Inclusive Teaching in the Early Childhood Science Classroom

John T. Almarode

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367197896
• eBook ISBN: 9780429516443
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Frühkindliche Bildung

Focused on engaging all students, Inclusive Teaching in the Early Childhood Science Classroom walks readers through the process of planning, developing, and implementing science instruction for early learners. Drawing on a range of pedagogical processes and approaches, this comprehensive text links science to other disciplines and explores how we develop language, social-emotional, and content learning through early childhood science. Each chapter is framed around an essential question and features success criteria and reflection tasks to guide readers through the content. Aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and addressing the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium Model Core Teaching Standards, this textbook is critical reading for preservice teacher education students enrolled in an inclusive early childhood or early childhood science methods course.

1 The Role of the Teacher in Inclusive Early Childhood Science Teaching and Learning

As teachers of young children, we play a pivotal role in how students approach, engage, and come to understand science. This role is wrapped up in our beliefs about what science is or is not, why all young children should learn science, our beliefs or mindsets about science teaching and learning, and, lastly, what makes a “good science learner” in our schools and classrooms. In this chapter, we will unpack each of these through the lens of Ms. Campbell and her first-grade students.

Opportunities for Reflective Practices

Before reading on, what do you think the role of the teacher is in inclusive early childhood science teaching and learning?

On Tuesday morning, Katy Campbell’s first-grade learners begin their day by joining her on the carpet to participate in a read-aloud. Today’s book, Moja Means One by Muriel Feelings, not only allows her learners to get a glimpse of East African culture but also provides a context for the use of Kalimbas, an African thumb piano made of thin pieces of metal of different lengths attached to a wooden block.

While engaged in the read-aloud, Ms. Campbell strategically asks her learners text-dependent questions. For example, she asks them to think about the setting of the book. “Boys and girls, why is the setting important in understanding this book?” Or, “Who can tell me what a kalimba is?” She also incorporates text-independent questions, such as “How do you think a kalimba works?” As you might have guessed, her learners enthusiastically raise their hands to share their ideas about how a kalimba works. After Ms. Campbell uses their responses as a way to preassess her learners’ understanding of sound, she introduces the day’s driving question: How can we, as musicians, create a variety of sounds with our instruments? (Figure 1.1)

From there, learners gather in their science learning communities (see Fisher, Frey, & Almarode, 2020) to move through multiple learning centers that provide them with different opportunities to “create a variety of sounds with instruments.”

Figure 1.1Descriptions of the Learning Centers That Will Engage Learners in Developing Their Answers to the Day’s Driving Question.

Source: Katy Campbell, first-grade teacher, Hanover County Public Schools, Virginia.

We will return to the rest of the day’s learning as we move through the chapter. But for now, let’s spend just a few moments on Ms. Campbell’s decision to use a driving question, as this specific aspect of her teaching will provide the context of this chapter. Driving questions engage students by focusing on the why of the learning behind the what (Pijanowski, 2018). For example, the what in Ms. Campbell’s classroom is that moving objects exhibit different kinds of motion; objects may vibrate and produce sound. Her decision to use a driving question in her science teaching is deliberate, purposeful, and intentional. Ms. Campbell could just as easily have presented a traditional objective (e.g., The student will…) on the interactive whiteboard or written the topic on poster paper. She could also have posed what is often called an essential question that asked her learners, “What is sound?” However, using a driving question as the lead-in to today’s learning reflects the context of this chapter and focuses our attention on the role of the teacher in inclusive early childhood science teaching and learning. Table 1.1 contains a side-by-side comparison of objectives, essential questions, and driving questions.

Table 1.1 A Comparison of Objectives, Essential Questions, and Driving Questions in Science

Objective	Essential Question	Driving Question
The student will understand that moving objects vibrate and produce sound.	What is sound?	How can I, as a musician, create a variety of sounds with my instruments?
The student will understand the impact of humans on the environment.	How do humans impact the environment?	How can I, as a good citizen, encourage others to take care of our environment?
The student will understand how parents help their offspring survive.	How do parents interact with their environment?	How can I, as a scientist, figure out how animals communicate with their young?
The student will understand how matter changes.	How does heating and cooling change matter?	How can I, as a chef, explain the role of the heat in preparing a meal?

