The Role of Classroom Artifacts in Developmental Engineering

Abstract The role of classroom artefacts in developmental engineeringInitial research findings examining the developmental appropriateness of introducingengineering at an early age suggest that activities and content relevant to engineering areappropriate for young children. Objects in children’s environment appear to be influential in thedevelopment of engineering thinking. Exploratory learning is recognized as a developmentallyappropriate practice in early childhood education. The present study continues to gather evidenceon the ways children construct artifacts and communicate their designs as precursors toengineering thinking. We review the critical role of artifacts and how their presence in theclassroom may have impact on young children’s development of engineering thinking.In this paper we present findings from a study designed to investigate the relationship betweenpreschool classroom, the presence of artefacts, and children’s explorations. We discussimplications for developmental approaches to Science, Technology, Engineering, andMathematics (STEM) in preschool settings. This study builds on prior research in youngchildren’s interactions with artefacts and possible implications for developmental engineering,focusing on questions related to the preschool classroom environment.Our study participants are thirty-five children of age 4 to 5 years old and fifteen teachers fromsix preschool classrooms. Three of the child care programs are university-affiliated and theyserved a population of well-educated families of moderate-to-high socioeconomic status. Theother three programs are Head Start programs serving low socioeconomic families. The selectionof the two sites is intentional aiming to include a wide range of responses as would be expectedfrom the two diverse children populations. In setting the study teachers were asked to fill outquestionnaires regarding the presence of specific familiar and unfamiliar artefacts in theirclassrooms. The artifacts used in this study were carefully selected by the research team to meetcertain criteria. In all cases, artifacts met the definition of being human-made, were relativelyinexpensive and easy to transport, and provided some opportunity for interaction. In addition,teachers filled out an engineering interest measure and the Devereux Early ChildhoodAssessment (DECA) scale for the participating children.Data is currently in a process of analysis using both quantitative and qualitative approach.Findings so far present a relationship of specific artefacts in the six schools studied and differenttypes of interactions between the children and the artifacts according to the teachers. Theseinitial findings support the notion of artefacts as developmentally significant in promotingcognition through exploration. Findings from this study could be useful in informing and guidingcurrent efforts to create developmentally appropriate engineering relevant curricula.