ECE STEAM: Connecting Nature and Culture in Kindergartens

Overview

There has been an increasing number of calls to strengthen science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) in early childhood education (ECE) to ensure children's later STEAM-related academic achievements. The project, ECE STEAM: Inquiry-based Learning Professional Development Programme, aims to 1) promote and facilitate inquiry-based STEAM education that connects nature and culture in kindergartens, 2) investigate the needs of teachers in ECE STEAM education and the children’s learning process in local kindergartens, 3) redefine the roles of children, educators, and technology.

The project invited teachers from 13 kindergartens to participate in seminars and on-site workshops about STEAM education that connects nature and culture. Based on selected picture books related to nature exploration and culture-related topics, the project team collaborated with teachers to co-design inquiry-based STEAM curriculum. Pre-implementation training was provided before classroom practice. Ongoing support and class observations were offered during implementation. Afterward, sharing and reflection meeting were organised.　The research findings show that the STEAM-Professional Development Programme facilitated teachers in learning about the theoretical foundations of ECE STEAM, the practical utilisation of STEAM learning tools and the methodology of designing STEAM curriculum with selected picture books related to nature exploration and culture-related topics. For examples, children explored insect’s habitats by building insect shelters and learnt Chinese culture by making traditional toys.

This new practice of STEAM learning provided opportunities to redefine the roles of children and interaction between adults and learning resources. During the process, educators and children co-created knowledge through a series of meaningful knowledge creating processes, including recalling spontaneous understanding of everyday concepts, exploring ideas in nature and culture, sorting and organising collected information, and identifying and correlating abstract concepts with corresponding practices.　

Participants of this seminar will understand:
1. the theoretical foundations of ECE STEAM;
2. the methodology of designing STEAM curriculum with selected picture books related to nature exploration and culture-related topics; and
3. the new roles of children, educators, and technology