A study of conceptual development in early childhood

This paper reports part of a study which investigated young children's conceptions of scientific and technological phenomena and the conceptual change that occurs during the teaching of science in pre-school, Transition/Year One and Year Two/Three classrooms. Science lessons from each school/centre were audio and video taped for a period of six months. Informal interviewing of teachers occurred in direct response to lessons observed. Informal interviewing of children was conducted to determine current scientific thinking in relation to the science lessons presented by the teacher. Two main elements emerged. First, different types of teacher-child interactions were evident during the science lessons observed and it was found that specifically focused interactions led to conceptual development in young children. Second, children's views (whether scientific or not) were maintained over a three month period.     

Curriculum Compartmentalisation?: A futures perspective on environmental education

Children aged 5-12 years were asked to think about what their environment would look like when they were grandparents. Children from two regions of Australia (the Australian Capital Territory and rural New South Wales) drew and discussed their visions for the future. This paper examines the data and discusses the implications for science education, technology education and environmental education. Futures education is discussed within the context of the differing ways that the issues identified can be addressed within schools.     

Supporting Scientific Conceptual Consciousness or Learning in ‘a Roundabout Way’ in Play‐based Contexts

Little change has been noted over 10 years of research into teacher knowledge and confidence to teach science in the early and primary years of schooling. There is a significant body of research demonstrating that early childhood and primary teachers lack confidence and competence in teaching science. However, much of this research blames the victim, and offers little analysis for the systemic reasons for teachers’ confidence and competence in science education other than a lack of science knowledge. This paper reports on a study that examined teacher philosophy and pedagogical practices within the context of an analysis of children’s concept formation within playful early childhood settings. Through teacher interviews, video recordings of science play, and photographic documentation of children’s science activities in one rural preschool, it was noted that teacher philosophy about how young children learn is a significant contributing factor to learning in science. It is argued that teacher philosophy makes more of a difference to children’s scientific learning than does teacher confidence to teach science or knowledge of science. The study also shows that without a mediational scientific framework for using materials in play‐based contexts, children will generate their own imaginary, often non‐scientific, narratives for making sense of the materials provided.     

ASERA: brief histor(y/ies)

This collection of historical accounts provides diverse perspectives on the structure and culture of the community of researchers who participate in activities of the Australasian Science Education Research Association (ASERA). It describes the formation of the Association, and identifies major changes and challenges for the ever growing and internationalisation of its membership.

Volume Contents

Volume Contents

Volume Contents     

Understanding children’s motives when using iPads in Saudi classrooms: is it for play or for learning?

ABSTRACT

Even though studies of the accessibility of digital technologies in educational contexts have become progressively more extensive, understanding children’s motive for play or for learning is essential for identifying the way they relate to touch technology. This research paper seeks to understand the relation between the motive for play and the motive for learning when iPads are introduced into a grade one class in the Saudi Arabian education setting, where there is no custom for the use of digital technologies (five children, age range 5.5 (6 years old; n=80 hours of video observations; n=12 hours of children and class teacher interviews). The teacher put in place a new learning configuration involving the iPads, and by studying how the children interpret this new situation it is possible to see what factors influence the development of their motive for play to their motive for learning. The findings are important for the Saudi context, but also for early years teachers generally because it gives insights into how digital tools can act as a vehicle through which learning can be enhanced.     

A cultural-historical reading of “Culturally Sensitive Schooling”: thinking beyond a constructivist view of science learning

“Culturally-Sensitive Schooling” as proposed by Brayboy and Castagno offers an important way of thinking about the relations between formal and informal science learning and between Western and Indigenous science. The constructivist framework adopted by Brayboy and Castagno in their discussions is consistent with the theoretical approach traditionally used by many researchers and scholars interested in science learning. In this article I explore the basic concepts introduced in their paper, but use a different theoretical lens for explicating concept formation. Through a cultural-historical reading of “Culturally Sensitive Schooling,” different insights can be gained about the relations between everyday informal learning and schooled learning in science. I argue that dialectical logic is more productive for re-theorising science teaching and learning in culturally diverse communities.

