Exploring Science with Young Children

A Developmental Perspective

Terry Russell, Linda McGuigan, Author

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781473912519, 9781473912502
• eBook ISBN: 9781473979789
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación infantil

The Association for Science Education Book Award 2016, Finalist.

Science in the early years is about more than developing understanding of key scientific concepts, it is about encouraging imagination, creativity and curiosity and nurturing key scientific skills to form a firm base for learning. Understanding how best to do this for young children aged 3-7 is the focus of the book.

By concentrating on practical and naturally occurring experiences the authors look at meeting the needs of the curriculum with children at the centre of their own learning.

Chapters look at how to work with children to:

• Find out and develop their own ideas
• Get them inquiring scientifically
• Use evidence to support their views

This book will really help develop the whole child across the curriculum and make sure they have the skills they need for later learning.

 

1 Introduction

Chapter overview

This chapter introduces the foundational ideas for what is presented in subsequent chapters. Throughout the book, the authors emphasise the developmental journey that children take as they progress towards scientific understanding and how adults might nurture and support children along the route. The chapter describes the authors’ approach to science in the early years and the evidence for the theoretical orientation adopted towards children’s science learning.

What this book offers

Both authors have taught and researched extensively with teachers and practitioners working with the age range that is the interest of this book. We also bring a background in developmental psychology to established careers in applied educational research. We emphasise the practical application of research evidence to inform practice in settings and classrooms. The activities and the practical implementation of theory that we discuss are almost entirely tested through our own collaborative, classroom-based research with educators of young children. Our research orientation has been complemented by the classroom expertise of those working directly with children. This has been to mutual professional benefit as well as to the benefit of learners. We are interested in research that deals with the fundamental issues that help to make teaching and children’s learning more effective, enjoyable and professionally informed. We wish to share our attitude of asking questions when in doubt, so as to inform thoughtful actions rather than to imagine we know all the answers that would allow us to suggest a set of off-the-shelf formulae. Research is as much about thinking analytically and asking ourselves questions about why things happen the way they do as it is about providing answers. This attitude of curiosity as to how we might improve outcomes for children is what we wish to convey to our fellow professionals.

Who is the book for?

The upper end of the age group with which this book is concerned will be 5–7 year olds subject to the Key Stage 1 (KS1) national curriculum, while the 3–5 age group will be subject to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in England. The book is aimed at those adults who are responsible for the science learning of children in the 3–7 age range, whether in the private, voluntary or independent (PVI) sectors or in schools. It should be of interest to practitioners, teachers, students, classroom assistants and interested parents. We use the term ‘educators’ as it is sufficiently non-specific to cater for all those who have children in their care and teach young children without specifying their professional background and qualifications. We avoid the repeated use of ‘practitioners in settings and teachers in schools’, but may occasionally use one or other of the terms in the understanding that the message is intended for all those who support the young children who are the subject of this book. We take the view that, however formal or unstructured the ambience of the environment children attend, whatever the premises, the curriculum to which they are exposed or the professional background of those adults who supervise them, children have to be managed with care, insight and expertise. This book intends to contribute to the establishment and consolidation of those necessary conditions of professionalism. We are sympathetic to progress towards parity of esteem and equality of professional status between early years practitioners and the teachers (DfE, 2012, 2013a) who oversee children’s educational needs across the 3–7 age range. Achievement of this goal will ensure that all young children receive the highest possible quality in the standard of professional care and support.

Only a small minority of learners achieves the highest levels. Many encounter impediments, struggle, or fall by the wayside for a variety of social or personal reasons. A family’s socio-economic status (‘social class’) offers a strong correlation with educational success. For example, the outcomes of a study of 19,000 5 year olds’ language capabilities concluded that 40% of the boys eligible for free school meals (‘fsm’, used as an index of poverty) start school below the expected level of language skills. One-third of the girls eligible for fsm were below the expected language level at 5 years (Finnegan and Warren, 2015). Forecasting the educational needs and outcomes for a 3 year old at some point 15 or 20 years hence (perhaps three or four elections for a politician) is an inexact business. These circumstances might also contribute to what is seen as an inappropriate ‘top down’ approach, whereby the expectations that apply later in the system are applied by administrators earlier, pushed downwards in an attempt to raise standards or forestall the difficulties apparent in older children.