Source : Adapted from Pijanowski, L. (2018). Architects of deeper learning. Intentional design for high-impact instruction. Rexford, NY: International Center for Leadership in Education, Inc.

Research to Classroom Practice Tasks

Take some time and develop learning objectives, essential questions, and driving questions for a science topic or content.

Considering each of the previous examples, there is a clear difference between simply providing an objective and starting with an essential question. In both of those instances, teachers and learners could quickly drift into a quest for copious facts or the accumulation of content.

However, science is more than just facts, and we want our learners to be more than just walking encyclopedias of science trivia. Although there is a time and place for both an objective and essential question, Ms. Campbell’s decision to use a driving question leverages her learners’ interests and motivates their learning to include the content, the processes of science, and the unique ways of knowing in science (e.g., evidence).

Opportunities for Reflective Practices

What is the difference between a driving question and an essential question and objective? When is one better than the other? When might you use one over the other?

This brings us to the main focus of this chapter. What exactly is science, and what role do we as teachers play in the inclusive early childhood science teaching and learning?

Ms. Campbell’s decision making around how to initially engage her learners in the concept of sound reflects her beliefs about what science is, why her learners should engage in the learning of science, and her understanding and expectations of who they are as learners. Let’s look at each one of these beliefs, starting with what science is and is not.

Definition of Science

For many of our learners, and us if we are completely honest, science is viewed as a collection of facts and figures. There are nine planets. Wait, now eight planets. The parts of a plant include the roots, stem, and leaves. Living things need water, air, and nutrients. There is no such thing as centrifugal force. Returning to Ms. Campbell’s classroom, these facts are easy to pull out of the day’s learning, as sound, vibrations, compressions, wavelength, frequency, and amplitude are well-defined and understood terms in science. There must be more – and there is more to science than facts. Bell (2008) articulates a three-point definition of science that, when applied to our teaching and learning, moves us beyond a list of facts. He defines science as a body of knowledge, a set of processes, and a way of knowing.

The body of knowledge includes the science. For Ms. Campbell, the body of knowledge is clear. She strives for her learners to know and understand the developmentally appropriate content associated with sound, vibrations, compressions, wavelength, frequency, and amplitude. These are the laws, principles, and ideas she expects her learners to know and understand. However, she also recognizes that the body of science knowledge is built through a set of processes (see Table 1.2). In other words, doing science builds, or even refines, that body of knowledge.

Table 1.2 Processes of Science

Observing

Classifying and Sequencing

Communicating

Measuring

Predicting

Hypothesizing

Inferring

Experimenting

Interpreting

Analyzing

Evaluating

Modeling

Source: Adapted from Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). (2012). Practices for science investigation: Kindergarten-physics progression. Richmond, VA: Author.

For Ms. Campbell’s learners, as indicated by the driving question, they will be engaged in the body of knowledge around science, as well as the processes associated with that knowledge. Her learners will observe, communicate, hypothesize, infer, experiment, analyze, evaluate, and model this body of knowledge during this learning experience.

Finally, the discipline of science is associated with a distinct way of knowing. The accumulation of knowledge through the application of a set of processes comes from the accumulation of empirical evidence. In general, scientists assume that we can better understand our world and that the current knowledge about how the world works is tentative and does not represent absolute truth. Thus science, as a way of knowing, involves the use of empirical evidence generated from experiments that can be replicated by other scientists to see if the body of knowledge withstands continued inquiry – not assumptions.

For young children, this is a different way of thinking. For example, when a five-year-old comes up wi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Role of the Teacher in Inclusive Early Childhood Science Teaching and Learning
• Chapter 2: Analyzing What to Teach in Inclusive Early Childhood Science
• Chapter 3: Mapping Out the Progression of What to Teach in Inclusive Early Childhood Science
• Chapter 4: Implementing Daily Learning Experiences: Establishing and Sharing Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
• Chapter 5: Implementing Daily Learning Experiences: Models of Instruction
• Chapter 6: Implementing Daily Learning Experiences: Developing Assessments
• Chapter 7: Implementing Daily Learning Experiences: Task Design
• Chapter 8: Implementing Daily Learning Experiences: Assessment of Learning
• Conclusion
• Appendices
• References
• Index