INTEGRATING STEM INTO EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: IS IT FEASIBLE?
| Autor: | ONG, Eng Tek, AYOB, Aminah, IBRAHIM, Nasir, ADNAN, Mazlini, SHARIFF, Jameyah, MOHD ISHAK, Noriah |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Volume: 4, Issue: 336-341 The Eurasia Proceedings of Educational and Social Sciences |
| ISSN: | 2587-1730 |
| Popis: | Thispaper aims to determine the feasibility of integrating STEM into the earlychildhood education. As such, a survey design was deemed appropriate. Purposivesampling technique was used in which 22 early childhood teachers from 19 urbanand rural childcare centres in Malaysia were selected for this study. These 22early childhood teachers were familiarised to the use of Problem-Based Inquiry Learning (PIL) in integrating STEM bymeans of 10 authors-developed STEM Projects through a three-day fullyresidential training workshop. Upon the completion of the training workshop,the teachers were supported in integrating STEM in their respective classroomsfor five-month duration during which, an implementation of a maximum of fiveSTEM Projects was aspired. Two sources of data were gathered from the teachersto determine the suitability of STEM integration in early childhood education:(1) at the end of the training workshop where teachers reported on thesuitability of the STEM Projects for early childhood pupils aged 3 to 4+, and(2) at the end of the five-month classroom implementation where teachersreported on the STEM Projects which they have carried out with their 3-4+year-old children. Findings indicated that, while two of the 10 STEM Projectswere perceived as less appropriate by at least 50% of the teachers, eight otherSTEM Projects were deemed as appropriate. The actual implementation of STEMProjects among the teachers ranges between 60% to 100%, with a mean of 81%.This paper ends with a discussion on the characteristics of the appropriateSTEM projects for 3 to 4+ year olds, and equally, implications for STEMeducation are proffered. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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