STEM Education has been promoted to early childhood education (ECE) publicly in Thailand since 2008 when the science learning standards for preschool level (3–5 years old) aligned with the Early Childhood Curriculum B.E. 2546 were published (IPST, 2008). Since then, several projects have been launched by public and private organizations to enhance STEM teaching and learning in ECE and to provide professional development (PD) for early childhood teachers. One of the most significant impact projects on enhancing early childhood STEM education in Thailand is the Little Scientists’ House (LSH) project.
Little Scientists’ House (LSH) project was launched in 2006 by Haus der Kleinen Forscher, a non-profit foundation in Germany, and has been implemented in Thailand since 2010. The project in Thailand is managed by the Foundation of Her Royal Highest Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, called ‘Little Scientist’s House, Thailand’. The project is a joint public-private collaboration of eight core organizations includes the Princess Maha Chakri Sirndhorn Foundation, IPST, Office of the Basic Education Commission, National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA, National Science Museum, Srinakharinwirot University, Nanmeebooks, Co. Ltd., and B.Grimm Group (LSH, Thailand, 2020, NSTDA, 2016). Khun Ying Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sumontha Promboon, EASE Distinguished Contribution Award 2021, is a leader of the project. The aims of the project are to develop positive attitude towards STEM and STEM learning of Thai children under the vision ‘Questioning – Inquiring – Shaping the Future’.
Figure 1 Khun Ying Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sumontha Promboon and all leaders from 8 partnerships
The project began in 2010 with 221 schools under eight local educational networks. Each network consists of at least on local leader and one local trainer who supervise the participating schools. In 2020, the number of participating schools and local networks increased to over 29,000 schools and 232 networks. The schools that passed requirement could apply for the LSH certificate. The certificate is valid for the following two years, approximately 3,000 schools apply for the certificate each year.
The project promotes STEM learning to early childhood via hands-on and mind-on experiences using the metacognition and co-construction pedagogy. Teaching activities include simple hands-on experiments, exploration activities related to the children’s daily lives (e.g., water, air, magnet, sound, light) and a STEM project according to children’s interest. Over 100 activities are provided for kindergarten teachers to implement in classrooms, and teachers can select activities that match their school curricula and context. The implementation of the activities is based on an inquiry-based learning, called inquiry cycle method, which consists of six steps: (1) asking questions about the natural world, (2) collecting ideas and making assumptions, (3) trying things and conducting an inquiry activity, (4) making observation and providing a description, (5) documenting results, and (6) discussing results. Teachers could arouse children’s interests and encourage them to find a solution by following these steps. The children STEM project is a long-term study on a topic that children chosen based on their interest. Through the approach of project-based learning, teacher plan an instruction to encourage children in planning and exploring based on their interest. In addition, the project does not focus on content, but emphasis on motivate children to revise and reflect on their own thought on different aspects of the project.
Figure 3 Children are doing activities.
Figure 2 Certificate ceremony
This project also provides PD opportunities for teachers in a participating school. Twice a year, they attend a training session to receive updated information about the project, gain new teaching ideas, and have an access to new teaching materials.
Figure 4 School teacher workshop
The effectiveness of the project has been supported by several research studies (Dahsah, Promkatkaew, & Seetee, 2019; Dahsah, & Seetee, 2017; Seetee & Dahsah, 2017). For example, in 2017, the authors conducted a study to compare science process skills of students who had participated in LSH Project and non-participating students using interview about events. The results indicated that students who had participated in LSH Project had superior skills in some science process skills, such as communication, making predictions, measuring objects, and identifying space/space and space/time relationships (Dahsah & Seetee, 2017).
LSH project had passed its first decade with extensive impact on early childhood STEM education and become a most well-known project for ECE in Thailand. However, there are still many frontiers to reach out for enhancing STEM learning in ECE, for example the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) and technology integration. Recently, various learning activities which integrated the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) with STEM learning activities in Thai context had been developed and tried out in the schools. ECE STEM education for sustainable development, technology integration would be the important goals for the new decade of the project, together with promoting students’ inquiry skills and attitude toward STEM and supporting of pre-service early childhood teachers’ STEM TPACK.
References
Dahsah, C., Promkatkaew, T. & Seetee, N. (2019, July). How Teacher Encourage Scientific Inquiry in Children Projects. Paper presented at ASERA Conference, Queenstown, New Zealand, July 2-5.
Dahsah, C., & Seetee, N. (2017). The use of interview about events to explore children’s basic science process skills. In Pixel (Eds.) Proceeding of International Conference, New Perspectives in Science Education, Edition 6 (pp. 498–503). Italy: LibreriaUniveraitaria.
Little Scientists’ House, Thailand. (2020). บ้านนักวิทยาศาสตร์น้อย ประเทศไทย [Little Scientists’ House, Thailand]. Little Scientists’ House, Thailand, 2020
National Science and Technology Development Agency (2016). Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s vision and action in science, technology and ICT for development. https://www.princess-it-foundation.org/princess-it-archive/wp-content/gallery/book/60_eng_mini.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0Kd-nQwQ_0lUuj8HmN1vuYdPUsx3qbJmv4R4ioFKDTZmFeBJ2CyRcubk8
Seetee, N., & Dahsah, C. (2017). Science process skills in kindergarten projects. In Pixel (Eds.) Proceeding of International Conference, New Perspectives in Science Education, Edition 6 (pp. 407-411). Italy: LibreriaUniveraitaria.
The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology. (2008). แนวทางการจัดการเรียนรู้วิทยาศาสตร์ปฐมวัย ตามหลักสูตรการศึกษาปฐมวัย 2546 [Early childhood science learning guideline aligned with early childhood curriculum A.D. 2003]. Primary Science Department of IPST. [in Thai]