3Hs Education: Examining hands-on, heads-on and hearts-on early childhood science education

Abstract

Active engagement has become the focus of many early childhood science education curricula and standards. However, active engagement usually emphasizes getting children engaged with science solely through hands-on activities. Active engagement by way of hands, heads, and hearts are kept separate and rarely discussed in terms of getting all to work together, although inquiry-based education and student interest have been accepted as important in science education. The current study is an inquiry-based research. It aims to describe and examine projects and activity stations for preschoolers in a Turkish preschool classroom bringing together the pieces of the puzzle of science education, called here 'Hands-Heads-Hearts-on Science Education'. The study, conducted from a qualitative-interpretivist paradigm, reveals that activity stations and projects create a context for hands-on (active engagement), heads-on (inquiry based or mentalengagement), and hearts-on (interest based) science education. It is found that activity stations and projects, when maintained by appropriate teacher-support, create a playful context in which children can be actively and happily engaged in science-related inquiry.

Science at home: parents’ need for support to implement video-based online science club with young children

“…In the process of producing a video, a child's feelings and thinking are activated (Robert-Holmes, 2013). In children's science education, it is important that an activity allows the child to be able to activate functionally, cognitively and affectively (Inan & Inan, 2015). The videos produced by children tell the other viewers about the child's research process and results.…”

Science Education in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Altın Çağ Preschools

“…These three qualities of science education, namely, hands-on, heads-on, and hearts-on, refer to education and development of the whole child. Such whole-child perspective considerscognitiveaspectsoflearning(e.g., inquiring, categorizing, reasoning, predicting, interpreting, and theorizing), social aspects of learning (e.g., discussing, being a part of the learning community, cooperating, sharing, communicating, playing, learning from each other), language aspects of learning (e.g., communicating ideas using hundred languages, using technical terms), physical aspects of learning (e.g., engaging with both small motor skills and large motor skills like writing, drawing, jumping, running), and affective skills (e.g., satisfying their own interests, inquiries, and needs, working on love of subject matter in a playful context, caring about others, and having fun) [5,15].…”

“…Taking those theories into consideration, Reggio Emilia teachers create a context for hands-on, heads-on, and hearts-on science education and get all three to work together. Projects, when maintained by appropriate teacher support, enriched environment, and documentation, create a playful context in which children can be actively and happily engaged in their science-related inquiry [5,15].…”

Türkiye'de okul öncesi dönem fen eğitimi araştırmalarında güncel eğilimler: Bir tematik analiz çalışması

“…Alan yazın incelendiğinde; uluslararası indeksli dergilerde okul öncesi dönemde fen eğitimine ilişkin yapılan çalışmaların da giderek arttığı söylenebilir (Impedovo, Delserieys-Pedregosa, Jégou ve Ravanis, 2016;İnan ve İnan, 2015;Piekny, Grube ve Maehler, 2014;Saçkes vd., 2011;Spektor-Levy, Baruch ve Mevarech, 2013). Taşkın ve Şahin (2008)'in belirttiği gibi ülkemizde okul öncesi eğitim (fen-çevre) alanında yapılan çalışmalar 2000'li yıllardan sonra hız kazanmaya başlamıştır.…”