Boosting children’s connectedness and persistence in STEM through storybook reading

From an early age, children spend a great deal of time engaging in book-reading activities at home and school setting. These book-reading interactions with parents, teachers and peers can impact children’s learning. In fact, research has shown that when students read about stories stories that emphasized effort the scientists invested into achieving their goals, students began to perceive challenges and failures as an integral part of the learning process (Lin-Siegler, Ahn, Chen, Fang & Luna-Lucero, 2016). 

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of a book-reading intervention on young children’s motivation and persistence on a STEM task. Here, 4- and 5-year-old children will be assigned to one of three book conditions: Achievement, Intellectual Struggles or Life Struggles. In the Achievement Condition, children hear a story about a famous scientist who had received many awards and recognition through their lifetime, with no discussion of any struggles the scientist faced along the way. In the Intellectual Struggles Condition, children hear a story about the same famous scientist, however the book focused on the fact that the scientist made mistakes and failed along the way to achieve success. In the Life Struggles Condition, children hear a story about the same famous scientist, however the book emphasized personal struggles, such as having no money for food or not fitting in new school environments.  Next, the child will be presented with an impossible STEM task, which consists of two identical photographs of Snap Circuits ©. Finally, the child is asked to look for the differences between the two pictures as a measure of the child’s persistence. The findings from this study can inform the ways in which storybooks are used to motivate students towards STEM subjects and reframe students’ beliefs regarding effort and achievements.