn only the content of the subject but they need to know how to apply the knowledge of other STEM subjects. This is a disciplinary STEM education approach. An integrated STEM learning environment breaks down disciplinary boundaries and enables students to apply multidisciplinary knowledge in solving problems (Yang & Baldwin, 2020).
A multidisciplinary STEM education approach means the teachers of all subjects need to design content and skills in the curriculum together. All subjects have the same main topic, but each subject has a different content relating to the topic. The content of all subjects is interrelated and refers to the knowledge of the other subjects.
For example, in order to effectively enhanced these competences, student labs should be designed as authentic productive learning environments, based on three design principles: 1) Realistic, complex task situations, 2) Multidisciplinary, and 3) Social interaction (Admiraal et al., 2019). The learners can interrelate the content of all subjects and see the relation between the subjects. For example, the teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics classes teach about electricity as the main topic, and the sub-topics in each subject are the source of electricity, wiring electrical circuits, analyzing electrical circuits and calculating an electricity bill respectively. This allows students to think about how to use the knowledge in their daily life.
The interdisciplinary STEM Education approach means the teachers of at least two subjects need to plan class activities together. The activities require using knowledge of multiple subjects. Each STEM subject has a different main topic, but the topics should benefit other subjects. For example, the science teacher teaches about the structure of an atom, the technology teacher assign students to create a slide presentation about an atom, the engineering teacher teaches how to build an atom model and the mathematics teacher teaches how to calculate the appropriate size of the atom model. This approach allows students to use the knowledge gained in one subject in another subject despite learning about different topics. The interdisciplinary nature of sustainability and STEM education has several intersecting points ((Doganca Kucuk et al., 2021).
The transdisciplinary STEM Education approach means allowing students to apply the knowledge from science, technology, engineering and mathematics to their daily lives. Transdisciplinary defines a system that involves merging disciplines beyond their disciplinary boundaries, and creating new conceptions of disciplines (Wu, Cheng, & Koszalka, 2021). This system thus transfers the knowledge from the classroom into practice. The knowledge gained can be applied to other subjects to solve problems (Chae, Purzer, & Cardella, 2010), work in projects and apply the knowledge to develop the community and society. For example, in a social study class, the students could be expected to create something useful for the society using their STEM knowledge. If the community needs students' help to solve a water pollution problem, the students can carry out a project to solve the problem using their science, technology, engineering and mathematics knowledge, without having to learn specifically about water pollution.

