Integration of engineering design in early education: How to achieve it

Abstract

Young boys and girls make houses and beds from cloths and cartons for their dolls, erect shelters and fences for toy animals, build ramps and garages from blocks for toy cars, and lift objects using a rope and reel for having fun. Thanks to their experiences with such design-based games, children combine science with engineering and try to understand and explain the facts and happenings around them with their own information and explanations. In recent years, the literature heavily provided marked evidence that integration of engineering design into science and maths curricula from preschool up to the end of senior high school offers various learning opportunities. Despite bearing potentials for achieving objectives of preschool education, curriculum integration poses the question of ‘How to achieve the integration’ to preschool teachers. In this research, engineering design methods were introduced to a number of preschool teachers so that they could build a learning environment on engineering design in their classes and then an account of implementation of such an activity as a part of preschool education.

Keywords: Engineering design, pre-school period, STEM education.