The relations between ideal and real forms of <Emphasis Type="Italic">small science</Emphasis>: conscious collaboration among parents and infants–toddlers (Cultural Studies of Science Education)

Vygotsky (in: Rieber, Carton (eds) The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky, vol 1, Pleneum Press, Newyork, pp 167–241, Retrieved from http://images.lib.monash.edu.au/edf5411/04118997.pdf, 1987) stated that academic or scientific concepts require a level of conscious awareness on the part of the child within everyday situations. Academic concepts can be any kind of concept, such as science concepts, mathematics concepts, language concepts and so on. Vygotsky theorised how these academic concepts could be developed by school aged children, but he said less about the prior to school period. Scientific concepts do not instantly develop in their final form but rather follow a process of conceptual development guided through adult–child interaction. It is understood that not any kind of social interactions can be considered developmental, but rather it is interaction which is purposeful and which is viewed as useful for a child’s development. Any kind of conceptual development requires the interaction with the ideal form as presented through adult interaction in social contexts. In any stage of development, ideal forms need to be present in the real context. Ideal in the sense that it acts as a model for that which should be achieved at the end of the developmental period; and in contrast, the real form represents the beginning point of child development (Vygotsky, in: Veer, Valsiner (eds) The Vygotsky reader, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, pp 338–350, 1994). Many studies have documented the interactions between adults and children for developing scientific concepts in formal settings but little is understood about what happens in family homes for the prior to school age period. We do not know how scientific concepts develop during infants–toddlers everyday life at home. What kinds of social interactions in everyday family life support infants and toddlers to develop early forms of science concepts? This paper presents the findings of a study of infant and toddler learning of science at home. A total of around 30 h of video data were collected from three Bangladeshi families in Australia and Singapore. Three children aged from 10 to 36 months were filmed over 1 year in their everyday context. Informed by cultural-historical theory, the findings indicate that a form of conscious collaboration between parents and infants–toddlers is the key for developing small science concepts from rudimentary to final form. Small science has been defined as simple scientific narration of the everyday moments that infants and toddlers experience at home with their families. It was found that it was the families who filled the gap in understanding, through actively supporting the development of their infant–toddler’s higher mental function. Here the relations between infant–toddler real forms of development were carefully considered by the parents in relation to the ideal form that they created through collective dialogue of small science moments in the environment. If infants–toddlers learn these small concepts in their everyday settings, it is probable that they could link these early forms of understandings to learning abstract concepts later in school. This study contributes to understanding the nature of social interaction patterns for developing small science concepts in the everyday context of family life. This paper also provides pedagogical suggestions for early childhood science education.     

‘We set up a small world’: preschool teachers’ involvement in children’s imaginative play

Grounded in Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory, this paper examines how often teachers are involved in children’s imaginative play and discusses their beliefs about their role in supporting children’s imaginative play. To investigate this problem, video (65 hours of digital observations) and interview data (two hours and 30 minutes) of 60 children with 7 teachers from two preschools in Australia were analysed. Using Vygotsky’s [1966. “Play and Its Role in the Mental Development of the Child.” Voprosy Psikhologii 12 (6): 62–76] cultural-historical concept of play, and Kravtsov and Kravtsova’s [2010. “Play in the L.S. Vygotsky’s Nonclassical Psychology.” Journal of Russian and East European Psychology 48 (4): 25–41] conception of ‘subject positioning’ (being inside and outside of the play), it was found that despite the general importance of play, teachers’ involvement in developing children’s imaginative play appears to be minimal. The interviews showed that teachers’ beliefs about their role in children’s imaginative play are directly related to the distance of their physical proximity and understanding of the play narrative being enacted. This paper argues that focusing on teachers’ involvement in children’s play is an important but under-researched dimension of play-based pedagogies in early childhood education.