Building with focus on stability and construction: using a story as inspiration when teaching technology and design in preschool”

In this study, the researchers investigated children’s understanding of stability in connection with activities that involve building. The researchers also investigated how a story can give the activity meaning through the children building for some of the animal characters in the story. The two research questions are: 1) What kind of content can be identified in relation to the children’s ability to build and construct using different techniques and materials? 2) What kind of connections are made to the story during the building activities?

The findings showed that the children liked to build and showed an understanding of how to build stable structures, but they did not use the word ‘stability’. The building was related to the story, in addition to the children creating new stories while they were building.

Two kindergarten teachers and ten children aged 4 –5 years old in a Swedish kindergarten participated in the study. The data consisted of video recordings of the activities involving the children and it was analysed using thematic coding.

Walan, S., Flognman, J. & Kilbrink, N. (2019). “Building with focus on stability and construction: using a story as inspiration when teaching technology and design in preschool”. Education, 3-13, 48(2):174–190.