Although we argue for taking heed of an essential continuity in development, this must be with an appreciation of the qualitative changes that occur through childhood. How do we act positively to support children’s well-being, resilience and development? We wish to encourage educators to have the confidence to pause and think, and not feel pressurised to come up with instant solutions to every doubt that arises; examine what is happening attentively; stand back and reflect; and teach considerately to support children’s progress. We do not favour the regimes of non-interventionists looking on with benign adult expressions, where the ‘little ones’ are left to their own devices. Children can enjoy the action, conversations, sounds, excitement, challenges and engagement that science contexts offer. Such activities offer far more than keeping children occupied. They must be seen as meaningful as well as stimulating, inspiring wider aspects of development. Science engagement need not always be all action, though it offers welcome opportunities of that variety. There also needs to be time for quiet thinking, contemplation, conversation, thoughtful analysis and evaluation, both for children and their mentors. We would like teachers to be alert to the potential of novelty in the routine, to keep teaching fresh and responsive. This is not easily accomplished, especially at the start of a career, but sharing uncertainties with children and colleagues should be seen as a better option than hiding doubt behind bravado. Teaching is an interactive pursuit, something done with children rather than to them. It requires flexibility and adaptability, informed by some sound guiding principles. We intend to set out those principles that underpin outstanding practice in nurturing science behaviours, attitudes and understanding. Be assured that these principles have sound cross-curricular relevance.

General and specific approaches to teaching science

Later in their educational journeys, learners will encounter science as a separate subject, a specialist area of the curriculum; in time, it will be taught by experts. At that later time, science will have its unique content – the subject matter particular to science, as well as its special processes – the ways of working, gathering information and using evidence. Adults who work with younger children have a wider responsibility for the whole child: social, emotional, physical, linguistic, moral and all aspects of cognitive, creative and imaginative development. Stated in those terms, taking responsibility for young children’s educational development sounds like a hugely demanding responsibility. And of course, it is a serious business to be in charge of all these aspects of a child’s growth.

Our argument is that a young child’s science education has to be seen in that overall ‘holistic’ perspective – a rounded view of the needs of the whole child that is inclusive of growth in all areas, personal and curricular. Our interest in fostering ways of thinking about science does not seek to displace, steal time from or subordinate any other areas of the curriculum. Our aspiration is to complement advances in those other areas. It would be a mistake to pigeonhole science activities as concerned only with a special quality of thinking about specific subject matter, often caricatured as dispassionate, difficult, solitary and single-minded behaviour. Scientific activity also requires imaginative thinking, exchange of views, collaboration, curiosity, enthusiasm, creativity and drive. For younger children, it is often more helpful to think of ‘science contexts’, rather than ‘doing science’. Science can emerge from broader, possibly familiar, situations within which some science content is relevant and perhaps significant without being isolated or decontextualised. Thinking of science subject matter in this broader cross-curricular fashion will make it easier to tie in almost any other subject matter or activity, not least stories. In fact, much of very engaging science experience begins with a fictional narrative from which the science content can readily emerge or be teased out, given a pinch of lateral thinking.

Age range and children’s science capabilities

Childminders, nursery, pre-school, Reception and KS1 classes: these various contexts in which young children are looked after, nurtured, protected and educated all contribute to the development of children’s thinking. Can we or should we try to partition when the ‘early years’ begin and when they end? The steps that children take in their transition from one organisation to another may be hugely significant to them as exciting, perhaps challenging, landmarks in their growth. Each also has its own set of rules, expectations, responsibilities, modes of operating and legal constraints, as well as being governed by curricular requirements or expectations. The value position that assumes the uniqueness of every child should permeate all these environments.

The normal distribution curve – the bell shaped graph that emerges when human physical and mental attributes are plotted against proportions of the population – confirms the spread of variation in many attributes, physical, cognitive and emotional. At each tail end of the curve, there will be a smaller proportion of cases than towards the middle, with the centre recording the most frequent, most commonly occurring incidence of the feature being observed. Such distributions confirm differences in development between children at any point in time: in physical prowess, language, social and self-confidence as well as interests in different subject matter. Children also differ widely in their interests and capabilities in reading, number and knowledge of the world. Yet there is also continuity in the steps, phases or progressions that children move through. Some may be ahead of the norm, others delayed; some may be late starters, others subject to spurts in growth, physical or mental or both.

