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Toddlers exploring natural phenomena with teachers as co-researchers
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Science and Mathematics Education. Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS). (UmSER)
2015 (English)In: 25th conference of EECERA (European Early Childhood Education Research Association), Barcelona, Spain, 7th-11th September, 2015: abstract book, 2015, p. 329-Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The aim of this study is to describe and examine the teachers' strategies when it comes to science education for the youngest children (aged 1-2 years).The study relates to Klaar’s and Öhman’s (2012) research on toddler’s physical, non-verbal, experiences of phenomena in science. Further the study draws on the concept “emergent science” that has been promoted by Siraj-Blatchford (2001) to frame a science education for the youngest that includes providing children with a range of experiences, with phenomena and material. Siraj-Blatchford argues that these experiences are essential to later understanding of scientific explanations. The analysis is based on observations of preschool practice, video recordings, field notes, individual interviews with teachers and a video-stimulated focus group interview with all teachers working in the preschool unit. We have informed the caretakers about the project and they have given their written consent to our recording children’s activities. The main finding of this study is the teachers’ “co-researching” strategies: their holding on to children’s discoveries, their helping children to draw attention to finite parts of the world (such as focusing on the sound of walking on snow), their making way for comparisons (such as the difference between blowing dry and wet autumn leaves away from the palm of your hand), and their ways of interpreting children’s non-oral actions in terms of reasoning and drawing conclusions about relationships in nature. Thereby, the results give important contributions to the field of science education for the youngest children and to what non-verbal science learning could be.

Klaar, Susanne, & Öhman, Johan. (2012). Action with Friction: A Transactional Approach to Toddlers' Physical Meaning Making of Natural Phenomena and Processes in Preschool. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 20(3), 439-454. doi: 10.1080/1350293X.2012.704765

Siraj-Blatchford, J. (2001). Emergent Science and Technology in the Early Years. Paper presented at the XXIII World Congress of OMEP, Santiago, Chile.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2015. p. 329-
Keywords [en]
science education, toddlers, teaching strategies, non-verbal, co-researching
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-109701OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-109701DiVA, id: diva2:858762
Conference
25th conference of EECERA (European Early Childhood Education Research Association), Barcelona, Spain, 7th-11th September, 2015.
Available from: 2015-10-05 Created: 2015-10-05 Last updated: 2018-06-07Bibliographically approved

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Areljung, Sofie

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CiteExportLink to record
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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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More styles
Language
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Output format
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