Teaching STEM through play in kindergarten: analysis towards pre-service early childhood teachers preparing the lesson plan

Abstract

Integrating science with other disciplines like technology and mathematics supports early childhood have awareness and interest in science and affects their overall school performance further down in their education. The integration is commonly referred to as STEM which is an acronym of science (S), technology (T), engineering (E), and mathematics (M). STEM Education is provided to achieve educational aims that prepare people for future life and the workforce. However, designing a STEM-based learning process needs more attention, moreover carried out in early childhood. This study investigates preparing lesson plan early childhood pre-service teachers teaching STEM through play. The study used the phenomenology approach, qualitative data collection through observation, questionnaires, and interviews. The study involved pre-service early childhood teachers semester VII which has experienced the learning process of the Field Teaching Practices. The results showed that pre-service early childhood teachers when designing learning through games had an awareness that early childhood would provide a greater understanding of science concepts than children who teach science through direct instruction. Further findings show that designing the process of learning science through enjoyable experiences is a very important approach to promote students’ understanding of developing kindergarten science concepts.

Pre-service teacher in STEM education: An integrative review and mapping of the Indonesian research literature

“…Another article reported an investigation into PSTs preparing lesson plans on STEM learning. The study revealed that PSTs consider enjoyable STEM learning experiences essential to promoting students' understanding (Rasyid et al, 2021).…”

“…Our STEM-DiMRECS framework offers an EDP that defines a problem, research information, imagines the solution, plans, creates, tests and evaluates, redesigns, and communicates the solution. Electricity, home electricity instalment (Asri et al, 2021); mechanics, parabolic ball motion, collision (Yulianti et al, 2022); Newtons law, skydiving (Jannah et al, 2021); solar cell (Sukma et al, 2022); solar cell, cracker dryer (Mayasari et al, 2019); & heat, thermometer (Elfa Sari et al, 2021) Science STEMQuests: exoskeleton; wind-turbine generator; building materials; green building; piezoelectric; nanogenerator; fruits as alternative energy, recycled plastic waste (Chai et al, 2020); science projects: electric broom; simple mixer; mini vacuum cleaner; air conditioner recharger; blender; earth rotation; locomotive, mini generator (Djulia & Simatupang, 2021); balloons (Rasyid et al, 2021); rocket, catapult, paper bridge (Sumirat, 2019); human transportation system (Wahyu et al, 2020); energy (Putra et al, 2021); hyperthermia (Ismet et al, 2020) No articles in our corpus explicitly mentioned the EDP to generate the best solution in STEM learning. Most researchers describe the learning process in three phases: preparation (define the problemand explore information), generating or creating the solution, and reporting the solution, both written and oral.…”

“…HEI affiliation of eight of 10 articles not identifying participant institution could be inferred based upon author(s) affiliation. For instance, Djulia and Simatupang (2021),Rasyid et al (2021), andShofiyah et al (2022) did not mention the institution and location of their participants. Still, since all the authors have the same affiliation, it suggests that the participants come from the same institution as the authors.…”

Outbound Kids Games in Early Childhood Learning: A Study of Gross Motor Skills

“…Children must have an active role in the learning process, which is called learning higher-order thinking skills, such as remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating (Syifauzakia et al, 2021). The learning process for young children must be planned considering their cognitive abilities and learning experiences (Jatisunda et al, 2021;Rasyid et al, 2021).…”

Peningkatan Keterampilan Motorik Kasar Anak Usia Dini Melalui Permainan Outbond Kids

“…(Syifauzakia et al, 2021). Proses pembelajaran anak usia dini harus direncanakan dengan mempertimbangkan kemampuan kognitif dan pengalaman belajar (Jatisunda et al, 2021;Rasyid et al, 2021).…”