Action Research On The Development Of Early Childhood Engineering Thinking In Large Class STEAM Education Activities

The global community is changing rapidly and profoundly,and to meet the challenges of the 21 st century,STEAM education has become a global strategy of science and technology education in the era of knowledge economy.STEAM education integrates knowledge in all fields of science,technology,engineering,art and mathematics,emphasizing project-based approaches to developing students' ability to solve problems.At the same time,engineering thinking is no longer confined to the field of science and engineering,the cultivation of engineering thinking has always been the focus of foreign STEAM education research,now we all emphasize the ability of engineering thinking,but ignore the cultivation of early childhood engineering thinking,even think that they do not have prepare or do not require engineering thinking.However,young children are born with a tendency to engage in engineering thinking and should be protected at an early stage.This study tries to carry out STEAM education activities in the large class of kindergartens to investigate its impact on the engineering thinking of large class children,and to put forward operational suggestions for teachers to design and implement STEAM education activities in kindergartens.Based on the PBL project-based teaching model and the 5E inquiry teaching method,this study designed a set of STEAM education activity plan,carried on the implementation of the large class of X kindergarten in Shanghai for a period of 3months,applied the method of action research,gradually improved the design and implementation of STEAM education activities in the course of implementation,and explored the effective strategies to promote the development of early childhood engineering thinking.The following conclusions are drawn in this study:(1)STEAM education activities can promote the development of early childhood engineering thinking;(2)it is feasible to design a set of STEAM education activities program to implement in thelarge class of kindergarten.This study proposes the following educational strategies:(1)Reasonably arrange STEAM education activities based on PBL teaching mode;(2)deliver valuable activity materials according to activity objectives;(3)improve the comprehensive ability of early childhood teachers to design and implement STEAM education activities;(4)the framework for the design and implementation of STEAM educational activities consists of four steps: setting up the situation and proposing the problem,analyzing and determining the problem,designing and implementing the problem,communicating and evaluating the problem;(5)diversity of evaluation methods and subject diversity of evaluation of STEAM education activities.