STEM Literacy
Literacy means the capability to define, understand, translate, create, communicate and calculate and use the knowledge to write in the context of the subject. Literacy in certain subject areas leads to better learning of the subject area. Literacy is individual (UNESCO, 2005). STEM literacy is not about knowing the content of science, technology, engineering or mathematics per se, but it is about the meaning of logic that will lead to learning the content (Techakosit & Nilsook, 2018). The components are skills, abilities, factual knowledge, procedures, concepts and metacognitive capacities (Zollman, 2012 STEM literacy led to accomplishment in each of the four subjects. Therefore, the STEM classroom would change how students learn from a memorization strategy to investigating and asking questions relating to the world. Bybee (2010) stated that, generally, STEM literacy comprised of conceptual understandings, procedural skills and abilities of each student to talk about individual, social and world issues relating to STEM. STEM literacy was about integration of STEM subjects and consisted of four interrelated components that support one another. The meaning of STEM literacy is as follows: 1. The acquisition of scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical knowledge and using the knowledge to identify issues, acquire new knowledge and apply the knowledge to issues relating to STEM.
2. The understanding of characteristics of each STEM subject as human endeavor consisting of investigating, designing and analyzing.
3. The realization that STEM methods can be used for defining the material, the intellectual and the cultural world.
4. The contribution to STEM issues using concepts of science, technology, engineering and mathematics as a caring and creative citizen.
Zollman (2012) stated that STEM literacy was a dynamic process, focusing on three steps: 1) being literate in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and other related subjects, 2) individual, social and economic needs and, 3) learning in cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. Kanadlı (2019) stated that STEM literacy was related to the student's ability to comprehend and apply scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical concepts to solve complex problems. The goal of the STEM classroom was to promote advanced thinking skills, problem solving and intellectual curiosity. It also enabled students to communicate their ideas and information effectively and creatively. Chae, Purzer and Cardella (2010) stated that STEM literacy consisted of important skills, namely the ability to discuss, rationally analyze and criticize, and make decisions relating to individual, local and national issues regarding engineering problem solving, understand and be able to explain basic needs e.g. water, food and energy. These abilities were developed by solving problems in daily life using scientific, technological and mathematical concepts and patterns. Yıldırım (2016) stated that the STEM education instructional model allowed students to be aware of the world they lived in and prepared students to be ready to work in the future. High quality STEM teaching helped students develop their abilities to analyze, collaborate and solve problems. Moreover, it helped to enhance creativity and allowed students to participate in investigating processes. These skills are key for working in the future as jobs relating to STEM subjects have the highest growth rate and 80% of jobs in the future require STEM skills and literacy.
Therefore, it could be considered that STEM skills are essential for people in society. Purzer, Senay & Strobel, Johannes and Cardella (2014) stated that a STEM literate person had enough knowledge and skills in all four subjects to make a confident contribution to developing modern society. Moreover, the person could manage and evaluate technologies in daily life, as well as understanding the scientific principles and technological processes required for solving problems, resolving conflicts and making decisions. Yasin, Prima, and Sholihin (2018) stated that STEM literacy was defined as the student's capability to apply a STEM concept in order to comprehend and solve various problems.
The National Research Council (2011) stated that STEM literacy meant knowledge and understanding of scientific and mathematical concepts, the student's decision to participate in citizenship and culture issues, as well as the student's economic output. STEM literacy was the ability to identify, apply and integrate scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical concepts in order to understand more complex problems and work out solutions (Johnson,Mohr-Schroeder, & Moore, 2020). STEM literacy would be achieved when students could apply the knowledge acquired, understand how the world worked and work beyond the scope of the four subjects to develop society, the economy and the environment of local and world communities. Moreover, the students needed to have sufficient experience which they had to accumulate early from their pre-kindergarten years through to Matthayom 6 (12 th grade). STEM literacy is the link that connects people and employment to the development of society, the environment and the economy of local and world communities.
Therefore, it is crucial for students to be prepared and be STEM literate, especially for those who enter the job market right after graduating high school. In order to enable students to benefit most from being STEM literate, STEM should be considered the main element for building the knowledge and understanding needed for working and as a pathway to college education. The expected results are as follows: 1. All students develop their foundation skills by using STEM in order to become an enthusiastic learner and actively contribute to this complex science-and-technology-driven society.
2. All students develop the ability to identify and apply scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical concepts so that they can prepare themselves for further education at universities. This will enable them to have jobs that can support their families.
3. An increasing number of students and their diversity lead to STEM education being used to challenge and enhance their learning experiences.
Therefore, it could be said that STEM literacy is the root of all expected results including their contribution to the community, achievement in university education, enhancement and diversity of STEM, understanding of career and continuing studies in university (Falloon, Hatzigianni, Bower, Forbes, & Stevenson, 2020). However, it is not defined in this study that there is only one way or method for students to achieve STEM literacy. Therefore, schools or related parties must design and plan the methods that are most suitable for their context and be able to drive them to success.
In conclusion, STEM literacy comprises of its characteristics and capabilities. The characteristics of STEM literacy are being knowledgeable, understanding and realizing the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Techakosit & Nilsook, 2016).

STEM Literacy of Students in Vocational Education
The abilities of STEM literacy include the ability of a person to identify problems relating to STEM subjects, ability to investigate and acquire new knowledge relating to STEM subjects, ability to apply concepts from STEM subjects and solve problems using such concepts, ability to communicate information relating to STEM subjects and ability to make decisions using concepts and processes of STEM subjects (see Appendix-STEM Literacy Evaluation Form).  A certain amount of material is given to students for them to design a project according to the assigned problem statement and invent tools or equipment from the given materials.
2. In order to start the STEM education process, the teacher must give the vocational students an introduction and a context, then present stories of examples and give them the problem statement to work on.
3. Students learn from the scientific + mathematical + technological points of view and use an engineering process to create output.
4. Students can have different outputs and they should test the outputs against the requirements themselves.
5. Under the concept of STEM, they should lead projects with science, not technology or mathematics.
Technology should be used as a tool. Mathematics should be the logic behind the problem solving. Engineering should be integrated in implementation or problem-solving methods.

