Typical didactical activities in the Greek early-years science classroom: Do they promote science learning?

This paper presents an epistemological analysis of typical didactical activities noted in early-years science lessons, which was carried out in an attempt to diagnose the extent to which the teaching practices adopted by early-years educators are successful in supporting young children's understanding in science. The analysis of didactical activities used a framework that allowed us to discover whether they promoted desired connections between theoretical ideas, evidence and the material world. Theoretical ideas, evidence and the material world are entities internal to scientific inquiry and, in educational contexts, connections between them are considered essential in assisting the development of young children's scientific thinking. The results indicated that in the early-years science classroom scientific activity was mainly confined to the representational level. Intervention practices into the material world were limited, and were based on collected evidence. No interventions based on ideas were identified in the science lessons. Missing links between evidence and theory and between ideas and the material world suggest that the didactical activities analysed did not promote scientific understanding. © 2009 Taylor & Francis

The Gateway Science: a Review of Astronomy in the OECD School Curricula, Including China and South Africa

Astronomy is considered by many to be a gateway science owing to its ability to inspirecuriosity in everyone irrespective of age, culture, or general inclination towards science.Currently, where there is a global push to get more students engaged in Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, astronomy provides an invaluable conduitto achieve this shift. This paper highlights the results of a study which has reviewed thepresence and extent to which astronomy has been incorporated into the school curriculumof the Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) membercountries. In addition, two others strong in astronomy research, China and South Africa,are included together with the International Baccalaureate Diploma science curriculum. Atotal of 52 curricula from 37 countries were reviewed. The results reveal that astronomyand its related topics are prevalent in at least one grade in all curricula. Of the 52 curricula,44 of them had astronomy-related topics in grade 6, 40 introduced astronomy-relatedtopics in grade 1, whilst 14 had astronomy-related topics explicitly mentioned in allgrades. At all year levels, celestial motion is the dominant content area; however, topicssuch as stars, physics, cosmology, and planetary science become much more frequent as aproportion towards the higher year levels. The most common keywords employed in thecurricula related to basic astronomy concepts were the Earth, Sun, Moon, and stars, allwith a high frequency of use. There is hardly any focus on Indigenous Astronomy or therole of prominent women astronomers. Relational textual analysis using Leximancerrevealed that all the major concepts could be encompassed within two broad themes:Earth and Physics. Astronomy and Physics are often seen as different domains, withastronomy content being more facts based, than based on concepts.Science Communication and Societ

Exploring the complexities of children’s inquiries in science: Knowledge production through participatory practices

Beginning with the assumption that young children are capable of producing unprecedented knowledges about science phenomena, this paper explores the complexities of children’s inquiries within open-ended investigations. I ask two central questions: (1) how can we (teachers, researchers, and children themselves) use and build upon children’s explorations in science in practice? and (2) what pedagogical approaches can position children as experts on their experiences to facilitate children’s sense of ownership in the process of learning science? Six vignettes from a Kindergarten classroom are analyzed to elaborate the central claim of this work, which is that when children are engaged in collaborative open-ended activities, science emerges from their interactions. Open-ended structures allowed for teachers and children to facilitate further investigations collaboratively, and participatory structures mediated children’s representations and explanations of their investigations. Evidence of children’s interactions is used to illustrate the complexities of children’s explorations, and pedagogical approaches that create the spaces for children to create knowledge are highlighted