Developmental trajectories of children’s social–emotional competence in kindergarten STEM activities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v82.119552Keywords:
Kindergarten STEM education, social-emotional competence, early childhood education, longitudinal development, quasi-experimental studyAbstract
Introduction: The increasing interest in interdisciplinary learning has led to a growing interest in the general potential of kindergarten science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities to develop social–emotional competence, although very little longitudinal evidence has been found on their influence on children’s social–emotional development.
Objective: This paper studied whether kindergarten science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities promoted children’s social–emotional competence and explored differences in developmental pathways according to children’s initial competence and gender.
Methodology: A quasi-experimental longitudinal design was used with 224 children from 12 kindergarten classrooms. Experimental group participated in a eight-week science, technology, engineering and mathematics intervention while control group received regular instruction. Children’s social–emotional competence was assessed at four time points, pretest, midtest, posttest and delayed posttest. Data were analyzed using longitudinal growth modeling.
Results: Results showed that children participating in science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities significantly improved their social–emotional competence than children in regular classroom activities, and that these advantages were still evident at delayed posttest. Children with low initial competence grow faster, whereas gender differences were relatively small.
Discussion: These findings were consistent with previous studies suggesting that collaborative and inquiry-based learning environments can support children’s social and emotional development along cognitive learning.
Conclusions: The study showed that kindergarten science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities provide a very good context to promote children’s social–emotional competence development.
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