STEM ОБУЧЕНИЕ С РОДИТЕЛСКО УЧАСТИЕ – НАГЛАСИ, ЗНАНИЯ И ОПИТ НА ДЕТСКИТЕ УЧИТЕЛИ

Abstract

Early STEM education has a great potential to support children's development in building their knowledge, in designing, discussing and testing ideas and finding solutions to different problems. Teachers have an essential role in the STEM process, but this role is shifted from the traditional leading role to a supportive facilitating role. In order to extend learning beyond the classroom and create positive experiences for children, a key factor is the involvement of parents in this process. Parent involvement could be seriously influenced by the knowledge, attitudes and practices of preschool teachers, and therefore their exploration is very important. It could help for planning and designing more effective training for preschool teachers both during their academic preparation and within qualification courses. Accordingly, this paper presents the results of a study with preschool teachers within the framework of the Erasmus+ European multilateral project "STEM for preschool children and their parents" (PARENTSTEM) (2018-2021). The primary goal of this project was to increase parental involvement in preschool STEM education, focusing on families of lower socioeconomic status. Implementation of project’s objectives aimed to expand the conceptual and pedagogical knowledge of preschool teachers in STEM through conducting various teacher trainings and developing intellectual products. This study attempts to identify teachers' prior knowledge, awareness and attitudes towards the conceptualization and pedagogy of STEM with parental involvement, and to discover the relative influence of the project activities on them. The results of the study demonstrate the need for preschool teacher trainings in the area of parent involvement in STEM, and outline the main points that should be considered in the construction of STEM courses designed for preschool teachers.