Story-based STEM design challenges in early childhood education: Child engagement and pedagogical strategies

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education has become a global focus to foster learners’ Twenty first-century skills and achieve the sustainable development of society. Design challenges present children with a real-world design problem to solve, as design challenges inspire children to think creatively and apply STEM-related principles or skills to develop a solution. However, there is a lack of research on implementing STEM design challenges in the context of early childhood education. To address this knowledge gap, the in-depth case study aimed to investigate the implementation of Story-based STEM Design Challenges in a Chinese kindergarten, involving 12 teachers and 164 children. A total of six classrooms participated in the Story-based STEM Design Challenge training workshop and implementation, lasting for 3 months. Data was collected from multiple sources, including videotaped classroom observations, teacher interviews, and related pedagogical documents. The findings of the study showed that children’s emotional engagement, attentive engagement, and behavioral engagement varied during their participation. Teachers used various strategies to scaffold children’s learning throughout the preparation, implementation, and evaluation stages. This study hoped to provide valuable insights into effective STEM pedagogy and offer evidence for the implementation of design challenges in early childhood STEM education. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.