Guided activity kits impact parents’ scaffolding of child STEM play

IF 4.7 1区教育学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Learning and Instruction Pub Date : 2025-01-18 DOI:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2025.102082

Karen L. Bierman , Lynn S. Liben , Meg Small , Jennifer Connell , Brenda Heinrichs , Jessica Menold , Scarlett Miller , Morgan Mannweiler

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Adults can promote the STEM skill learning of young children during guided play but may need support to incorporate STEM talk (STEM vocabulary and scientific inquiry) and reduce directive management.

Aims

We evaluated (1) the impact of guided (vs. basic) activity kits on parents’ STEM talk and directive management as parents helped their preschoolers construct wooden structures and (2) whether guided activity kits were especially effective for parents with less (vs. more) formal education.

Sample

Participants were 75 parents with high school (27%) or college (73%) degrees, and their children (M_age = 4.82 years; 49% girls).

Methods

Families received five activity kits containing materials for building wooden structures over 10 weeks. By random assignment, kits were either “guided” (included embedded stories, parent tips, and extension ideas; n = 50) or “basic” (identical construction activities without guidance features; n = 25). Parents’ rates of STEM talk and directive management were assessed while dyads solved novel building challenges before and after the intervention.

Results

No main effect of intervention appeared on parent STEM talk or directive management. However, a moderated effect on STEM talk emerged: parents with less formal education assigned to guided activity kits produced significantly more STEM talk at the post-intervention assessments than did those given basic kits. Self-guiding STEM activity kits designed for parent-child play are effective for boosting some parents’ STEM talk that has been linked to better STEM outcomes in prior research.

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来源期刊

Learning and Instruction Multiple-

CiteScore

11.30

自引率

4.80%

发文量

109

期刊介绍： As an international, multi-disciplinary, peer-refereed journal, Learning and Instruction provides a platform for the publication of the most advanced scientific research in the areas of learning, development, instruction and teaching. The journal welcomes original empirical investigations. The papers may represent a variety of theoretical perspectives and different methodological approaches. They may refer to any age level, from infants to adults and to a diversity of learning and instructional settings, from laboratory experiments to field studies. The major criteria in the review and the selection process concern the significance of the contribution to the area of learning and instruction, and the rigor of the study.