The Effect os Stem-Based Education Program on Problem Solving Skills of Five Year Old Children

Abstract

With STEM education, children obtain 21st-century skills, such as systematic thinking, problem-solving, being able to see the relationships between events and creative thinking skills, etc. and as for the development of problem-solving skills, it is included in 21st century skills in connection with STEM education. In parallel with the abovementioned, this study aims to examine the effect of a STEM-Based Education Program on the problem-solving skills of children aged five. The research group was determined by the purposive sampling method; the experimental group was composed of 19 five-year-old children of a private kindergarten from Ankara’s Çankaya province, and the control group included 18 children from the 2017–18 academic year. The General Information Form and Problem Solving Skills Scale were used as data collection tools in the study. The STEM-Based Education Program prepared by the researcher was applied to children in the experimental group two days a week for a period of eight weeks. It was determined that there was a significant difference in the problem-solving skills of children in the experimental group who received the STEM-Based Education Program (p< 0.05). It was observed that the effect of the training was preserved with the permanence test applied to the experimental group three weeks after the last test. It has been determined that educational programs with STEM-based activities significantly affect children’s problem-solving skills.