STEM Education Activities for Vocational Students
STEM education activities for vocational students are given in Table 5.

Discussion
The following activity can be used as the starting point of STEM education. In all classes, the teacher should provide four types of easy-to-find material in his school to represent the four concepts of science, engineering, technology and mathematics (McDonald, 2016) . Students would then be divided into a group of 3-4 students and every group should have the same problem statement, which is " Students brainstorm to come up with a tangible invention in their current class by using their current knowledge." Step 1 : Students should brainstorm ideas for inventing an object relating to the class they are taking. The students then gather leftover material, e.g. milk cans, plastic cups, paper, plastic bags, etc. depending on what the group wants to invent.
Step 2: Students invent an object from the material gathered in Step 1 according to their plan. The invention should emphasize creativity and the output of each group can be different. The important thing is that every student participates and collaborates to make the invention.
Step 3: After the invention is finished, the group should record how many steps they have taken in the procedure to invent the object.
Step 4; The students in each group should measure the width, length and height of the object, estimate its price and take its photo or make a video using their mobile phones.
Step 5: The students summarize all the details using the STEM approach. Step 6: All students in each group present the invention and communicate the summarized details, as well as identifying the problems, the obstacles and the solution.
The students also answer questions from other groups.
While the STEM Education approach is successful in integrating disciplines in the areas of science and mathematics (Heller & Francois, 2019), it struggles to do so in the areas of language and the arts despite being independent of content. Adjustments were made to overcome the difficulty and the STEAM education approach is being developed to add the element of arts to it so that it does not only integrate science subjects. STEM education is a concept that requires support from techniques and learning processes of project-based learning (PBL) because most of its learning activities attempt to have students go through processes and work on tangible projects. STEM education is suitable for vocational education (Chatwattana et al., 2017) because it focuses on hands-on practice and skill learning. Foundation subjects that support their future career, as well as job-specific subjects, will also benefit from the help of the STEM education approach (Ring-Whalen, Dare, Roehrig, Titu, & Crotty, 2018). However, The role of teacher education in promoting STEM education by shifting prospective teachers" mindsets about mathematics and teaching (Marco-Bujosa, 2021).

Conclusion
Knowledge of all disciplines is more or less equally important and crucial but, in education management, it is important to integrate disciplines so that the knowledge is useful and can be applied to create new things, solve problems and prevent future threats. STEM education for vocational student is not only a trend in education, but also an instructional approach that focuses on students and will lead to sustainable knowledge and learning.
STEM education is the foundation of Digital Thailand and Thai vocational education 4.0 and must be aligned with the Industry 4.0 era and adjust its instructional approach in alignment with the era when education focuses on producing innovators. Teachers must also understand and apply STEM to their teaching, adjusting their teaching methods so that they are suitable and in line with vocational education management. This will therefore ensure that the students graduated have suitable skills and meet the country's real demand.

Instruction
The STEM literacy evaluation form is an evaluation of your perception of integrated science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is a self-evaluation form to identify your level of STEM literacy. For your benefit, please answer as accurately as possible. You can use this form to evaluate your perception in order to develop a suitable instructional model.

Level of agreement on statements
Strongly agree 2 points.
Not sure 0 points.
Please select the level of agreement that is true for your perception.

No. Statement
Strongly agree Agree Not sure Disagree Strongly disagree Interpretation 29 to 48 points you are ready to learn using the STEM approach. You can integrate knowledge from science and mathematics. You can also solve problems and use technology effectively.
1 to 28 points you are ready to learn using the STEM approach, but you lack integration in some aspects.
You are not particularly good at hands-on implementation or solving problems and you cannot use technology with ease.
0 to -28 points you are not ready to learn using the STEM approach. You cannot integrate scientific and mathematical knowledge. You are not good at solving problems and do not adopt technology to facilitate learning.
-29 to -48 you are not suitable for learning using the STEM approach.