New research from Professor Therese Keane and Dr Milorad Cerovac has examined how children engage with technologies education at different stages of development.
“We found that a student's developmental age determines their ability to think in abstract ways when solving hands-on technology problems,” explains Professor Keane.
The study was grounded in Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, which explains how children progress through four key stages as they grow: sensorimotor (absorbing information through their senses), preoperational (understanding symbolic representation), concrete operational (problem-solving things they can see) and formal operational (using abstract thinking and hypothetical problem-solving).
“Consistent with Piaget’s model, our study found that a student’s developmental age does influence their ability to complete tasks that require spatial reasoning and abstract thinking, particularly when moving back and forth between the stages when solving hands-on technology problems.”
Professor Keane says that their findings highlight the important role that STEM teachers play in helping students develop spatial reasoning and abstract thinking skills.
“Technologies teachers are at the forefront of building students' capabilities to think and act as creators and innovators.”
“Our study points to the need for regular exposure to tactile hands-on tasks, the development of students' technical vocabulary, and explicit teaching of how students can work collaboratively.”
The next step in the research will be to examine the role of gender in abstract and spatial inferential reasoning.
“Given the lack of gender diversity in both secondary and tertiary STEM-related courses, and the under-representation of women in STEM careers, addressing gender stereotypes is particularly important in the junior primary school years.”
