Digital technology is increasingly used in STEM education for young children aged 0–8 years. An extensive literature search was conducted using seven databases to systematically investigate the effect of digital technology on young children’s STEM education. Twenty-two eligible articles published from 2010 to 2021 were identified. Results showed that robotics, programming, and multimedia were used to support young children’s STEM education. Digital technology plays different roles in the process of STEM education. Outcomes also showed that digital technology positively affected young children’s STEM education in terms of STEM knowledge or skill acquisition and learning engagement. This was regardless of gender but relevant to age and the learning condition. Participating children and teachers reported high acceptance and satisfaction with the included programs. However, many difficulties, challenges and criticisms were revealed by the extracted data, including how digital technology is used in young children’s STEM education, the nature of young children, the requirements placed upon educators, and different types of adult–child interactions. We also look at the limitations of the study design within included studies and provide recommendations accordingly.

In recent years, calls have been made globally to strengthen early childhood Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, with proponents arguing that STEM education boosts children's later STEM-related achievements in contextual learning environments. Appropriate pedagogy has been considered a significant medium to bridge the curriculum framework and effective teaching and learning practices. To ensure the effectiveness of the pedagogical approach in early STEM education, we have to address the potential for enacting child-centered experiential experiences in specific cultural contexts. However, it has been found that early childhood educators in Hong Kong lack localized pedagogies to deliver STEM education effectively. This chapter proposes a culturally situated approach to support Hong Kong's early educators in finding an efficient way to glocalize the global pedagogical approach in early STEM education. Following the three-component framework proposed by Chen (2022), this culturally situated approach takes the middle ground to harmonize globally practical pedagogical approaches with teaching challenges in local contexts. Underpinned by the sensemaking processes to connect the “Nature and Living” learning area (Curriculum Development Council, 2017) to Hong Kong's regional context, this approach encourages teachers to engage children in STEM exploration in the local natural environment. It transforms the process of children's learning in STEM from one of knowledge delivery to one of knowledge co-creation. It also helps to redefine the roles of children and educators in a STEM learning context that integrates young children's experiences in exploring nearby nature and living. To identify the nuances of practical teaching and learning practices within this pedagogy, four case vignettes were captured from the activities focused on the themes of nature exploration and cooperation with nearby communities and the natural environment in a large-scale STEM project. In the selected case, educators and children co-created STEM knowledge through continuous sensemaking learning activities, including (1) sensing and finding a gap, (2) investigating, (3) making meaning, and (4) sharing periodic outcomes of the sensemaking process. During the learning process, children explore ideas by connecting nature, sorting and organizing collected information, and identifying and correlating abstract concepts with the process of sensemaking. The four cases demonstrate how early educators use culturally situated pedagogies to localize the global STEM systematic pedagogical framework to support preschoolers in building STEM sensemaking in the Hong Kong context. The study also implies the potential of the culturally situated pedagogy in reconceptualizing the culture of STEM learning.