“Beyond Play: Reimagining Early Childhood Classrooms through STEAM Integration”

Abstract

This paper discusses the introduction of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Pakistan. The study was descriptive employed quantitative survey. Sample of 50 trained ECCE teachers in 15 elementary schools from both public and private sectors was used to collect the data. The questionnaire consists of (25 items on five-point Likert scale) created by the researcher was used to assess how teachers perceive the effectiveness of the STEAM curriculum integration and its implementation at early childhood level. Expert review was set to create content validity; pilot testing (n=10) was used to refine items, and reliability analysis provided Cronbach’s 0.87. Data analysis was conducted with the help of SPSS version 31 to calculate descriptive statistics, t-tests (0.0 = 4.0) to test the level of agreement among the teachers.  It was shown by the Findings of current study that the perceptions of educators were positive (Effectiveness: M=4.23, SD=0.67; Implementation: M=4.19, SD=0.72) but there are still obstacles in the areas of resources, training, and curriculum alignment. The implications are those of an urgent necessity of professional development as a long-term phenomenon, provision of resources, curriculum change, and policy support required to make STEAM integration effective at early childhood level. The paper provides empirical evidence in the context of a developing country and presents the recommendations to policymakers, school leaders and educators.