STEM Scientific Inquiry Rubric for Early Childhood

This study presents the design and validation of a rubric to assess scientific inquiry competence in childhood education through a STEM approach. Although notable progress has been made in STEM-oriented pedagogical practices, there remains a lack of validated instruments that rigorously and contextually evaluate inquiry processes at early educational levels. The rubric integrates five core dimensions—formulating questions, planning, collecting data, analyzing, and communicating—organized into nine criteria and 36 descriptors written in language accessible to young learners. Content validity was established through expert judgment using Aiken’s V coefficient and 95% confidence intervals, yielding favorable results across indicators of clarity, coherence, sufficiency, and relevance. Subsequently, a pilot study with 113 childhood education students enabled a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which demonstrated strong construct validity supported by excellent model fit indices (CFI = 1.000, RMSEA = 0.000). Reliability analysis using Cronbach’s alpha produced coefficients above 0.97 across all dimensions, confirming a high level of internal consistency. Overall, the validated rubric constitutes a reliable and pedagogically meaningful tool for identifying inquiry levels and supporting instructional decision-making within STEM-based childhood education. Its methodological rigor, accessible structure, and strong psychometric properties position it as a valuable resource for educators and researchers seeking to strengthen inquiry-driven teaching and learning processes.