The effect of STEM applications on preschool students' scientific process skills and cognitive field development

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of STEM applications on the scientific process skills and cognitive field development of preschool students. The research was conducted within the framework of quasi-experimental method. The study was carried out with 24 preschool students including 13 in the experiment group and 11 in the control group who were studying at Vali Mehmet Lütfullah Bilgin Primary School in the province of Elazığ, in the academic year of 2017-2018. In the study which was conducted for 11 weeks, STEM applications were carried out with the students in the experimental group, while the control group was adhered to the current curriculum without STEM applications. The data of the study were collected using the Scientific Process Skill Test developed by Sağırekmekçi (2016) and the Cognitive Field Development Form consisting of the cognitive development gains and indicators in the Preschool Program of the Ministry of National Education (2013). The SPSS 23 package software was used for the analysis of the data. Mann Whitney U-test was used to test the hypotheses of the study. According to the results of the analysis, STEM applications had a positive effect on the scientific process skills of the preschool students in the experiment group in comparison to those in the conrol group where the applications were not performed (U = .0001, p <.05). At the same time, the post-test scores of the scientific process skills sub- dimensions, observing, classification, measuring, estimation and inferring, were differed from the scores of control group students. According to the results of the Mann Whitney U-test, a significant difference was found between experimental and control groups in favor of experimental groups in all of the sub-dimensions of scientific process skills test (p <.05). It was found that there was a significant difference between experimental and control groups students in favor of experimental groups in post-test scores of the Cognitive Field Development Form (U = .0001, p <.05). According to the results of this research, STEM applications have been effective in increasing the cognitive field development and scientific process skills of preschool students. Considering these results, it is recommended to increase similar practices.