The Effect of Balanced Learning® Curriculum on Young Children’s Learning of Science

Saçkes, Mesut; Trundle, Kathy Cabe; Shaheen, Maria

doi:10.1007/s10643-019-00985-x

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…According to the National Science Education Standards, "scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on evidence derived from their work" (National Research Council [NRC], 1996, p. 23). As mentioned above, to date, most prior work on children's science learning during the early years has focused on parent-child scientific conversations or their involvement in children's early science learning (e.g., Butler, 2020;Kurkul et al, 2022;Leech et al, 2020;Saçkes, 2014;Saçkes et al, 2019;Willard et al, 2019), a specific school curriculum (Peterson & French, 2008;Saçkes et al, 2020), targeted scientific inquiry skills (Lanphear and Vandermaas-Peeler, 2017;Saçkes, 2013), science and math-based classroom activities (Hobson et al, 2010;Inan et al, 2010;Saçkes et al, 2011;Lanphear & Vandermaas-Peeler, 2017) or brief, short-term conversations about variety of topics in the classroom (Kurkul et al, 2022). Although prior research has demonstrated how inquiry-based learning and question-explanation exchanges with parents and teachers foster children's early STEM learning and engagement; such approaches do not allow us to explore changes and variability in teacher-child conversations over time during an extended inquiry unit that arises based on children's interests in the preschool classroom.…”

Section: Inquiry-based Learning Supports Children's Early Science Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“How will you construct a pathway system?”: Microanalysis of teacher-child scientific conversations

et al. 2021

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During the preschool years, children’s question-explanation exchanges with teachers serve as a powerful mechanism for their early STEM knowledge acquisition. Utilizing naturalistic longitudinal classroom data, we examined how such conversations in an inquiry-based preschool classroom change during an extended scientific inquiry unit. We were particularly interested in information-seeking questions (causal, e.g. “How will you construct a pathway?”; fact-based, e.g., “Where’s the marble?”). Videos (n = 18; 14 hours) were collected during a three-week inquiry unit on forces and motion and transcribed in CLAN-CHILDES software at the utterance level. Utterances were coded for delivery (question vs. statement) and content (e.g., fact-based, causal). Although teachers ask more questions than children, we found a significant increase in information-seeking questions during Weeks 2 and 3. We explored the content of information-seeking questions and found that the majority of these questions were asked by teachers, and focused on facts. However, the timing of fact-based and causal questions varied. Whereas more causal questions occurred in earlier weeks, more fact-based questions were asked towards the end of the inquiry. These findings provide insight into how children’s and teacher’s questions develop during an inquiry, informing our understanding of early science learning. Even in an inquiry-learning environment, teachers guide interactions, asking questions to support children’s learning. Children’s information-seeking questions increase during certain weeks, suggesting that providing opportunities to ask questions may allow children to be more active in constructing knowledge. Such findings are important for considering how science questions are naturally embedded in an inquiry-based learning classroom.

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Section: Inquiry-based Learning Supports Children's Early Science Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“How will you construct a pathway system?”: Microanalysis of teacher-child scientific conversations

et al. 2021

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“…At a child level, studies have demonstrated associations between children's science scores and their language (Guo et al, 2016;Westerberg et al, 2021), EF (Frechette et al, 2021;Gropen et al, 2011;Nayfeld et al, 2013), approaches to learning (Bustamante et al, 2017), and math skills (Kermani & Aldemir, 2015). Previous intervention studies indicate that when preschool teachers engage in science, there are gains in children's outcomes across multiple learning domains (Guo et al, 2016;Saçkes et al, 2020;Vitiello et al, 2019;Whittaker et al, 2020). Studies have specifically shown that children make gains in their vocabulary when teachers are involved in science interventions (Guo et al, 2016).…”

Section: Science As a Learning Domain For Supporting Children's Academic Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, within the United States, there has been a call for increased support of early science education (e.g., Office of the Press Secretary, 2016) and equitable learning environments for ethnically and linguistically diverse populations (National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC], 2019). Yet, despite this call, relatively little is known about how teachers currently engage in science within preschool classrooms (Greenfield et al, 2009;Piasta et al, 2014;Saçkes et al, 2020). Increased knowledge about how to support science learning is especially important for young Hispanic children as Hispanics are disproportionately underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) careers (Kennedy et al, 2021;U.S.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Portrait of early science education in majority dual language learner classrooms: Where do we start?

et al. 2021

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Despite the growing interest in early science education, there is much left to be explored, particularly in majority Dual Language Learning (DLL) classrooms. The current study examined 1) early science opportunities across classroom contexts in majority Spanish-English DLL Head Start classrooms, 2) the languages (i.e., English and Spanish) that teachers used to engage DLL children in science, 3) and how teachers’ discussion of scientific and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas related to children’s academic outcomes. In a sample of 411 children (ages 3-5) from 34 Head Start classrooms, the current study found that teachers discussed and encouraged more practices during science lessons than circle time, dramatic play, and story time. There were no differences in teachers’ discussion of core ideas across contexts. Teachers used the same amount of English and Spanish to discuss practices and core ideas. Teaching physical science was associated with children’s science outcomes. Making observations and discussing life science were associated with children’s math outcomes. Teaching math, making observations, and developing and using models were related to children’s executive functioning. Findings from this study demonstrate that science opportunities occur across preschool classroom settings. Additionally, it provides evidence that teachers may be supporting DLL children’s home language while discussing science. Finally, results indicate that teaching science supports children’s academic performance in several outcomes. These findings have implications for DLL education policy as science may be a domain where teachers can support children’s home language and their learning across multiple domains.

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“…Another challenge faced is changing the paradigm of the teacher center into the student center by providing opportunities for children to develop scientific experiences and invite children to participate more actively in learning activities. The development of meaningful playbased learning programs, provide varied activities, exchanging information between teachers and learners is one of the efforts to build new science knowledge together [26] [27]. The child has been possessed curiosity and acquisition of factual knowledge from the nearest environment.…”

Section: Early Childhood Science Learning Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Concept of Early Childhood Science Learning

Astuti¹,

Nazhifa²,

Azizah³

2021

Proceedings of the 2nd Borobudur International Symposium on Humanities and Social Sciences, BIS-HSS 2020, 18 November 2020, Mag

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This study aims to determine the appropriate science learning concept for early childhood based on the results of a literature review. Literature review research refers to the relevant study research results on the early childhood science learning topic. The results showed that there were several things related to early childhood science learning. Namely:(1) teacher competence in the science learning process, (2) basic concepts of early childhood science learning, (3) science learning program, (4) science learning process in early childhood.

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The Effect of Balanced Learning® Curriculum on Young Children’s Learning of Science

Cited by 11 publications

References 26 publications

“How will you construct a pathway system?”: Microanalysis of teacher-child scientific conversations

“How will you construct a pathway system?”: Microanalysis of teacher-child scientific conversations

Portrait of early science education in majority dual language learner classrooms: Where do we start?

The Concept of Early Childhood Science Learning

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