Why do teachers adopt or resist a pedagogical idea for teaching science in preschool?

Abstract

Numerous initiatives are carried out across the world to support science teaching in early childhood education. However, professional development research shows that in order for teaching interventions to bring about successful changes in practice, it is key that teacher's beliefs, confidence and knowledge change. As a complement to studies showing how teachers change, this article examines why teachers adopt a pedagogical idea for teaching science in preschool. Drawing on Clarke and Hollingsworth's model for teacher professional growth, the article analyses interviews with teachers that have implemented and developed a pedagogical idea for teaching science in preschool. The results indicate that teachers adopt the pedagogical idea because it helps them to discern and build on science content in everyday practice, which they prefer to their previous way of teaching science through occasional experiments. Further the results show that teachers balance several external influences on what is good preschool pedagogy. The particular pedagogical idea eases that balancing act since it aligns with, and helps teachers to make meaning of, many of these influences.

Capturing the world with verbs: Preschool science education beyond nouns and objects

“…When things stick to each other it is often because of chemical and physical phenomena such as magnetism, adhesion, friction and static electricity. Intrigued by this colloquial entrance into physics and chemistry (topics often perceived by educators as difficult to work with in preschool [Areljung, 2018a]) we tried to identify more everyday verbs that relate to physical phenomena and chemical processes (Table 1). For physics, we listed verbs that involve energy, movement and forces, such as, roll, spin, rotate, swing, and bounce.…”

“…Soon after the emergence of the idea of using everyday verbs in work with science in preschool (hereafter referred to as the 'verb idea'), we engaged 10 educators in 3 preschools to implement and develop the idea in practice. Previously, I have examined why the verb idea was adopted by these educators, finding that the idea seemed to function as a catalyst, helping educators to identify physics and chemistry in everyday events (Areljung, 2018a). Foreseeing the pedagogical potential of the verb idea, those of us who participated in the project continuously shared our work in various forums (conferences, blogs and professional development events) and learnt that it was being adopted by educators locally, nationally and internationally.…”

Valuable everyday encounters in early childhood education: narratives from professionals

“…Similar arguments and findings can be seen within the area of leisure-time centres, but here the emphasis is more on democracy and relational care (Hjalmarsson and Löfdahl 2014). Much recent research also focuses on didactic issues dealing with the teaching, learning and evaluation of different subjects (Areljung, 2018;Helenius 2018). We argue that these studies (including our own) have in common that they tend to approach the actual situation and describe activities in practice mainly as a matter of teaching, learning or caring.…”

Expanding the notion of ‘ownership’ in participatory research involving teachers and researchers

“…Since they wanted to probe their idea's practical relevance early on in the process, they asked ten in-service teachers to test and develop the idea in practice. Even though these teachers had not been involved in formulating the pedagogical idea, they had ownership of how to test and develop it, which implied that they gained, and the researcher lost, ownership in the implementation stage (Areljung 2019).…”