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This thesis addresses the need for more accessible, high-quality early childhood STEM resources for early childhood educators, caregivers, and parents of young children to use during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. As the primary researcher, I assisted a team of educators and researchers with creating STEM learning experiences which are freely available on Pinterest and our website (www.STEMintheEarlyYears.com). To ensure the team is producing high-quality resources, I explored users' perceptions of our resources' pedagogical quality, technical/design quality, and user satisfaction with a questionnaire that I created which included closed-and open-ended questions. Statistical analyses results suggested that respondents (who used our resources) perceived our resources to have good pedagogical and technical/design quality and were satisfied. However, respondents perceived our resources' pedagogical quality to be significantly better than the technical/design quality. Furthermore, respondents' perceptions about the pedagogical and technical/design quality influenced their satisfaction with our resources; with technical/design quality having a stronger influence on their satisfaction. The reflexive thematic analysis results also indicated that respondents perceived our resources to be of good pedagogical and technical/design quality and were satisfied; however, I captured respondents' recommendations on how the resources' quality may improve within the generated themes. The STEM in the Early Years' team will use the results to reflect on our resources' successes and will consider modifying the resources according to the areas that respondents suggested needed improvement. |
