The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of STEAM-based mathematical education activities in childhood educational institutes on the mathematical problem - solving abilities and creativity of children 7 years of age. For this, study the fo...
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of STEAM-based mathematical education activities in childhood educational institutes on the mathematical problem - solving abilities and creativity of children 7 years of age. For this, study the following questions were established: Question 1 : 'What effect does a STEAM - based mathematical education activity have on young children's mathematical problem - solving ability?'Question 2 : 'What effect does a STEAM - based mathematical education activity have on young children's creativity?' The study subjects consisted of 40 P Kindergarten children 7 years of age, sampled from 2 different classes. (an experiment group of 20 students; and a control group of 20 students) The experiment group participated in the STEAM based mathematical education activities, whereas the control group carried out ordinary mathematical education activities based on the Nuri-Curriculum. The study was carried out in the sequence of a preliminary tests, a pre - test, an experiment and a post - test. A total of 16 experiment sessions were carried out over an 8 week period, from August 7 to September 29, 2017. During these sessions children were encouraged to produce mathematical education activities twice a week, this amount is based on the STEAM educational approach.The tool used to measure children's mathematical problem - solving, Kim Hyun Joo (2000) who has produced the 5th and 6th kindergarten curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1994) Following this criterion of mathematics curriculum to develop the model (Kwon Young - Rye, Lee Young - Ja, Lee Jung - wook, 1998) for 3·4·5 year old children which Im Eun - Wha (2006) has divided into four regions and used the checklist with rearranged question. In order to test young children's creativity, the author used K-CCTYC (Korean Comprehensive Creativity Test for Young Children), standardized by Jeon - Gyeong Won(2005). Collected data analysis and processing was handled by using SPSS V. 22 for Windows programs. Covariate analysis (ANCOVA) was conducted to find out the effect of the STEAM - based mathematical education activities on children's mathematical problem - solving ability and creativity The Study findings are as follows:First, the mathematical problem solving abilities of the experiment group who were exposed to the STEAM activities had greater results than that of the control group who did not experience it. It also had positive effects on some sub - areas of mathematical problem - solving abilities, like performing classification and ranking and understanding the basic concept of numbers. However, the program did not have positive influences in other sub areas such as the basic concept of space and experiences related statistic. Second, the creativity of the experiment group who carried out the STEAM - based mathematical education activities was more improved than that of the control group. The score of the experiment group was also more improved in sub-variables of creativity such as fluency, adaptability, imagination and originality as compared to the control group; the difference between both groups was statistically significant. In conclusion, STEAM -based mathematical education activities seem to be effective in the improvement of young children's mathematical problem - solving abilities and creativity. In this vein, it is necessary to continue to carry out a variety of researches on the STEAM education in the future.