Childhood Experiments

During this stage, the child can engage in symbolic play, and have developed an imagination. This child may use an object to represent something else, such pretending that a broom is a horse. An important feature a child displays during this stage is egocentrism. This refers to the child’s inability to see a situation from another person’s point of view. To test whether or not children are egocentric, Piaget used the ‘Three Mountain Task’. Piaget concluded that the four-year olds thinking was egocentric, as the seven year olds was not. Children, at this stage, do not understand more complex concepts such as cause and effect, time, and comparison.

Jean Piaget investigated how children think. According to Piaget, children’s thought processes change as they mature physically and interact with the world around them. Piaget believed children develop schema, or mental models, to represent the world. As children learn, they expand and modify their schema through the processes of assimilation and

As children get older egocentric thinking will begin to dominate in a non-logical and non-reversible way, and this will give a more developed imagination and will improve memory. The child grows into adolescents and the operational stage of cognitive development with the use of symbols and abstract concepts grows and shows more

The process skills approach to teaching is defined as the educator helping children develop science skills and processes to confidently undertake their own investigations (Campbell, 2012). These skills are developed through: communicating, science language, asking questions, making sense of phenomena, predicting, modelling, conducting investigations, planning, testing, observing, reasoning, and drawing conclusions of science concepts (Campbell, 2012). When the educator assist children’s learning, it is important to put the emphasis on the nature of science and scientific concepts. Guided discovery approach to teaching requires the educator to ask effective questions that encourage children to explore and extend their investigations throughout science learning (Campbell, 2012). This can be developed through play experiences as children explore their world around them. An interactive approach to teaching children is based on questions that lead explorations and the educators to provide essential resources to guide these explorations (Campbell, 2012). It is the educators’ responsibility to support children’s development, ideas, questions, ways of thinking, and develop scientific thinking. Furthermore, an inquiry approach to teaching relates to children investigating the answers to their own

Hence children have misconceptions on the weather elements and changes in the environment (Reference book Year 1) Probing questions and discussing with the students about the moon’s phases

Children are very interested in the world around them, and when they explore science, it allows them to gain an understanding and make sense of the world around them. Early years children are curious and eager to find the answers to many different topics. Children will play, observe, participate in conversations, and ask many different questions. This is known as ‘everyday science’ (Campbell, Jobling & Howitt, 2015, p.8). Early childhood children learn best when playing. When an educator provides structured play, children can develop and build on their science knowledge (Walker, 2007, p.19). Early childhood children will also complete a series of trial and error exercises. The Science subjects within the Australian Curriculum [ACARA] provide a broad understanding of how things work together in the world in which we live. Giving children hands-on experiences allows them to observe different patterns of growth and change in living things, which allows them to start making predictions. A child’s science inquiry skills will begin to develop when exposed to different experiences such as how do plants grow, how is water used and how electricity work (Worth, 2010, para. 6). The experience in this report was aimed at an early childhood student by allowing him to conduct a hands-on science experiment. He was able to explore what happens when different products were added to refrigerated water. By predicting, observing and then explaining his results, the student was

After watching this video, I was surprised by number of inaccurate private theories and the confidence of most of them. It allowed me to reflect on my own personal response. I realized my theories had changed when I entered a classroom that had a passionate teacher, visual aids, hands on demonstrations, and interesting videos. As teachers, we need to be aware of student’s private theories because many of these theories they will carry with them into their adult life. The graduating students and college professors were still incorrect on why the Earth has seasons and seemed confident in their misconception of seasons. Inaccurate theories may subsequently have negative effects in future decisions or careers.

Research concerned with early cognitive development has shown that children in their early years generally find it hard to grasp the scientific concept that the earth is spherical (e.g. Nussbaum & Novak, 1992; Vosniadou & Brewer, 1992). Vosniadou (1994) states that young children initially possess a naïve theoretical framework with ‘entrenched presuppositions” which is based on their interpretation of their daily experiences.

