Can Machine Learning Be Taught to Pre-service Teachers in the STEM Fields?

Machine learning trainings provide students with 21st century skills and enable students to find solutions to their own problems. The purpose of this study is to plan, implement and evaluate the machine learning teaching for preservice teachers in stem field in order to contribute to the creation of the future workforce in the field of computer science. The participants of the study were 74 pre-service teachers who are studying in the departments of computer and instructional technologies education, science education and mathematics education (STEM fields) at a state university in Istanbul. Convenience sampling method was used in the study. In the research, a single-group pre-test-post-test weak quasi-experimental design was used by using the quantitative method in order to evaluate the training by giving machine learning training. The training was implemented on the online platform for 3 hours for 8 weeks. "Pretest - Posttest Achievement Test", "Online Learning Engagement Scale", "Moodle Activity Data", “Demographic Form” and "Attendance Forms" were used to collect data. There is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test averages in favor of the post-test. There is a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores according to the departments.