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

Years Teachers' Late Concerns and Perceived Needs in Science: An Exploratory Study’, European

Science in early childhood is of great importance to many aspects of children's development. Planning for improvement of science instruction should take into consideration the problems teachers encounter in their performance of their task. However, exposition of problems of early years teachers, especially those with many years of experience, is somewhat rare in science education literature. The purpose of the present work was to investigate those factors that hinder experienced early years teachers in the performance of their task in science, and their needs, as perceived by the teachers themselves. The study was carried out in Greece. One take-home written task and two group interviews were used for data collection. Qualitative approaches were employed for the analysis of the data. The emergent themes related to teachers' problems, teachers' worries induced by these problems, problem consequences and teachers' perceived needs in science. La science sur la précoce enfance est très importante pour beaucoup des aspects de la développe-ment des enfants. Il faut que le croquis de l'instruction de la science aille considérer les problèmes que les instituteurs affrontent. Mais, dans la littérature de l'instruction de la science, il n'y a pas beaucoup des instituteurs, spécialement des expérimentes, qui exposent leurs problèmes. Le but de présent travail était l'investigation de ces facteurs qui empêchent les instituteurs expérimentes de travailler dans le secteur de la science sur la précoce enfance; et, aussi, leurs besoins, conformément a eux-mêmes. Le travail était réalisé en Grèce. Un travail, écrit à la maison, et deux interviews des groups étaient utilisées pour la collection des éléments. les résultats concernaient les problèmes des instituteurs, les inquiétudes des instituteurs à cause de ces problèmes, les conséquences des ces problèmes et les besoins des instituteurs de la science sur la précoce enfance. La ciencia en la primera infancia es de gran importancia en muchos aspectos del desarrollo de los niñ os. La planificación para mejorar la ciencia de la educación debe tomar en consideración los problemas que encuentran los profesores en la realización de su tarea. Sin embargo, la exposición de problemas de las profesores de primera infancia, especialmente la de los que tienen muchos anos de experiencia, es algo rara en la literatura de la ciencia de la educación. El propó sito del actual trabajo era investigar esos factores que obstaculizan a profesores experimentados de primera infancia en la realización de su tarea en la ciencia y de sus necesidades, segú n lo percibido por los mismos profesores. El estudio se llevo a cabo en Grecia. Una tarea escrita para realizar en casa y dos entrevistas del grupo se utilizaron para la recogida de datos. Se emplearon aproximaciones cualitativas para el análisis de los datos. Los temas que surgieron se relacionan 148 M. Kallery con los problemas de los profesores, las preocupaciones de los profesores inducidos por estos problemas, las consecuencias del problema y las necesidades percibidas por los profesores en la ciencia. Die Naturwissenschaften sind von großer Bedeutung im frü heren Kindesalter bei vielen Aspekten der Kinderentwicklung. BeimPlanen derUnterrichtsvorbereitung mü ssen die Probleme, mit denen sich die Lehrer auseinandersetzen, mitberü cksichtigt werden. Doch die Bekanntgebung der Probleme der Vorschulerzieher, vorallem dermit langer Berufserfahrung kommt selten in der Erziehungsbibliographie der Naturwissenschaften vor. Diese Studie hatte als Ziel die Faktoren zu erforschen, die die Erzieher bei ihrer Arbeit hindern und ihre Bedü rfnisse wie sie von den Erziehern selbst wahrgenommen werden. Die studie wurde in Griechenland durchgefü hrt. Ein schriftliches Referat und zwei Gruppeninterviews dienten der Angabensammlung. Qualitative Annäherungen wurden bei der Angabenanalyse verwendet. Die Themen, die sich ergaben, beziehen sich auf die Probleme der Erzieher, ihre Besorgnis wegen der Probleme, auf die Problemkonsequenzen und auf die Bedü rfnisse der Erzieher in den Naturwissenschaften, wi sie von ihnen selbst wahrgenommen werden

Early-years Educators' Attitudes to Science and Pseudo-science: The case of astronomy and astrology

The present study surveys Greek early-years educators' attitudes to astrology and ascertains whether they are able to distinguish between astronomy as the science and astrology as the pseudo-science. One hundred and three early-years educators participated in this study. Results indicate that a large fraction (60%) of the educators subscribe more or less to the astrological principles and an equally large percentage (59%) view both astronomy and astrology as scientific, i.e. can not distinguish between science and pseudo-science. Findings warrant significant concern. Possible effects on young children's attitudes are briefly discussed, as well as possible solutions to the problem, chiefly involving lessons that will address and challenge the educators' views through an in-service education programme aimed at improving their scientific 'literacy' and their critical thinking in this field

