Multidisciplinary Journal of Science and Technology

TEACHERS AWARENESS AND PRACTICES OF STEM AS CORRELATES OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN’S INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

F.T Ogunyemi

Tai-Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ogun State, Department of Childhood Education

Adefabi, M. S

Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Department of Early Childhood Care and Education

Adediran, A. A

Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Department of Early Childhood Care and Education

Keywords: Awareness, Practices, Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

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Abstract

It is important to our society to have schools producing students who are able to move the society forward by contributing positively to the economy through the use of some relevant skills from the field of STEM. Owing to the unprecedented development of technology and therefore of society in recent years, the need for education systems worldwide to modernize the methods and means used is a matter of necessity. Against the traditional, primitive and conventional way of content delivery been used by teachers, the use of pedagogical practices that is more practical oriented and centralize teaching learning activities to children and the one which can help in improving learning ability ultimately for societal development becomes imperative. Hence the study investigated Teachers Awareness and Practices of Stem as Correlates of Preschool Children’s Intellectual Development. Three research questions were answered and four hypotheses were tested. The study adopted correlational survey research design. The population of the study comprises all preschool teachers in Oyo Town. Proportionate stratified random sampling was adopted to select 10 schools each from public and private preschools. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to select 100 preschool teachers. Three self-designed instruments were used to elicit responses from the participants. The instruments were validated and tested for reliability. The finding of the study revealed that, preschool teachers are to some extent aware of STEM (WA=) and also the extent to which teachers practice STEM is fair (WA=). It was recommended based on the findings that, there should be proper awareness for preschool teachers on the need to familiarize themselves with STEM which is considered as a global trend. Also, although the level of practice of STEM by teachers is fair, Periodic training and retraining of preschool teachers should be done by the government and private school owners.

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