Visible science learning in Early Childhood Education
(ECE): Example of multimodal representations to
document learning in a Danish Early Childhood Education
center (preschool).
Abstract
To enhance children's knowledge building and development of skills related to science
learning in early childhood education (ESE), it is important to make the children's learning
visible for the teacher. Primarily to give the teacher tools to help the children further with
their science learning, but also to document their learning for parents and other. Inspired
by inquiry based science education (IBSE), and based on a project in preschool
concerning children's inquiry, this presentation proposes a model that highlights
multimodal ways of collecting evidence of young children’s learning experiences. The
model deals with three approaches to science learning in ECE: a practical, a written/drawn
and an oral. The model can furthermore be used in documentation of the children's
science learning from different sources.
In a four weeks period, guided by three nursery teachers, 21 children (age 5-6 years)
worked inquiry based with the topic “weather and wind”. The children draw and build
models, which could give them some ideas of concepts and phenomena related to wind
(speed and direction; windmills e.g.), and they made drawings of ‘the weather of today’,
whereon the nursery teachers wrote, in collaboration and guided by the children, what
concepts and phenomena they had drawn (breeze and wind direction: e.g. leaves blowing
in the wind; the wind comes from west).
The children's learning was made visible by a teacher guided talk concerning their inquiry
products and concepts mentioned in their drawings. Project data consisted of video
recordings of the talk, collecting of artefacts (drawings and models), and recorded
interviews with teachers and informal conversations with some of the children. The data
was analyzed using second generation activity theory model (Engeström, 2001).
Results showed that paying attention to the multimodal ways learning experiences can be
captured in preschools gives the teachers valuable information about the children’s
knowledge, skill and abilities in science and assists teachers of the children's further
science learning path.
Introduction
The Danish curriculum for Early Childhood Education in preschools includes the theme
“The nature and its phenomena”. To made the children’s learning more visible and provide
the teachers with a tool, so they in a higher degree can help and guide the children with
their further science learning, a multimodal model have been proposed to collect evidence
of the children's science learning. The model is based on the results of a project of
implementing inquiry based science education (IBSE) in preschool (Østergaard, 2013),
and that the children's practical inquiry elements, their written/drawn testimonies, and oral
statements are central elements in their inquiry work.
Three representations of science learning in ECE
Inquiry is an effective way to enhance children's science learning in ECE (Worth &
Grollman, 2003), and one of the key elements in inquiry and children's learning and
understanding of science are their observations, explorations, investigations – their inquiry
skills (ibid; Chalufour & Worth, 2006). The practical element, understood as products made
or collected by using inquiry skills, is important, as the children by then can demonstrate
their abilities in relation to science inquiry, and is therefore an important mark of evidence
for the children's science learning.
Use of drawings in relation to inquiry work (Anisworth et al., 2011), or written scientific
explanations in notebooks (with help from the teachers, Gelman & Brenneman, 2004),
supports children’s understanding and learning in ECE as well (ibid.). As an illustration of
children's preconceptions and prior knowledge, emphasis on children's drawn or (by the
teacher) written testimony is essential, too, as evidence of the children's science learning
and understanding of phenomena.
The children's dialogue with the teachers and their playmates is important for their science
learning as well (e.g. Worth & Grollman, 2003). To engage in scientific inquiry and to
demonstrate various abilities, children must act and communicate: they have to predict,
reflect, discuss, conclude and argue (Gelman & Brenneman, 2004). Abilities which all are
very important features for science learning (ibid.), and dialogue as oral presentation is
therefore seen as an important third element to highlight the children's science learning.
The method
A project was conducted in a Danish preschool with 62 children located in three
departments. One department worked with the subject “Weather and Wind”, were 21
children (age 5-6 years) and three teachers used an inquiry based approach to explore
and learn about this topic. Before the inquiry unit the teachers received instructions in
using the IBSE method as well as they were told how they, by a common talk regarding
the children's artefacts, could orchestrate the three representations of the children's
science learning.
Data consist of field notes from the project (as described in Østergaard, 2013), video
recordings of the teachers’ talk with the children, semi-structured interviews with two
nursery teachers and informal conservations with six children (I conducted the interviews,
while the teachers and I together performed the informal conservations with the children;
Kvale, 1994; Jørgensen & Kampmann, 2000; Raudaskoski, 2010). Artefacts made by the
children (drawings and models) were collected as well. The data was analysed by using
second generation activity theory as framework (Engeström, 2009).
