Aistear Blogs

Following consultation (NCCA, 2024), the area of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education was identified as an area requiring further consideration in the finalised Framework. In light of this, STEM is now named in the updated Framework and is considered to involve educators nurturing babies, toddlers and young children’s innate curiosity, supporting their active exploration, and helping them to see themselves as agentic, competent and confident learners through engagement with meaningful STEM learning experiences. Aistear aligns with the STEM Education Policy and Implementation Plan (Department of Education and Skills, 2017) and the Early Years Education Inspection Tool (DES Inspectorate, 2018), both of which highlight the importance of STEM education in early childhood.

Agentic educators notice opportunities for babies, toddlers and young children to engage with STEM concepts as they explore and manipulate textures and objects and experiment with cause and effect, indoors and outdoors. The updated Aistear emphasises the integration of these exploratory moments into rich, intentional learning experiences within nurturing relationships. It promotes an inquiry-based approach where babies, toddlers, and young children are encouraged to ask questions, explore concepts and solve problems. Embracing this approach provides opportunities for babies, toddlers and young children to develop skills such as hypothesising, investigating, analysing, questioning and problem-solving and also dispositions such as curiosity, perseverance and confidence.

The Principles of Aistear refer to the value of holistic learning and development emphasising how babies, toddlers and young children learn many different things at the same time. Educators develop an emergent and inquiry-based curriculum through a blend of free-play, guided play and educator-led playful experiences. Educators are also encouraged to set up and or set out provocations, inviting babies, toddlers and children to engage and experiment with open ended materials and natural resources. These play and playful experiences, together with the use of provocations, provide opportunities to support and progress babies, toddlers and young children’s learning and development in many areas, including STEM education.  

STEM is most explicitly addressed in the Theme of Exploring and Thinking. Here, it states that babies, toddlers and young children use their senses, their minds and their bodies to find out about and make sense of what they see, feel and experience in the world around them. By facilitating and supporting extended periods of uninterrupted free play, educators can consider guided play or educator-led playful experiences to further engage with babies, toddlers and young children in purposeful and sensitive ways. Babies, toddlers and young children enjoy exploring early STEM concepts and ideas and testing these out. Some of these may include:
•    babies feeling the texture of sand or observing light and shadow through sensory play 
•    toddlers building structures with blocks or solving problems like how to create a bridge
•    young children experimenting with water flow or investigating how plants grow.

STEM in early childhood education is about educators nurturing babies, toddlers and young children’s innate curiosity, supporting their exploration, and helping them to see themselves as agentic, competent and confident learners. The Framework encourages educators to see STEM as more than a set of isolated learning experiences; instead, STEM is woven into the fabric of play and interactions to ensure that every baby, toddler, and young child has the opportunity to develop the necessary skills, knowledge and dispositions to thrive and flourish in a complex and ever-changing world.

Read the previous blog in our series here.