Science in the Early Years

Building Firm Foundations from Birth to Five

Pat Brunton, Linda Thornton

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781446244937
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Science & Technology

Giving early years practitioners and students the confidence to effectively support scientific exploration and investigation with young children, this book explains the science behind young children?s knowledge and understanding of the world.

Linking theory to good early years practice, the emphasis throughout the book is on recognizing young children as competent, creative thinkers and building on their ideas. The reader is encouraged to think carefully about the role of the adult in supporting child-initiated learning and discovery by providing open ended resources, asking productive questions and observing carefully.

The authors provide essential background information for all the key areas of scientific knowledge supported by practical ideas suitable for babies, toddlers and children aged 3 to 5 years. For each of these ideas, practice and theory are linked by highlighting the skills, attitudes and dispositions to observe and the questions to ask to challenge young children?s thinking and plan for the next stages in their learning.

Chapters cover:

- the place of science in early years curricula in the UK

- the processes of science and the role of the adult in supporting young children?s scientific learning

- using open ended resources to create a science-rich environment

- essential background knowledge, covering all areas of early years science

- ideas to use as starting points for exploration and investigation, indoors and outdoors

- pointers for observational assessment and planning

- suppliers of resources and equipment

By making clear links to practice, and providing ideas to use with babies and toddlers as well as with 3-5 year old children, this book enables the reader to fully exploit the potential for exploration and investigation in any early years setting.

Pat Brunton and Linda Thornton are both Education Consultants based in Cheltenham. They run their own training and consultancy company alc associates, and edit Early Years Update.

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Part 1

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1	Supporting Young Children’s Scientific Learning

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Chapter Summary

This chapter considers what ‘science’ is in terms of young children’s learning and development. It looks at the development of conceptual knowledge, the fostering of attitudes and dispositions and the development of science skills. The role of the adult in co-constructing knowledge alongside children, being a source of skills and expertise, asking productive questions, modelling skills, attitudes and language and in observing and documenting young children’s learning is looked at in detail.

The processes of science are reviewed and the ‘Spiral of Discovery’ is used to describe an age and stage appropriate process which will enable practitioners to support young children’s exploration and investigation in a structured way.

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‘Science’ consists of a body of knowledge and a range of the skills and attitudes which support and extend that knowledge. Davis and Howe (2003: 102) developed this idea further by defining three types of science subject knowledge:

•	Conceptual knowledge:	an understanding of, and about, science.
•	Attitudinal knowledge:	attitudes which underpin exploration and investigation.
•	Procedural knowledge:	the skills of science.

Young children’s experience of science should be less concerned with the development of conceptual knowledge, and more focused on those interesting and worthwhile experiences and activities which can enhance their attitudinal and procedural knowledge. Engendering a love of science in young children and awakening the excitement and pleasure of exploration and discovery in them will create the firm foundations on which to build their growing expertise as young scientists.

To be meaningful, children’s experiences of science should be based on their interests and preoccupations and should take into account their ages, stages of development and social/cultural backgrounds. Building on children’s ideas not only retains the purpose and focus of an exploration, it also leads to some very imaginative and challenging investigations. As children are not encumbered with ‘knowing the right answer’ they can prove to be the initiators of wonderful ideas, which in turn can be far more interesting to explore than anything most adults would think of.

Developing conceptual knowledge

Many science concepts are complex and require reasoning and mental visualization skills which are beyond the capability of most young children. Indeed, as adults, many of us can find some of these concepts hard to comprehend and certainly very difficult to explain in a straightforward and understandable way. Nevertheless, practitioners need a basic understanding of key scientific concepts if they are to support young children’s learning effectively. This will give them the knowledge they need to engage children’s curiosity, ask appropriate and challenging questions, manage children’s questions confidently and recognize the ‘teachable moments’ which can lead on to productive and interesting investigations. The background knowledge presented in Chapters 3–13 of this book has been specifically selected to address this challenge.

First-hand interaction with materials, tools and the world around them will give young children a breadth of experience on which to build their understanding of scientific concepts as they get older. Developing a ‘correct’ concept may take years but it can start with simple activities – dropping a finger of toast from their high chair, rolling a pumpkin down a grassy slope, dropping pebbles into a dish of water, chasing a shadow or swishing a hand across the surface of a water tray to create waves. ‘Doing’ and ‘seeing what happens’ is what is important, although this often prompts questions such as, ‘I wonder why … ?’ and ‘What would happen if … ?’

Practitioners will frequently express their concern about how best to deal with children’s misconceptions or incorrect science concepts. Robson (2006: 137) suggests that it is better to think of these as alternative frameworks rather than misconceptions, making the argument that this is more akin to what real scientists do when they invent a new hypothesis to make sense of the world. This view is reinforced by Harlen (2001: 19), who states that ‘we must begin to look for a right answer that the children can give with confidence, that depends on their own observations: a right answer that originates from their own experiences. This right answer may fall short of “the truth”’. Probing children’s thinking by asking, ‘Why do you think that?’ or ‘How do you think we could test that idea?’ may well result in further investigations which can help to clarify thinking. Davis and Howe (2003: 110–17) provide a very useful list of common alternative frameworks with suggestions for questions and interventions which may help to clarify understanding.