Results and discussion
The inquiry unit about the topic “weather and wind” began in the autumn. To get
knowledge about the children's preconceptions and knowledge related to the subject, the
teachers told the children to draw ‘the weather of today’ (the teacher wrote down what the
children told they had drawn of concept and phenomena, e.g. raindrops and trees blowing
in the wind). A common topic from the drawings was the wind blowing as seen e.g. by
trees waving in the wind. Based on questions of how the children themselves could
register the wind blowing, they began, guide by their teachers, in an inquiry manner to
discuss, sketch and build different models: e.g. wind mills and plastic bags anchored at a
long sticks.
After the children had worked with the topic for two weeks, they again were told to draw
‘the weather of today’ and on a windy day at the playground, a common talk about their
inquiry work was held to highlight the children's science learning. The teachers asked the
children questions related to the concepts, they have drawn at their ‘the weather of today’
drawings, and they were asked to relate the concepts to their models and argue, reflect
and be critical of their models.
Figure 1. Model of activity theory related to the multimodal representations of the children's
learning outcome
I use Engeströms second generation model of activity theory (Engeström, 2001) to
accentuate that I see learning as a sociocultural activity (ibid.) and many aspects as
having influences on the children's learning and the documentation of their learning
outcomes.
The children in the preschool, alone or as a group, define the subject. The artefacts, or the
instruments, are the children's drawings, the models and their arguments, reflections, and
other verbal expressions during the talk. The object is the multimodal representations of
learning, and the outcome is to give the teachers knowledge about the children’s science
knowledge, skills and abilities, so they can guide them further on their learning path. The
culture and rules of the kindergarten, the other children and teachers, and the organization
of the talk are other things, which altogether influence on the sociocultural setting, in which
the multimodal representation of the children's learning are held.
Interviews with the teachers clearly showed, that they, by using the different elements
which support children's science learning in ECE, got a very good and varied picture of the
children's science knowledge and skills, besides other abilities such as motor skills,
language development, cooperation etc.
A result of the theoretical and practical considerations in this project about visible science
learning in ECE, a multimodal model is being proposed to cover the three domains (see
fig. 2), and it is suggested that this can be used as a tool to document, detail and provide
ways forward for young children's science learning in preschools.
Figure 2. Model of multimodal representations of children's learning
Conclusion and perspectives
Representations of science learning, which together form a model for multimodal
representations of children's learning, have been used with success in a preschool to
make the children's science learning visible after an IBSE-unit focusing on weather and
wind. For the nursery teachers the model formed a good and effective tool, by which they
easily could document the children's learning and thereby helps them further on their
science learning path.
References
Ainsworth, S., Prain, V., & Tytler, R. (2011). Drawing to Learn in Science. Science,
333(6046), 1096-1097.
Chalufour, I., & Worth, K. (2006). Science in Kindergarten. K Today: Teaching and
learning in the kindergarten year, 85-94.
Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive Learning at Work: Toward an activity theoretical
reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), 133-156.
Gelman, R., & Brenneman, K. (2004). Science learning pathways for young children. Early
Childhood Research Quarterly, 19(1), 150-158.
Kvale, S. (1994). Interview. En introduktion til det kvalitative forskningsinterview.
København: Hans Reitzels forlag.Neisworth, J. T., & Bagnato, S. J. (2004). The
mismeasure of young children: The authentic assessment alternative. Infants &
Young Children, 17(3), 198.
Jørgensen, P. S., & Kampmann, J. (Eds.). (2000). Børn som informanter. København:
Børnerådet.
Raudaskoski, P. (2010). Observationsmetoder. In S. Brinkmann & L. Tanggard (Eds.),
Kvalitative metoder. København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Ruiz-Primo, M. A., M. Li, S.-P. Tsai & J. Schneider (2010) Testing One Premise of
Scientific Inquiry in Science Classrooms: Examining Students' Scientific
Explanations and Student Learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47,
583-608.
Worth, K., & Grollman, S. (2003). Worms, Shadows and Whirlpools: Science in the Early
Childhood Classroom: ERIC.
Østergaard, L. D. (2013). Evaluering af IBSE relaterede aktiviteter i børnehave og
indskoling. Nordina, in press.