While recent reform-based efforts have shifted the emphasis towards engaging children in science practices, little research has considered how preschool-age children take first steps towards engagement in evidence-based explanations or modelling practices nor the role museum-settings might provide. Using a theoretical perspective that science…

In this systematic review, a series of didactic proposals and experiences that have been developed over recent years in formal education are presented with the common purpose of ensuring that students with special educational needs learn science. Initially, only 54 publications on the topic were identified, which underlines the scarce research…

Policy documents in many nations, as well as international policies indicate that the goal of improved student science learning requires teachers to learn to use knowledge generation environments for teaching science. This is a particular challenge for early childhood teachers (kindergarten through grade two), who have historically valued…

Recently, much importance has been placed on early science education. This study examined the associations between kindergarten teachers' science teaching self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and their integration of science into teaching, and investigated how four potential factors (i.e. mastery experience, interpersonal support, previous science…

Researchers have provided many arguments for why drawing may contribute to science learning. However, little is known about how teachers in early childhood education (ECE) make use of drawing for science learning purposes. This article examines how teachers' views and framing of drawing activities influence the science learning opportunities…

Asking questions is an important way of acquiring information and knowledge and plays a significant role in a child's learning processes. In this study, we examine what characterises the questions asked by children to their teachers in two kindergartens (4-6-year-olds) and six primary school classes (2nd-4th grade) when situated in a natural…

To effectively support early science learning in preschool, teachers need to be aware of the constructivist nature of children's learning. This study examined a sample of Swiss preschool teachers' beliefs about science learning and teaching and their relation to their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and scaffolding practices within a…

This article focuses on the need for increased attention to content issues and working methods for science teaching in Early Childhood Education (ECE). Science education research emphasises the importance of not only focusing on specific phenomena, but also on the Nature of Science (NOS). NOS teaching deals with questions about what science is,…

Preschool teachers' science-specific competences have been shown to influence their science instruction, which in turn appear directly related to the development of children's science competences. Initial teacher education and in-service professional development may include learning opportunities to acquire science-specific competences necessary…

This study analyses the evolution of school-level scientific models proposed by prospective pre-primary teachers (PPTs) (a) about the water molecule and its intermolecular bonds, and (b) representing the different states of water molecule aggregation at a microscopic level. The data were acquired from the PPTs' responses at the beginning and at…

The U.S. Next Generation Science Standards treat biological adaptation as a disciplinary core idea, but various science educators recommend its introduction at different ages. The concept of biological adaptation elicits children's reasoning about organisms, their environments, and the relationship between organisms and their environments. The…

This paper describes analysis of teaching instances that are part of an in-service preschool teachers programme about chemistry and physics in preschool. The aim is to develop knowledge about the communication established between teacher and children in relation to an object of learning, specifically the role of intersubjective communication in…

In this study, Activity Theory (AT) is used to analyse general patterns for how cultural and historical factors interact with the shaping of science activities in preschools. Data was produced from field notes, video observations, video stimulated recall group discussions and individual interviews with preschool teachers at fourteen preschool…

Observation is one of the basic methods in science. It is not only an epistemological method itself, but also an important competence for other methods like experimenting or comparing. However, there is little knowledge about the relation with affective factors of this inquiry method. In our study, we would like to find out about the relations of…

Aspects of preschoolers' ecological understandings were explored in a cross-age, quantitative study that utilised a sample of seventy-five 3- to 5-year-old children. Specifically, their concepts of feeding relationships were determined by presenting physical models of three-step food chains during structured interviews. A majority of children,…