The purpose of this research is to explore child development by investigating children’s understanding about the structure of the earth. This main focus is to establish an understanding about mental models created by children and discover how these concepts change in association with age and gender. According to Vosniadou and Brewer (1992), mental models are dynamic in nature, generated by children in response to questions asked and used to detect their perceptions of the earth. Mental models are categorized to be naïve, synthetic or scientific. Naïve models are believed to be an outcome of everyday experience; synthetic models to be formed to deal with the irregularity between the flat earth and spherical model while scientific models are the

I95I , resembles earlier studies dealing with quantity, space, and time. In these studies children of varying ages are confronted with experiments designed to reveal the nature of their reasoning. Memory and Intelligence, first published in 1968, like its predecessor, Mental Imagery in the Child, shifts focus from specific areas of knowl- edge to specific aspects of cognitive func- tioning. The third and most recent volume, Understanding Causality, stems

Chapter 5 “Early Childhood: Body and Mind” section “Thinking during Early Childhood” teaches about the cognitive development of children during early childhood at around ages 2-6 years old, in which, children targeted at this age do not use logical operations (reasoning process). Such a term is called the “Preoperational Intelligence” conducted by Piaget. Furthermore, Piaget’s preoperational thought establishes that children have language but use symbolic thought where “words can refer to things not seen and that an item, like a flag, can symbolize something else (in this case, a country).” Symbolic thought proves Animism; the belief that young children have thinking that “natural objects are alive and nonhuman animals have the same characteristics of a child” (Berger, 173).

Students are considered to be scientists in the inquiry process. Children will view themselves as scientists as they learn. They look forward to science, demonstrate a desire to learn more, seek collaboration with their classmates, they are confident in doing science, and willing to take risks. Students are readily engaged in exploring science. They have curiosity, ponder observations, move around to get the materials they need, and have the opportunity to try out their ideas. Students are able to communicate using various amounts of methods. They express their ideas in journals, reporting, or drawing. They listen, speak, and write about science. They communicate their level of understanding of concepts and ideas. The students propose explanations and solutions based off their data. They use investigations to satisfy their own questions. They sort out information that is needed and important. They become willing to revise explanations and gain new knowledge. They raise questions, use questions to lead them to investigations, and students begin to enjoy using questions to ponder ideas. Students begin to observe rather than look. They see details, detect sequences, and notice change, similarities, and differences. The students begin to make

In Te Whariki (Ministry of Education [MOE], 1996), it is reported that science creates opportunities for children to learn strategies for active investigation, thinking and reasoning (p 98). Children are naturally scientists” is one we hear often. There curiosity and need to make the world a more predictable place certainly drives them to explore and draw conclusions and theories from their experiences. Kilmer & Hofman (1995, p 44), cited in Eliason & Jenkins (1999, p 263), stated the benefits of science for young children include the promotion of intellectual growth, greater potential for success in school, and opportunities for development. Science in early childhood education for young children should be encouraged to develop them as they participate in science. Therefore, children need guidance and structure to turn their natural curiosity and activity into something more scienctific. They need to practice science – to engage in rich scientific inquiry. Scientific inquiry provides the opportunity for children to develop a range of skills, for example; explore objects, materials, and events, describe (including shape, size, number), identify patterns, share and discuss ideas and listen to new perspectives.

Instinctively, children love to explore outside and discover new things about the items that they see everyday, like rocks. I think that it is important for teachers and all other adults to teach children more about the earth we live on and the things that make up our beautiful earth. Naturally, children believe that the ground consist of only soil and that rocks are only on the surface of the ground. They believe that the rocks they find on the surface of the ground that they can hold and examine, are the only rocks that exist on earth. Children love these rocks because they can examine and collect them. Also because they are so common, yet the characteristics of each rock are so different making them each so unique and beautiful. Although they these rocks are so unique and beautiful, they are not the only rocks on earth. Children believe they are and that the ground is made up of only soil however that is wrong. They are right about the ground being made of soil and that rocks can be held and examined, but that isn’t the whole truth. The ground is not purely made of soil and all rocks are not on the surface of earth. There are actually three ways a rock can be formed and they can actually also be found inside the earth below the soil that we see everyday. Teachers need to teach children about rocks in a variety of ways. Through videos and pictures, discussions of rocks in different locations, etc. Teachers should teach about this concept because of how important it is.

Science is, by its nature, inquiry based and science knowledge is built through processes in which discoveries of the natural world are made (Abruscato, 2000). It utilizes discovery and scientific thinking process to explore and learn knowledge and skills. Learning by doing is the new efficient method in teaching science. For kindergarten, this method leads to better understanding of science concepts and builds skills that children will use in future life .What a child can do with assistance now, they can later do on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). John Dewey (1916) stated that children must be engaged in an active quest for learning and new ideas. Inquiry is important in educating kindergarteners because it not only keeps them interested in lessons but also helps them retain more information when performing exploration and investigation. Children are naturally motivated to learn and actively seek out information to help their understanding (Piaget, 1950).The success of students who participate in hands- on inquiry activities suggests that if students have first hands experience with science, concepts are easier to understand and apply and students are generally more favorable to science and have better understanding of the nature of science .Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom. In kindergarten, students who are actively making observations, collecting results and drawing