Download or read book A Cultural Historical Study of Children Learning Science written by Marilyn Fleer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book moves beyond the traditional constructivist and social-constructivist view of learning and development in science. It draws upon cultural-historical theory in order to theorise early childhood science education in relation to our currently globalised education contexts. The book argues that concept development in science for young children can be better theorised by using Vygotsky’s concept of Imagination and creativity, Vygotsky’s theory of play, and his work on higher mental functions, particularly the concept of inter and intrapsychological functioning. Key concepts are extracted from the theoretical section of the book and used as categories for analysis in presenting evidence and new ideas in the second section of the book. In this second part of the book, the authors examine how science knowledge has been constructed within particular countries around the globe, where empirical research in early childhood science education has occurred. The third part of the book examines the nature of the encounter between the teacher and the child during science learning and teaching. In the final part of the book the authors look closely at the range of models and approaches to the teaching of early childhood science that have been made available to early childhood teachers to guide their planning and teaching. They conclude the book with a theoretical discussion of the cultural-historical foundation for early childhood science education, followed by a model of teaching scientific concepts to young children in play-based settings, including homes and community contexts.

Download or read book Taking Science to School written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-04-16 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning. Taking Science to School answers such questions as: When do children begin to learn about science? Are there critical stages in a child's development of such scientific concepts as mass or animate objects? What role does nonschool learning play in children's knowledge of science? How can science education capitalize on children's natural curiosity? What are the best tasks for books, lectures, and hands-on learning? How can teachers be taught to teach science? The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children's learning of scienceâ€"about the role of research and evidence. This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science educationâ€"teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers. It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn.

Download or read book Children s Exploration and Cultural Formation written by Mariane Hedegaard and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-02-28 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book examines the educational conditions that support cultures of exploration in kindergartens. It conceptualises cultures of exploration, whether those cultures are created through children’s own engagement or are demanded of them through undertaking specific tasks within different institutional settings. It shows how the conditions for children’s exploration form a web of activities in different settings with social relationships, local landscapes and artefacts. The book builds on the understanding of cultural traditions as deeply implicated in the developmental processes, meaning that local considerations must be reflected in education for sustainable futures. Therefore the book examines and conceptualises exploration and cultural formation through locally situated cases and navigates toward global educational concepts. The book provides different windows into how children may explore in everyday practice settings in kindergarten, and contributes to a loci-based, ecological, integral knowledge relevant for early childhood education.

Download or read book Children Development and Education written by Michalis Kontopodis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-03-30 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical anthropology is a revision of the German philosophical anthropology under the influences of the French historical school of Annales and the Anglo-Saxon cultural anthropology. Cultural-historical psychology is a school of thought which emerged in the context of the Soviet revolution and deeply affected the disciplines of psychology and education in the 20th century. This book draws on these two schools to advance current scholarship in child and youth development and education. It also enters in dialogue with other relational approaches and suggests alternatives to mainstream western developmental theories and educational practices. This book emphasizes communication and semiotic processes as well as the use of artifacts, pictures and technologies in education and childhood development, placing a special focus on active subjectivity, historicity and performativity. Within this theoretical framework, contributors from Europe and the U.S. highlight the dynamic and creative aspects of school, family and community practices and the dramatic aspects of child development in our changing educational institutions. They also use a series of original empirical studies to introduce different research methodologies and complement theoretical analyses in an attempt to find innovative ways to translate cultural-historical and historical anthropological theory and research into a thorough understanding of emerging phenomena in school and after-school education of ethnic minorities, gender-sensitive education, and educational and family policy. Divided into two main parts, “Culture, History and Child Development”, and “Gender, Performativity and Educational Practice”, this book is useful for anyone in the fields of cultural-historical research, educational science, educational and developmental psychology, psychological anthropology, and childhood and youth studies.

Download or read book The Role of Imagination in STEM Concept Formation written by Marilyn Fleer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-06-20 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the lenses of cultural-historical theory, this book helps readers find out how early childhood science education became established as a field of inquiry.

Download or read book Studying Babies and Toddlers written by Liang Li and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The editors of this book have brought together contributors from many parts of the world. As such, the book offers a truly diverse, international flavour reflecting a broad range of research on babies and toddlers. Examining examples from both Eastern and Western cultures, the book’s overarching focus is on relationships, yielding a coherence beneficial to early childhood researchers and educators alike. Employing visual methodologies to help bring the chapters to life, the varied research studies presented concern babies’ and toddlers’ relationships and cultural contexts. Taken together, they offer a unique opportunity to conceptualise the use of a wholeness approach for studying babies and toddlers – our youngest citizens.

Download or read book Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-07-23 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Download or read book Children s Play and Development written by Ivy Schousboe and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-20 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides new theoretical insights to our understanding of play as a cultural activity. All chapters address play and playful activities from a cultural-historical theoretical approach by re-addressing central claims and concepts in the theory and providing new models and understandings of the phenomenon of play within the framework of cultural historical theory. Empirical studies cover a wide range of institutional settings: preschool, school, home, leisure time, and in various social relations (with peers, professionals and parents) in different parts of the world (Europe, Australia, South America and North America). Common to all chapters is a goal of throwing new light on the phenomenon of playing within a theoretical framework of cultural-historical theory. Play as a cultural, collective, social, personal, pedagogical and contextual activity is addressed with reference to central concepts in relation to development and learning. Concepts and phenomena related to ZPD, the imaginary situation, rules, language play, collective imagining, spheres of realities of play, virtual realities, social identity and pedagogical environments are presented and discussed in order to bring the cultural-historical theoretical approach into play with contemporary historical issues. Essential as a must read to any scholar and student engaged with understanding play in relation to human development, cultural historical theory and early childhood education.

