Challenge of Teaching Genetics at Early Stage

As a part of early science education, biogenetics is one of the critical components. Usually, the course is taught at the middle school at the earliest (Committee on the Science of Children Birth to Age 8, 2015). There may be specific difficulties for adolescent students who are first exposed to genetics knowledge, from cognition to knowledge reserve. In addition, understanding its basic concepts may require the lecturer to adopt certain methods and skills (Hirsh et al., 2020). Due to the abstract nature of genetics, this is more challenging for students of this age.

Teaching and learning science during the early years

Over the past two decades, science has increasingly become an integral part of early childhood curricula, and research on teaching and learning science in early years has emerged as an established field of study. Collectively, the findings of a growing body of literature suggest that introducing science in developmentally appropriate ways may support young children’s learning of science concepts and scientific thinking skills. The increasing number of edited volumes and special issues, including this one, devoted to the topic of early childhood science teaching and learning indicates that early science education, as a field of study, will continue to attract researchers from early childhood and science education as well as educational and cognitive psychology.

Portrait of early science education in majority dual language learner classrooms: Where do we start?

Despite the growing interest in early science education, there is much left to be explored, particularly in majority Dual Language Learning (DLL) classrooms. The current study examined 1) early science opportunities across classroom contexts in majority Spanish-English DLL Head Start classrooms, 2) the languages (i.e., English and Spanish) that teachers used to engage DLL children in science, 3) and how teachers’ discussion of scientific and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas related to children’s academic outcomes. In a sample of 411 children (ages 3-5) from 34 Head Start classrooms, the current study found that teachers discussed and encouraged more practices during science lessons than circle time, dramatic play, and story time. There were no differences in teachers’ discussion of core ideas across contexts. Teachers used the same amount of English and Spanish to discuss practices and core ideas. Teaching physical science was associated with children’s science outcomes. Making observations and discussing life science were associated with children’s math outcomes. Teaching math, making observations, and developing and using models were related to children’s executive functioning. Findings from this study demonstrate that science opportunities occur across preschool classroom settings. Additionally, it provides evidence that teachers may be supporting DLL children’s home language while discussing science. Finally, results indicate that teaching science supports children’s academic performance in several outcomes. These findings have implications for DLL education policy as science may be a domain where teachers can support children’s home language and their learning across multiple domains.

Konstruktywistyczna perspektywa wczesnej edukacji przyrodniczej

This article reflects on how to use children’s natural curiosity in early science education and make learning a meaningful, joyful and useful experience for them. Therefore, an attempt was made to show the essence of the constructivist model of teaching natural science to the youngest students by referring to the strategy of teaching through inquiry and outdoor education.

The Magic of Mechanism: Explanation-Based Instruction on Counterintuitive Concepts in Early Childhood

Common-sense intuitions can be useful guides in everyday life and problem solving. However, they can also impede formal science learning and provide the basis for robust scientific misconceptions. Addressing such misconceptions has generally been viewed as the province of secondary schooling. However, in this article, I argue that for a set of foundational but highly counterintuitive ideas (e.g., evolution by natural selection), coherent causal-explanatory instruction—instruction that emphasizes the multifaceted mechanisms underpinning natural phenomena—should be initiated much sooner, in early elementary school. This proposal is motivated by various findings from research in the cognitive, developmental, and learning sciences. For example, it has been shown that explanatory biases that render students susceptible to intuitively based scientific misconceptions emerge early in development. Furthermore, findings also reveal that once developed, such misconceptions are not revised and replaced by subsequently learned scientific theories but competitively coexist alongside them. Taken together, this research, along with studies revealing the viability of early coherent explanation-based instruction on counterintuitive theories, have significant implications for the timing, structure, and scope of early science education.