Enhancing Student Interest to Promote Learning in Science: The Case of the Concept of Energy

This paper presents an intervention aiming to promote students’ learning by enhancing their interest in the concept of energy. Junior high school students’ learning and interest is evaluated after engaging in activities on work and energy. The intervention integrated hands-on and simulated experiments included a structured series of guided investigative tasks and whole-class discussions. The intervention was delivered to an experimental group consisting of 110 junior high school students. The control group consisted of 96 students of the same grade level, where students were taught about energy in the traditional sense, i.e., via the standard textbook. Written tests were then handed to all students to assess their learning outcomes. The results showed that the learning outcomes of students in the experimental group were significantly better than those of students in the control group. A notable increase in interest from students in the experimental group compared to that of the control group was also observed. Findings also showed a significant positive correlation between interest and academic achievement. This study reconfirms that enhancing interest could lead to better learning outcomes and its evidence-based methodology can be equally applied when introducing students to other difficult concepts of science

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 inspire curiosity in everyone irrespective of age, culture or general inclination to science. While the inclusion of astronomy in the school curriculum has waxed and waned over the years, in the current era, where there is a global push to get more students engaged in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), astronomy provides an invaluable conduit to bring about this shift. This paper highlights the results of a study which has reviewed the presence and extent to which astronomy has been incorporated into the school curriculum of the Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) member countries as well as two non-OECD countries strong in astronomy research, China and South Africa, and one international curriculum, the International Baccalaureate Diploma programme. A total of 52 national curricula from 37 countries were reviewed. The results revealed that overall astronomy and its related topics are prevalent in at least one grade in all curricula across the OECD, China and South Africa. Of the 52 national curricula, 44 of them had astronomy related topics in grade 6. Out of the 52 national curricula, 40 introduced astronomy-related topics in grade 1, while 14 of them had astronomy-related topics explicitly mentioned in all grades. The most common keywords were related to basic astronomy concepts, such as the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, all have occurrences of over 100. Relational textual analysis also revealed that all the major concepts could be encompassed across two broad themes of Earth and Physics

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 inspire curiosity 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 conduit to achieve this shift. This paper highlights the results of a study which has reviewed the presence and extent to which astronomy has been incorporated into the school curriculum of the Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) member countries. In addition, two others strong in astronomy research, China and South Africa, are included together with the International Baccalaureate Diploma science curriculum. A total of 52 curricula from 37 countries were reviewed. The results reveal that astronomy and 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-related topics in grade 1, whilst 14 had astronomy-related topics explicitly mentioned in all grades. At all year levels, celestial motion is the dominant content area; however, topics such as stars, physics, cosmology, and planetary science become much more frequent as a proportion towards the higher year levels. The most common keywords employed in the curricula related to basic astronomy concepts were the Earth, Sun, Moon, and stars, all with a high frequency of use. There is hardly any focus on Indigenous Astronomy or the role of prominent women astronomers. Relational textual analysis using Leximancer revealed that all the major concepts could be encompassed within two broad themes: Earth and Physics. Astronomy and Physics are often seen as different domains, with astronomy content being more facts based, than based on concepts

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 inspire curiosity 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 conduit to achieve this shift. This paper highlights the results of a study which has reviewed the presence and extent to which astronomy has been incorporated into the school curriculum of the Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) member countries. In addition, two others strong in astronomy research, China and South Africa, are included together with the International Baccalaureate Diploma science curriculum. A total of 52 curricula from 37 countries were reviewed. The results reveal that astronomy and 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-related topics in grade 1, whilst 14 had astronomy-related topics explicitly mentioned in all grades. At all year levels, celestial motion is the dominant content area; however, topics such as stars, physics, cosmology, and planetary science become much more frequent as a proportion towards the higher year levels. The most common keywords employed in the curricula related to basic astronomy concepts were the Earth, Sun, Moon, and stars, all with a high frequency of use. There is hardly any focus on Indigenous Astronomy or the role of prominent women astronomers. Relational textual analysis using Leximancer revealed that all the major concepts could be encompassed within two broad themes: Earth and Physics. Astronomy and Physics are often seen as different domains, with astronomy content being more facts based, than based on concepts..