We take the view that all educational needs, science included, require analysis and attention using the critically important tool of formative assessment. Formative assessment is the strategy of collecting evidence continuously for the purpose of informing action. It will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 8, ‘Planning, assessment and recording keeping’, but we recommend that the formative approach should permeate every aspect of working with children. This means that, as far as is reasonably manageable, individual children’s needs must be identified rather than assumed on the basis of ‘what most children need’ or the norm for any particular group. Formative assessment provides the information that allows adults to distinguish between the different qualities of children’s performance and helps them to respond in actions that are sensitive to the unique needs of each child. For this reason, we do not, in this book, have a separate section or way of thinking about ‘special or additional educational needs’. We assume that children progress once their requirements have been identified and judicious support tailored to needs and achievements is provided. This applies to all children. It is a stance that avoids self-fulfilling prophecies associated with identifying certain individuals as ‘behind’ or ‘delayed’ (or whatever euphemism might be used). Once we establish where children are and what their next accomplishments should be, we must take the necessary steps to support their progress. So formative assessment also requires thinking ahead, with some anticipation of progressive steps in development. Treating each child’s needs as unique is not such a tall order when the adult has an overview or some form of guideline to refer to of the journey that lies ahead.

Many people with responsibility for younger children feel a pressure to attain ‘the basics’. They may also feel this expectation to be an unwelcome and mistaken intrusion on early childhood. Acquisition of the basics may be assumed to require structured and systematic teaching, perhaps with children sitting at a table rather than operating informally. The arguments against such teacher driven directed practices often refer to ‘readiness’, so we need to ask, ‘readiness for what, exactly?’. Formal, directed instruction requires children to: sit still for a required period; pay attention; concentrate on the task in hand; and follow instructions. Most, if not all, children entering pre-school are not ready to comply with those conditions. They are growing very rapidly and learning to use the changing strength, agility and co-ordination of their bodies to explore their world. These are not trivial accomplishments, but are believed to influence both the development of muscle fibre and the establishment of new pathways in the brain known as ‘cerebellar synaptogenesis’ (Byers and Walker, 1995). Many species of mammals display this form of excessive and ‘non-functional’ motor activity as a critical period, a phase that occurs just once and is highly significant for development. (Think of the imprinting of ducks on the first moving object they encounter as an example of a critical period and the gambolling of lambs as a form of non-functional motor ‘play’.) The exuberant energy of children may have longer-term adaptive value underpinning psychomotor intelligence, with direct implications for thinking capabilities. Shayer and colleagues (Shayer et al., 2007) compared performance on a science-related task concerned with ideas about volume and heaviness (capabilities directly related to concrete experiences of handling materials) between 1975 and 2003, and identified a decline in performance in children leaving primary school. While the design of the reported study makes the findings entirely credible, the causes behind significant decline in performance can only be speculative. However, an obvious candidate would be a parallel decline in direct experiences of handling real materials. This might in turn be associated with changes in lifestyles in which a more sedentary, possibly more computer-based forms of play are more prevalent in young children.

Inhelder and Piaget’s (1958, 1964) notion of the development of intelligence as similar to an organism’s physical adaptation to its environment is helpful in understanding the development of scientific thinking. They describe intellectual development as involving two processes through which humans adapt to the physical world. These two cognitive processes are assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation involves responding to, taking in and internalising experiences from the physical world; accommodation is the internal mental process whereby these new experiences are reconciled with what is already known. This hypothesis or model of what is happening in the mind-brain describes an organisation in the form of mental structures. Incidentally, many cognitive psychologists favour the term ‘mind-brain’ over either one or the other of ‘mind’ or ‘brain’ by itself. This is because the term ‘mind-brain’ treats mental activity as something within the structure and function of the physical organ. Furthermore, that physical organ is one component within a hominid body that has adapted through evolutionary processes to the physical environment of our world over millions of years. Although Inhelder and Piaget’s formal stage-developmental theory (that is, the developmental shift through pre-operational to concrete and then formal operational thinking structures) has been criticised and undermined in some ways (for example, by followers’ over-zealous inference of age norms) it retains its adherents and its association with productive research. The essential idea of intellectual growth as making sense of new experiences with what is already k...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Author biographies
• Acknowledgements
• How to use this book
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The nature of early years science
• 3 Finding out children’s ideas
• 4 Developing conceptual understanding in science
• 5 Working scientifically and developing science enquiry skills
• 6 Encouraging the expression of ideas
• 7 The uses of technology to support learning
• 8 Planning, assessment and record keeping
• Appendix: Science subject matter for 3–7 and its assessment
• References
• Index