Early Robotics

A Case Study of Technology Education in Pre-Primary Education

Abstract

The Finnish National Core Curriculum for pre-primary education emphasizes fostering children’s interest in science and technology, creative designing and making, problem-solving, exploration and experimentation with structures and materials, and reflection on the processes and products, with all competences approached in an integrated way. The study illustrates a learning process in which technology education and arts activities (STEAM) are integrated into the joint objective of exploring and interacting with my environment. During the learning process, children created a robot that was inspired by nature-themed children’s books and artistic activities in an outdoor environment. The learning process study was carried out with a pre-primary group in Western Finland during the spring of 2022. The group included 19 children, 12 boys and 7 girls, all aged 5-6. The primary data consists of children's outcomes – photographs of land art pieces serving as sketches for the robots, designs of the robots and ready-made robots– and the secondary data consists of children's written documents of their oral stories about the robots. The research question of the study was: how does an integrative approach support technology education, especially designing and making a robot. The analysis of the data was conducted through a data-driven content analysis. The findings reveal that integrating technology education to artistic activities and outdoor learning inspired children to create detailed and individual robots as well as concentrate on designing and building their robots. The oral storytelling linked to the learning process highlighted the meanings the children attached to their robots and enhanced their understanding of the significance of the robots for the makers. The robot's implementation was motivating for the children and supported the learning of technological details. Furthermore, these findings suggest that careful pedagogical planning and multisensory experiences can support the implementation of diverse STEAM projects and deepen children’s involvement.