This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesised evidence on teaching problem-solving skills to children in early childhood education and care settings (ECEC) in the domain of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Given the foundational nature of early cognitive development and the growing emphasis on STEM competencies, this…

Given the growing global environmental threats, shifts to increasingly binary thinking that isolate and polarize discourse, and the erosion of caring for each other and our places, the authors believe it is imperative that we change the way science and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education connect with communities and are…

When children engage in play, they develop essential skills like creativity, flexibility, imagination, and problem-solving. Children who engage in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) activities also build similar skills. Both play and STEAM enable children to ask questions, try different solutions, and develop explanations for…

This study was aimed at improving the creative thinking and problem-solving skills of prospective teachers and to identify the relationship between those skills during science learning using the Ethno-STEAM approach. The quantitative study was carried out with a pre-experimental design. The research design was a one-shot case study. The research…

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…

This study aims to determine the effect of using STEAM digital teaching materials on increasing creative problem-solving skills. This study has a quasi-experimental research design with a nonequivalent control group. This study employed a random sampling technique and obtained Class 8-F as the experimental class and Class 8-H as the control class.…

The research presented is of an investigation into the critical thinking (CT) and problem solving (PS) abilities used by high school technology and engineering (T/E) students when attempting to achieve a viable solution for an authentic engineering design-no-make challenge presented outside the context of the classroom in which their STEM content…

STEM education and research has gained popularity internationally over the last decade. However, there is a lack in specifications in existing K-12 STEM classroom observation protocols of how features of an integrated STEM experience/lesson would lead to desired outcomes and how those outcomes should be measured. To bridge this gap, we propose the…

This qualitative study was conducted to understand the instructional strategies used by high school integrated STEM (iSTEM) teachers to apply real-world problem solving in their classrooms in the state of Indiana. The problem addressed by this study was the need to understand the instructional strategies employed by iSTEM teachers in their…

Recent studies have shown that playing with coding toys enhances children's skills in STEM-subjects, especially problem-solving abilities. However, there is limited knowledge of early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers' roles in facilitating children's problem-solving through coding-toy play activities and the high-quality pedagogical…

In STEM, learning skills and knowledge are learned simultaneously by students. Things that are different from the STEM aspect will require a connecting line that makes the four disciplines studied and applied simultaneously in learning. The utilization of local cultural characters in the STEM learning model is expected to provide solutions to the…

Research focusing on the integration of computational thinking (CT) into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education started to emerge. We conducted a semi-systematic literature review on 55 empirical studies on this topic. Our findings include: (a) the majority of the studies adopted domain-general definitions of CT and a…

This study aimed to develop the STREAM (Science-Technology-Religion-Engineering-Art and Mathematics) teaching model for enhancing grade 8 students' creative and engineering design process skills. The innovative STREAM teaching model consisted six common teaching steps: a) Introduce the STREAM situation; b) Identify the targeted problem; c) Explore…

Background: The learning assistant (LA) model supports student success in undergraduate science courses; however, variation in outcomes has led to a call for more work investigating how the LA model is implemented. In this research, we used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to characterize how three different instructors set up…

This meta-analysis study aimed to comprehensively examine the effect size of STEM practices on the development of students' problem-solving skills. By combining the results of 25 individual studies, the researchers can gain a holistic understanding of the overall impact of STEM approaches. Consequently, these studies were categorized according to…