5 Yaş Çocuklarının Zihinlerindeki Bilim İnsanı İmajı İçerisinde Stem Alanlarının Yer Alma Durumlarının İncelenmesi

Abstract

This study aims to investigate 5 years old children's images of scientist and their views on STEM fields. The study group consisted of 20 children aged 5 years in an independent kindergarten in Edirne. The data collection tool was developed by Chambers (1983) and DAST (Drive a Scientist Test) was developed by the researchers and a semi-structured interview form was used. For the data obtained from the DAST test, percentage frequency calculation was used from descriptive statistical methods. The content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data obtained from the interview forms. It is seen that children of 5 years of age draw science in their daily clothes, happy, experimental materials and scientists in space. At this point, it is clear that 5-year-old children integrate science and technology in their minds and STEM areas. It is seen that children mostly overlap science field with living world, technology field with robots and math field with numbers. The children did not comment on the field of engineering. In addition, children want to be the teacher, doctor and robot creator in the future.

“Engineer” Perception in Early Childhood

“…Regarding the occupations that children want to enter in the future, it is seen that they prefer those that they encounter more in their daily lives such as police, teachers, and doctors. Günşen et al (2019) obtained similar results in their study with 5-years-old children. Three children stated that they want to be an engineer because of parental models in at least one case.…”

“…In their study, Fralick et al (2009) also stated that most of the secondary school pupils do not have an engineer perception. In their study with 5-year-old children, Günşen et al (2019) stated that almost none of them had any idea about engineering, which is one of the STEM fields in the minds of children. Similar to this result, in their study with more than 300 children aged 3-7 years, Pantoya et al (2015) stated that most of the children did not know what an engineer was doing, and most of the others thought that engineers used trains.…”

“…Unfortunately, when compared with other fields of STEM, there are relatively few studies on the engineering concept in early childhood, its education and learning. In their study with 5-year-olds, Günşen et al (2019) examined the perceptions of children about STEM fields and stated that none of them expressed an opinion about engineering field. Malone et al (2018) investigated the effect on 4 to 8-year-olds understanding of conceptual technology and engineering by integrating technology, engineering and mathematics courses into inquiry, visual arts and physical education courses.…”

“…In the process of preparing the form which was developed by researcher, a literature review was conducted (Günşen et al, 2019;Knight & Cunningham, 2004;Pantoya et al, 2015) and accordingly a draft form was prepared. The questions were prepared in accordance with the developmental characteristics of the children so that they would not get bored and could easily answer them.…”