Educators in Reggio Emilia, whose philosophy is based on nurturing young children as researchers actively seeking to make meaning of the world, address this issue of conceptual understanding in a very similar manner (Rinaldi, in Filippini and Vecchi, 1997: 182). Working in small groups, with an adult as a fully participating member of each group, children are constantly challenged to re-visit, re-view and re-present their ideas through words, drawings and models in order to deepen their understanding (Thornton and Brunton, 2009: 72). During this process the adult may well put forward the ‘correct’ scientific explanation as one of a number of alternatives being considered. Once children have arrived at an idea or an explanation which satisfies them, their theories are valued and respected regardless of whether or not they are ‘scientifically correct’ (Piazza, 1999). As with all aspects of the Reggio Approach, it is the quality of the interaction between children and adults as they explore and discuss their theories together which is paramount rather than the final product. As children’s experience grows, the original theory will no longer satisfy them and a new one will be formulated.

The words we use to describe scientific concepts can sometimes cause confusion, often because the same word may have a different meaning in everyday life than that which it has in a scientific context. For example, a ‘plant’ in everyday terminology is usually a fairly small, low growing structure, while in scientific terms it applies to the whole of the plant kingdom – encompassing everything from blue/green algae to trees. Also the term ‘animal’ in scientific terms includes all vertebrates and invertebrates, not just mammals (see Chapter 3).

Helping children to learn scientific terminology through modelling its correct use will equip them with essential tools for developing their understanding of scientific concepts. For example, it is important to say that sugar has dissolved in water, not disappeared, and that metals are attracted to a magnet, they do not stick. This aspect of developing young children’s scientific understanding is highlighted in the section ‘Developing effective scientific communication’ at the end of Chapters 3–13.

When talking about scientific phenomena – puddles drying up in the sunshine or sunflowers turning to face the sun for example – some children will use the phrase ‘it happens by magic’ to explain what they have seen. This does not contribute to developing an understanding of what is really happening. Carefully phrased comments and questions will help children to look more closely at the phenomena and begin to develop their ideas about what might actually be happening: for example, ‘What do you think is happening to the puddle in the shade?’, ‘Are all the sunflowers facing the same way?’, ‘Shall we see if they face the same way in the morning and the afternoon?’

A final challenge to address when helping young children to build their understanding of scientific concepts is the tendency towards anthropomorphism – giving human attributes and emotions to non-human living things and inanimate objects. Worms and snails with mouths and eyes, flowers with faces and talking dogs can potentially create a very confusing world for young children to make sense of scientifically.

Scientific attitudes and dispositions

The attitudes and dispositions which enhance young children’s scientific thinking are similar to those which support their overall learning and development. Nurturing desirable dispositions in young children enhances their ability and willingness to apply skills and knowledge. It also fosters their ability to learn how to learn.

Lilian Katz (1993: 16) defines a disposition as ‘a pattern of behaviour exhibited frequently … constituting a habit of mind under some conscious and voluntary control … intentional and orientated to broad goals’. Research has shown that children’s dispositions are acquired, supported or weakened by interactive experiences with significant adults and peers (Bertram and Pascal, 2002). The younger children are the more important it is to strengthen their dispositions to engage with and closely observe events in their immediate environment and experience (Katz, 2009).

Bertram and Pascal (2002: 248) have identified four key dispositions of effective learners:

• independence – the ability to be self-sufficient, to self-organize and self-manage;

• creativity – using the imagination, being spontaneous and innovative;

• self-motivation – becoming deeply involved in explorations and challenges;

• resilience – the ability to cope with setbacks and to persist with a task until successful.

Scientific attitudes include personal, social and behavioural attitudes such as curiosity, enthusiasm, motivation, cooperation, responsibility, sensitivity, originality, independence of thought and perseverance. Importantly, they also include the reflective attitudes of a respect for evidence, open-mindedness, critical reflection and an ability to accept the provisional nature of knowledge. Significantly, attitudes are ‘caught, not taught’ (Harlen, 2000: 5) and it is the responsibility of the practitioner to model and display those attitudes which they wish young children to develop.

Encouraging a respect for evidence is an interesting challenge when working with young children. They will have their own theories about why things happen and will tend to look for evidence which reinforces this view of the world and ignore any evidence which contradicts their ideas. Practitioners can help young children to develop a respect for evidence by making sure they always respect it themselves and by using unusual results or observations as a basis for further investigation, rather than as an indication that ‘something has gone wrong’. By gently challenging children’s conclusions practitioners can draw attention to the need for evidence that is accurate and objective rather than vague and based on opinion.

Science skills

The skills which young children can acquire through investigation and exploration encom...