Appropriation of STEM concept through pretend play in kindergarten

Abstract

This article presents the first results of a study financed by a Swiss fund to promote STEM education, particularly from kindergarten, in order to reduce gender inequalities in access to scientific professions. Indeed, recent studies have shown inequalities in access to STEM concepts even during playtime in preschool. For example, it appears that boys enter construction spaces very quickly, leaving little opportunity for girls to play with construction materials (Fleer, 2019). Teacher involvement would help reduce these inequalities particularly by transforming the play spaces into an imaginary situation and guiding pupils through their play situation. This teacher involvement influences girls' participation in exploring STEM concepts in their play space (Fleer, 2021). This study brings together researchers in pedagogy and media engineering and teachers involved in the project. Unplugged technological objects were introduced into the play spaces with the aim that children would mobilize them in their scenarios and imagine stories with these objects.

Drawing on Hedegaard's (2008) model of the child as a learner who develops into a whole person in interaction with peers, family, and teachers who come from different cultural and institutional backgrounds, the data from the video capture is analyzed by cross-referencing Arnott's (2016) model of children's engagement, interactions, and behaviors during play with the "convergent" model of play (multimodal, global-local, and traditional-digital) developed by Edwards et al. (2020) to assess the impact of STEM materials on children's development, engagement, and interactions. Finally, the data are enriched by capturing children's movements and objects in the classroom space to record signs of appropriation, use, and organization of the space using the professional Pozyx system (https://www.pozyx.io).