Abstract—Design thinking is often defined as a process of analysis and creation. The design thinker needs to take into account the opinions, insights, and feelings of the people being studied and to experiment, create prototypes, test reflect, and redesign. There is a growing awareness of the importance of design thinking in teaching and learning as an effective way to help improve students’ 21st century skills. Although many researchers have been exploring and analyzing the use of design thinking in teaching and learning, the field of early childhood has remained neglected. There is very limited research on the application and presentation of design thinking in early childhood education settings. Therefore, this study will systematically review relevant literature on the application of design thinking in early childhood STEM education and how early childhood teachers apply design thinking pedagogy to help young children acquire conceptual knowledge and develop learning skills. The research question for this study will be: How design thinking is being applied in early childhood integrated STEM education? The study will synthesize, evaluate, and analyze the sample literature based on Thibaut et al.’s theoretical framework for instructional practices in integrated STEM. 
 

Keywords—STEM education, design thinking, Early childhood, systematic review 

Cite: Jingtong Liang, "A Systematic Literature Review of the Design Thinking Application in the Early Childhood Integrated STEM Education," International Journal of Learning and Teaching, Vol. 10, No. 5, pp. 643-646, 2024.

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