Growing democratic citizenship competencies: Fostering social studies understandings through inquiry learning in the preschool garden

Abstract

Essential skills and attitudes necessary for active citizenship need to be cultivated as early as prekindergarten. This exploratory study investigated if three and four-year olds could be actively engaged in social studies practices through inquiry learning in a school garden. Eleven children openly interacted and conducted personally-driven investigations on a daily basis in the school garden located on their playground over nine-months. Three interviews with children, teacher observation notes, and lesson plans were analyzed to discover whether NCSS preK-12 learning themes (2010) for the social studies curriculum could be correlated with garden inquiries. Three prevalent NCSS themes surfaced from data analysis with Civic Ideals and Practices, People, Places, and Environments, and Time, Continuity, and Change being most prevalent. Results imply that working in a school garden through inquiry learning can foster the development of democratic competencies and thus, could be used to design C3 lessons for preschoolers in the garden.

Developing an Inquiry and Hands-on Teaching Model to Guide Steam Lesson Planning for Kindergarten Children

“…However, teaching must be done in a way which serves children's natural curiosity and their need for hands-on activities (Kuhlthau et al, 2015). For example, Casey et al (2019) explored whether 3-and 4-year olds could be actively engaged in social studies practice through inquiry learning in a school garden, and the results imply that working in a school garden through inquiry learning can foster the development of curiosity and social competencies. Moreover, in a study by Mamun et al (2020), the inquiry design referred to as predict, observe, explain and evaluate (POEE) can enhance students' interactions and engagement and enable self-directed inquiry.…”

Preschool Teachers’ Beliefs About Child’s Participation And Its Support In Russian Kindergartens

“…The first group includes competences for supporting "child's voice" such as observation and creating provisions for emotional comfort and well-being, free play and free choice, supporting self-expression, respectful interaction, dialogue and sense of belonging to community, interpretation of child's feelings, actions and sayings (Burger, 2017;Casey et al, 2019;Church & Bateman, 2019;Clark, 2020;Houen et al, 2016;Sheridan & Pramling Samuelsson, 2001). The other group includes teacher's competences that can extend child's possibility to participate in decision-making such as democratic interaction, informing children about their life, teaching technics for feedback to children about their decisions and influence, for help children to experience responsibility for made decisions, extended learning and emergent curriculum (flexible planning), taking into account children's interests and ideas (Casey et al, 2019;Sheridan & Pramling Samuelsson, 2001). There is a lack of research concerning child's ability to make decisions and (1982), communication and social interaction are the source for development, and an adult plays a great role in a child's development by conducting and conveying cultural tools and creating provisions for development.…”

Building Relationships between Museums and Schools: Reggio Emilia as a Bridge to Educate Children about Heritage

“…Both in the Atelier of the schools and in museums, educational projects and activities must arise from the interests and experiences of children, allowing them to explore and answer the questions they have about the world, since through these projects, students can learn by discussing their discoveries with others [59][60][61][62]. In the RE model, students learn through the negotiation of ideas, co-constructing knowledge through social interaction, so we consider that by establishing a series of guidelines and good practices for a pedagogic and educational exchange between museums and schools, we can contribute to broadening the opportunities for the development of a creative childhood which will grow capable of critically solving problems through dialogue [1,45,63,64].…”