Impact of Kindergarten Teachers’ Scientific Processing Skills Training on Children’s Science and Mathematics Development

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of in-service education for early childhood teachers about scientific processing skills on young children’s (5–6 year-old) science and mathematics performance and teachers’ science teaching attitudes. A pretest-posttest with control group design was applied. From the treatment group nine teachers and 60 children (27 boys, 33 girls); and from the control group eight teachers and 95 children (56 boys, 39 girls) completed the study. After pretests, treatment group teachers received scientific processing skills training. For eight weeks treatment group teachers had applied eight experiments and eight illusion activities that were taught to them during the training. A mixed ANOVA indicated a significant effect of treatment on children’s TEMA-3 scores (mathematics performance) from pretest to posttest. A Mann – Whitney U test did not indicate any significant difference between treatment and control groups’ differences for C-PALLS+STEM (science knowledge) posttest minus pretest scores. Responses to a scale measuring teachers’ attitudes toward science teaching revealed that treatment teachers’ attitude toward science teaching increased significantly, whereas such an increase was not recorded in control group teachers. Qualitative data revealed that the training positively affected teachers’ perspectives on science and contributed to their conducting higher quality scientific activities in their classrooms.