This article describes a research study on the connection of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) with Science Education in the early grades. The research study took place in the University of Ioannina, Greece with the support of the @fise research group. Within this frame, a narrative about light, colors and shadows was written as part of an Innovative Science Curriculum for the early grades. As a next step, the narrative was turned to a 20 minute animation in the scratch program and a series of science activities about light, colors and shadows were designed. The Science Curriculum was implemented in 4 pre-primary school classrooms. Research data included observations, field notes, video recordings, interviews and classroom materials. All collected data were analyzed through the Nvivo9 qualitative research software. Results have shown that CHAT is a promising field for Science Education in the early grades as pupils participate in meaningful cultural activities and receive guidance for improving or appropriating actions. In this sense learning of scientific concepts has been proved a creative component of methods, interactions and social practices. All in all, CHAT offers the potential to participate in meaningful cultural activities and receive scaffolding for improving of actions towards an inspiring object into the whole activity system.
This paper focuses on connecting natural sciences education with Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). In this sense, natural sciences education is considered as a lifelong learning procedure, not seen as an individual but as a collective activity. Moreover, learning becomes a human activity in which theory and praxis are strongly connected and learning outcomes are obviously seen in society and culture. The paper is a review of five years research on natural sciences education from a CHAT perspective in the Department of Early Childhood Education in the University of Ioannina, Greece. Effort is put on using CHAT as a theoretical framework in order to analyze and design natural sciences education activities. In this regard, teaching natural sciences in a university laboratory becomes a dynamic activity system which involves multiple participants (university teachers, lab assistants, students, early grade pupils etc.). All the participants act towards some common goals, considering scientific knowledge as cultural, historical and social process and using meditative and analyzing tools. Scientific concepts are taught as part of the natural curriculum of natural sciences education at the early grades which is strongly connected with CHAT. At this level scientific learning is connected with inquiring in authentic environments, practicing skills of observation, classification, communication etc., and making sense of the relations and interactions that take place in the world around us. The research question addressed in this paper is to highlight some qualitative dimensions of the socio-cultural aspect of teaching natural sciences in the early grades. Research data have been collected during practical application of lab activities in the early childhood classrooms by observing, video recording, interviewing and analyzing. This part involves university teachers, lab assistants, students, early childhood teachers, early grade pupils who work as a community towards reforming of natural sciences education.
This study presents the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of an educational programme that combines an online game and an outdoor activity with mobile learning in science education. The object of the study is to test the capacity of the programme to integrate science, culture and the environment, while transferring knowledge about marble. To this end, we align our theoretical orientation with the overall project design to devise an initial scheme that is pilot-tested by 155 university students of early childhood education and evaluated through a questionnaire. Qualitative data through participants’ feedback after the programme, observation notes and data from video recordings supplement the overall assessment. The results show high levels of satisfaction among the participants in terms of the quality of the activities, the distance between stations, the duration and structure of the programme, contact with marble, and the knowledge acquired.
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