Mathematics for the Arts and the Arts for Mathematics: Promoting Soft Skills Through the STEAM Approach in Early Childhood Education

This article links Mathematics and the Arts through the STEAM approach to highlight the potential of this interdisciplinary approach in early childhood education. From this perspective, the aim is to present the design and implementation of the STEAM activity, We Build Trees with Cuisenaire Rods, and to analyse how soft skills are promoted within a group of 18 five-year-old pupils. Using the Thick Description approach and an analytical model, it has been identified that: (1) Mathematics and the Arts maintained an ongoing dialogue throughout the sequence of seven tasks included in the STEAM activity; (2) the STEAM activity contributed to the development of soft skills such as critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and teamwork, technological and digital literacy, curiosity and autonomy, and design and design thinking. We conclude that, from the interdisciplinary STEAM perspective, the Arts are not an instrumental discipline serving Mathematics, nor is Mathematics merely a setting for working on art; rather, both disciplines enrich one another to promote soft skills in early years education.