“This Is Nothing Like School”: Discourse and the Social Environment as Key Components in Learning Science

Abstract

Constructivism is seen to be a philosophical framework for contemporary science education and has been advocated widely as the path to follow in planning and implementing effective science teaching. Curiosity and interest in the natural world begins at birth and a critical scientific world view can be developed from an early age. Early childhood education should therefore be a time for the development of critical and creative scientific thought processes. In this paper we describe an episode from a science enrichment programme for young children aged 5‐8 in which we have implemented strategies that are consistent with the philosophy of constructivism. We describe the strategic actions and roles that the teacher adopted in order to achieve her objectives. Evidence is presented that children, despite their young age, were able to engage in knowledge generation and critical reasoning in a culture that emulates authentic scientific practice.