Engineering curriculum in the preschool classroom: the teacher's experience

Abstract

The study presented here focuses on the development of an early education Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum with emphasis on engineering. This article presents the teacher's experience as she undertook the task of familiarising herself with the new content and using the curriculum in a university based lab-school classroom in the US. More specifically, the article describes and analyses the collaboration between the teacher and the curriculum developer. It also presents facilitators and barriers during the implementation, as identified by the teacher and the researchers, reports on the multiple stakeholders involved, and raises questions for future research. Engineering education in the precollege years is a developing academic discipline that stems from the need to understand and improve the ways engineers are formally educated. The belief of early experiences as determinants of later experiences has long constituted a basis of educational planning. Therefore, identifying the appropriate age and manner in which early childhood education becomes part of engineering education, is very important in the current climate.

Keywords:

• early engineering curriculum (EEC)
• early STEM curriculum
• project-based learning
• design-based learning (DBL)
• teacher's preparation

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under CAREER Grant ‘Developmental Engineering: An Examination of Early Learning Experiences as Antecedents of Engineering Education’ for the second author. The research group would like to thank the teachers, families and administrators of the Laboratory Schools at Purdue University for their support and collaboration throughout the study.

Notes

1. A webpage related to the early engineering curriculum and the design project is currently under construction. For further information please contact the first author