The effect of STEM training practices developed for children on scientific process skills

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the effect of STEM education training practices developed for preschool children by the researcher on scientific process skills. The research is in the form of a quasi-experimental study. The research group consists of preschool children studying in the preschool classrooms of a primary school in 2020-2021. In the research, the "Preschool Scientific Process Skill Test " developed by Sahin, Yıldırım, Sürmeli, and Güven (2018) and the "General Information Form" developed by the researcher were used as data collection tools. At the beginning of the research, a pre-test was applied to each participant after obtaining the necessary permissions. STEM education training activities developed by the researcher were applied to the children in the experimental group during the research process; the daily education flow specified in the 2013 Preschool Education Program continued for the children in the control group. Independent groups T-Test was performed to reveal the difference between pre-test and post-test scores; paired sample T-Test was conducted to see if there was a significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores of experimental and control groups. T-Test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to see the effect of demographics on scientific process skills. According to the results of the analyses, no significant difference was found between pre-test scores; however, a significant difference was observed between post-test scores in favor of the experimental group. It was concluded that the developed STEM training practices positively affect the children's scientific process skills.