Abstract
Recent literature emphasises the role of exploration, designerly play, creative thinking, and handling of materials in the beginning years of learning. This paper reports findings from a study involving 24 children (aged 4 to 10 years), where the researchers engaged with four-story contexts (tasks) that had embedded problem scenarios. In response to problems presented in the stories, children were invited to express their design ideas through drawings and oral expressions. Analysis of the children’s work yielded insights into design thinking and revealed the cognitive strategies children used for addressing different kinds of problem scenarios. The experience offers significant takeaways for designing contextually appropriate curricular engagements in the early and primary years.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their sincere thanks to the children who participated in the study, and to the school and the teachers who offered their support. The authors express their gratitude to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences for the support that led to the conduct of the research study. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers and journal editors who greatly enriched the quality of work with their careful inputs.
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Kharbanda, D., Khunyakari, R. Analyzing Young Children’s Thinking on Design Problems Embedded in Story Contexts. Early Childhood Educ J (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-023-01551-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-023-01551-2