Abstract
This chapter describes and illustrates how children experience Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics learning holistically, and in an integrated fashion. It introduces children’s sensory-based, action-reaction learning, providing insight into how the individual disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) work together to support creative thinking, problem solving, decision-making and the integration of ideas and interests. Framed within the socio-constructivist paradigm, learning is discussed in terms of multi-modal engagement that stimulates in-depth inquiry. The chapter begins by describing how children’s perceptual and sensory thinking can be enriched through play and progresses to unpack semiosis and transmediation, which are defined and described for the role they play in supporting children to make meaning of their world and everyday experience. Drawing on exemplars of lived experience of three young children’s learning, Alfie (12 months), Ryle (3 years) and Amelee (4 years), STEAM is presented as an integrated experience with the arts centrally situated.
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Deans, J., Wright, S. (2021). STEAM Through Sensory-Based Action-Reaction Learning. In: Cohrssen, C., Garvis, S. (eds) Embedding STEAM in Early Childhood Education and Care. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65624-9_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65624-9_7
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