STEAM in early childhood education: teachers' curriculum design thinking and implementation self-efficacy

This study aimed to develop a STEAM Curriculum Design Thinking Scale (STEAM-CDTS) with five dimensions for assessing early childhood teachers' STEAM curriculum design thinking. In addition, the relationships between the STEAM-CDTS and curriculum implementation self-efficacy were further examined. A total of 220 early childhood teachers were selected as the sample of this study. The STEAM-CDTS involved 19 items under the dimensions of Understanding Needs, Planning Lessons, Creating Ideas, Verifying Lessons, and Defining Needs. The total explained variance was 79.27% and Cronbach's alpha reliability was 0.97. The results showed a close relationship between the STEAM-CDTS and curriculum implementation self-efficacy. Specifically, Defining Needs and Planning Lessons significantly predicted curriculum implementation self-efficacy. The present study developed a reliable and valid assessment tool, STEAM-CDTS, which can be applied to design-thinking-embedded teacher education.