Understanding Early Childhood Science: Teachers’ Perceptions about Science Teaching
Author(s):
Elif Öztürk Yılmaztekin (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2013
Format:
Paper

Session Information

ERG SES C 09, Early Childhood in Education

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-09
11:00-12:30
Room:
A-204
Chair:
Maria Pacheco Figueiredo

Contribution

Science education is important for children because its aim is to help them understand the world. Thus, children try to find different answers about questions with the help of their cognitive and physical skills (Jones, Lake, & Lin, 2008). In addition, children are interested in science because they are curious about their environments and they try to explain the meaning of them (French, Conezio, & Boynton, 2000). Teachers play an essential role on children’s interests about science. The National Research Council (1996) mentioned that science was a process about inquiry and in this process, that teachers played an important role in organizing learning experiences in order to improve children’s ability to undertake  scientific inquiry (Jones et al., 2008). While implementing science activities, one of the main responsibilities for the teachers is to observe and record the development of children’s thinking (Wortham, 2006). In addition, organization for science activities is important issue in early childhood settings because the nature of the activities is different to each other. For example, some of the science activities are required to make group work while some others are needed to work on it individually (Wortham, 2006). In addition, the place where science activities were organized is important for quality of the science activities. Öztürk (2010) mentioned that early childhood teachers generally preferred to organize science activities in the classroom setting or the school garden. More specifically, nature-related activities were implemented in the school garden because active involvement of children in the learning process is important for using science skills such as observing and investigating. Moreover, early childhood teachers can implement science activities in “science and nature interest center” in their classrooms or schools.  An interest center can be defined as a space where materials are arranged that children can use without any adult assistance (Mayesky, 2002).

The purpose of this study was to investigate early childhood teachers’ views about science teaching methods in early childhood settings. The study focused on the issues of teachers who use teaching methods in early childhood education. The following research questions were explored:

  1. What are the views of early childhood teachers about “science and nature interest centers” in early childhood settings?
  2. What are the views of early childhood teachers about the place where they implement their science activities?
  3. What are the views of early childhood teachers about science teaching methods used in their classrooms?
  4. What are the views of early childhood teachers about the role of the parents and teachers in science teaching processes?
  5. What are the problems that early childhood teachers face with while implanting science activities?

Method

This study was conducted as a case study including 20 early childhood teachers in İzmir, Turkey. According to Yin (2009, pp.18), “a case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident”. Twenty early childhood teachers who have been working in early childhood institutions were asked to participate in the study. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The interview protocol was prepared by the researcher on the basis of the related literature. The goal of the interviews was to explain participant teachers’ views about issues in early childhood science education. The interviews lasted between 25 and 40 minutes. The data were summarized and interpreted through content analysis method (Corbin & Strauss, 2007; Miles & Huberman, 1994).

Expected Outcomes

The findings of the study highlight the importance of science in early childhood classrooms. There are number of factors affecting the quality of early childhood science education. Participant early childhood teachers stressed the role of “science and nature corner” in children’s science practices. They mentioned that children learn by doing when engaging materials in science and nature corner in the classrooms. The important thing was that there should be variety of science materials in these corners. In addition, most of the participant teachers claimed that early childhood institutions should have a science laboratory where children can work collaboratively with others in order to explore objects, engage in simple experiments, and make observations. They also stated that they generally prefer to use “field-trip and observation” and “experiment” methods in their science practices. Good science learning takes place over some period of time with the help of parents. The parents’ role is critical for children to explore scientific understanding. Participant teachers stated that parental involvement was so limited in science activities. To sum up, it is expected that the findings will contribute to the development of teacher training programs because all participant teachers stated the importance of science in early childhood curriculum.

References

Corbin, J. M. & Strauss, A. L. (2007). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. French, L. A., Conezio, K., & Boynton, M. (2000). Using science as the hub of an integrated early childhood curriculum: The ScienceStart! Curriculum (Report No. ESI-9911630). Champaign, IL: ERIC clearinghouse on elementary and early childhood education (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED470901). Jones, I., Lake, V. E., & Lin, M. (2008). Early Childhood Science Process Skills: Social and Developmental Considerations. In O. N. Saracho, & B. Spodek (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on Science and Technology in Early Childhood Education. (pp. 17-40). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc. Mayesky, M. (2002). Creative activities for young children (7th ed.). Albany, NY: Delmar. Miles, M. B. & Huberman, M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. National Research Council. (1996). National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Öztürk, E. (2010). Exploring the change in preschool teachers’ views about and practices of integration of visual art into science activities: A case study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Middle East Technical University, Ankara. Wortham, S. C. (2006). Early childhood curriculum: Developmental bases for learning and teaching (4th ed.). Upper Saddle Creek, NJ: Pearson. Yin, R. K. (2009). Case Study Research: Design and Methods. (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.

Author Information

Elif Öztürk Yılmaztekin (presenting / submitting)
İzmir University
İzmir

Update Modus of this Database

The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER. 

Search the ECER Programme

  • Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
  • Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
  • Search for authors and in the respective field.
  • For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
  • If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.