THE STEAM APPROACH IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION - INVESTIGATING THE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF CHILDREN IN THE KINDERGARTEN PREPARATORY GROUP

The skill of critical thinking develops from early childhood, in the sensorimotor and preoperational periods defined by Piaget and continues throughout human life. If, however, there is a possibility of the absence of stimuli (game tools, methods, approaches, materials, techniques and technologies) developing criticality, during the most active cognitive period of the child's personality, there is a risk of loss and inability to develop this so important a skill for the future. Given that the skill of critical thinking does not appear automatically when a person reaches adulthood, it must be nurtured and taught during the early stages of childhood development, through STEAM education. The present study aims to show, by solving a case study of children in a group where STEAM learning is applied and solving the same case study of children in a group where a STEAM approach is not applied, whether the use of the interdisciplinary approach in the preschool institution develops or not critical thinking skills in children.