Engineering as a key component of STEM education has been introduced into the preschool years. Engaging young children into engineering block building play has been regarded to benefit the development of engineering habits of mind(EHoM). However, it is difficult to evaluate the dynamic development of children’ engineering habits of mind during their block play. To address this gap, this study used Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) to examine what characteristics and patterns preschool children with high and low learning behavior performance manifest their engineering habits of mind while engaging in engineering play with block. A total of 25 preschool children were enrolled in this study and participated in the engineering block building play during the STEM learning activity. Their discourse data were collected, coded and analyzed. The results showed that there was significant difference in the patterns of engineering habits of mind between the high and low learning behavior performance groups. Children in the high learning behavior performance group completed engineering block building in the support of the close correlations among systems thinking, creativity, optimism and communication, while children in the low learning behavior performance group tended to connect the elements of collaboration and attention to ethical considerations. Moreover, the development trajectory differences were found. The high learning behavior performance group called more creativity and systems thinking in the initial stage of the building engineering blocks play, while they were more optimistic in the end stage. Children in the low learning behavior performance group could not systematically think and make good use of their creativity and communication skills at first, while they gradually developed the systematic thinking and creativity to converge to those of the the high learning behavior performance group. Finally, the theoretical implications, practical implications and limitations were discussed.
In design education, early concept generation often prioritizes novelty at the expense of practicality. This study explores how a repairability-based problem framing, through hands-on disassembly and repair-index testing, affects idea quality in undergraduate design teams. Over two sessions in a crossover experimental design, students generated concepts for small appliances with and without prior exposure to disassembly workshops. A panel of experts assessed 14 idea criteria using Likert scales to quantify dimensions such as feasibility, clarity, originality, and aesthetic appeal. Results show that when students ideate following a repair workshop, their ideas score significantly higher on feasibility-related measures and conceptual clarity, while originality decreases only modestly. In addition, certain criteria (e.g., aesthetic appeal, ergonomic quality) remain unchanged. These outcomes suggest that repair-based framing acts as a productive constraint: it channels design thinking toward workable solutions without fully stifling innovation. From an educational perspective, integrating repair workshops into ideation phases offers a promising strategy to balance creativity and viability. The findings also highlight the selective sensitivity of creative dimensions to constraint interventions. Implications for pedagogy in sustainability-oriented design courses are discussed, along with directions for future studies on framing strategies, long-term impact, and cross-domain validation.
Educational robotics kits (ERKs) are widely used to support competence-oriented technology education, yet their design is rarely grounded in clearly prioritised technological competences and associated learning behaviours. This research, situated in China’s General Technology curriculum, addresses this gap by developing a competence-behaviour-design (C-B-D) alignment for ERKs. The research problem concerns what consistent priority competences and their operationalised learning behaviours are required to guide ERK design. A two-phase mixed-methods approach was adopted. Study 1 used a Delphi-Analytic Hierarchy Process with experienced teachers to prioritise curriculum-defined competences. Materialisation capacity and engineering thinking emerged as highest priorities; within materialisation capacity, ‘knowledge and selection of materials and tools’ and ‘making and processing capability’ were rated equally important, while ‘systems analysis thinking’ was the dominant indicator for engineering thinking. Study 2 undertook document- and artefact-based analysis to identify operationalised learning behaviours corresponding to these competences. Results show that materialisation capacity is predominantly enacted through component selection, modular assembly and basic structural testing, whereas engineering thinking is mainly elicited through functional evaluation, system-level assembly and the design of complete functional structures. The findings characterise priority technological competence as a coherent core of systematic understanding and making, and the associated behaviours as a concrete repertoire of design-and-build actions that bridge precise hands-on making with system-level problem solving. The study contributes a theoretical model of C-B-D alignment and a set of theory-informed ERK design guidelines with feature-behaviour mappings, offering practical guidance for competence-aligned curriculum implementation and product development in technology education contexts internationally, and supporting future empirical evaluation.
Phygital artefacts are physical artefacts like puppets, enhanced with embedded technologies, enabling for novel forms of interaction, e.g., if it is tickled, the artefact responds laughing. It is open to investigation how to design them for early childhood and imaginative play. This paper presents an exploratory study into their design for imaginative play, with 11 children aged 5–9 in a summer camp. Drawing on sociocultural theory and research in Child-Computer Interaction, five screenless phygital artefacts were developed. Children explored how to interact with them and use them in their imaginative play. Then children were invited to craft, tell and enact their ideas of similar future artefacts. The study investigated both children’s understanding of the explored phygital artefacts and their imaginative expectations for future technology. Data were collected through a mix of qualitative methods, including observations, verbal communication, and non-verbal expressions, and were triangulated and analysed using descriptive coding and Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA), informing the refinement of the initial design insights for phygital artefacts. These revised exploratory design insights contribute to the design of interactive, engaging, and developmentally appropriate phygital artefacts.
Numerous studies have recently designed AI literacy programs to enhance young children’s understanding of AI. However, many early educators remain uncertain about the effective approaches for teaching AI literacy. This study aims to address this gap by, first, developing and applying a pedagogical approach to foster AI literacy and positive attitudes towards AI in young children; second, evaluating this approach through measuring the change of children’s AI literacy and their attitudes towards AI. We propose a dual-pedagogy (DP) approach combining play-based learning and storytelling. In our study, 162 young children (aged 5–6) participated in an AI literacy education program lasting a total of eight weeks. They were randomly assigned to two groups. The experimental group received instructions based on the DP approach, while the active-control group received traditional direct instruction. The students in the experimental group performed significant improvement in their AI literacy assessment. They also exhibited a more positive attitude towards learning AI. The results also indicated that all of the teachers in the study regarded the DP approachas suitable for teaching AI to young children. Overall, the DP approach demonstrated its effectiveness in terms of promoting AI literacy among young children.
