Developing engineering skills and attitude towards engineering as technological literacy education for children aged 1-2 years

The term technological literacy means that an individual understands the wider technological world. It is very important in early childhood learning period, as it is related to all aspects of child development – physical and motor development, perceptual development, cognitive development, speech development, social and emotional development, and development of moral judgement. The purpose of the diploma thesis is to determine technological literacy of children aged 1 to 2 years. We carried out five planned activities that stimulate developmental milestones of children aged 1 to 2 years in the field of engineering: exploration box, sensory path, traveling ball, sorting materials and sensory board. We connected these activities with all curriculum fields. The theoretical part substantiates technological literacy and its three important dimensions: knowledge, ability, and critical thinking and evaluation. The importance of play and developmental characteristics of children aged 1 to 2 according to the author Jean Piaget are also presented. Individual curriculum fields were then connected with engineering and examples of activities. In the empirical part of the diploma thesis, we used a survey questionnaire to analyze the way in which professional kindergarten workers develop engineering skills, dexterity, and attitude towards engineering in children. The analysis of the survey questionnaire revealed that most professional workers know the importance of technological literacy, but still do not consider it as a very important field in their group. The empirical part also includes an analysis of five activities carried out in a group of children aged 1-2 years. The purpose of the five activities was to introduce the youngest children in the first age group to engineering and technology, despite the fact it is not defined as an individual field in the kindergarten curriculum