Download or read book Research in Early Childhood Science Education written by Kathy Cabe Trundle and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book emphasizes the significance of teaching science in early childhood classrooms, reviews the research on what young children are likely to know about science and provides key points on effectively teaching science to young children. Science education, an integral part of national and state standards for early childhood classrooms, encompasses not only content-based instruction but also process skills, creativity, experimentation and problem-solving. By introducing science in developmentally appropriate ways, we can support young children’s sensory explorations of their world and provide them with foundational knowledge and skills for lifelong science learning, as well as an appreciation of nature. This book emphasizes the significance of teaching science in early childhood classrooms, reviews the research on what young children are likely to know about science, and provides key points on effectively teaching young children science. Common research methods used in the reviewed studies are identified, methodological concerns are discussed and methodological and theoretical advances are suggested.

Download or read book EBOOK Studying Children A Cultural Historical Approach written by Marianne Hedegaard and published by McGraw-Hill Education (UK). This book was released on 2008-12-16 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studying Children is the first book of its kind to offer a theoretical and practical discussion of how to undertake research using cultural-historical theory when researching the everyday lives of children. The authors discuss the complexities of child development, providing a critique of alternative perspectives of research and notions of development. They provide a number of case studies following researchers in early childhood as they move from a developmental approach to a cultural-historical framework for observing and planning for young children. The chapters: Provide a solid framework for understanding the foundations of this approach Address the importance of viewing research as an interactive technique Offer guidance on how to collect and interpret material Show how to make observations of and interviews with children, within a dialectical research approach Present examples of how to write and present findings using this technique The book is rich with examples of how to undertake specific methods, such as surveys, experiments, case studies, digital video observations, interviews, and children as researchers. Studying Children is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and students working in the field of Early and Middle Childhood at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Download or read book Active Learning written by and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2022-12-14 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides theoretical answers, applied methodological models, and didactic experiences that seek to reflect and analyze the potentialities and challenges of the active learning concept in STEAM disciplines and social sciences education. It also contributes to the understanding, intervention, and resolution of contemporary social problems and to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through the design, implementation, and evaluation of educational programs that incorporate integrated active learning as one of its explanatory axes.

Download or read book Science for Children written by Marilyn Fleer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-12 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science for Children introduces readers to the pedagogy of primary and early childhood science education. The book pays special attention to the three strands of science, in accordance with the Australian Curriculum. It also uses the practice principles and learning outcomes of the national Early Years Learning Framework to present content for babies through to the transition into the Foundation year at school. Science for Children explores various approaches to teaching and learning in science. It covers inquiry approaches in detail; makes explicit links to the 5Es; critiques longstanding approaches, such as discovery approaches and a transmission approach; and explores Indigenous perspectives and a Vygotskian framework. This allows the reader to make informed choices about when to use a particular approach in primary classrooms and early childhood settings. Designed to prepare future educators for practice, Science for Children challenges students and offers practical classroom-based strategies for their science teaching careers.

Download or read book Sociocultural Approaches to STEM Education written by Katerina Plakitsi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024-01-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a contribution to the sociocultural approaches to Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education. It offers a new interpreting theoretical framework coming from the Cultural Historical Psychology. The authors highlight some serious elements of the sociocultural context that mediates learning on STEM or with STEM adds. The book brings together the work of researchers interested in developmental psychology and childhood, with a special focus on using Activity theory and Cultural-historical research approach to unite these two opposing approaches to the study of children. The authors reconsider our relationship and experiencing with technology. It moves the attention from the pure instrumental aspect of technology to a deep human and societal approach. Moreover, the book focuses on the issue of teachers' continuing education in both formal and informal settings is being seen under a sequential system of expansive cycles and the key role of contradictions in transformative educational settings. Overall, this book encourages the academic society to open dialogue with other societies and enhance interdisciplinary research in times of crisis.

Download or read book Cultural Historical Approaches to Studying Learning and Development written by Anne Edwards and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of papers examines key ideas in cultural-historical approaches to children’s learning and development and the cultural and institutional conditions in which they occur. The collection is given coherence by a focus on the intellectual contributions made by Professor Mariane Hedegaard to understandings of children’s learning through the prism of the interplay of society, institution and person. She has significantly shaped the field through her scholarly consideration of foundational concepts and her creative attention to the fields of activity she studies. The book brings together examples of how these concepts have been employed and developed in a study of learning and development. The collection allows the contributing scholars to reveal their reactions to Hedegaard’s contributions in discussions of their own work in the field of children’s learning and the conditions in which it occurs.

Download or read book Working with Uncertainty for Educational Change written by Carmel Conn and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-09-24 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Working with Uncertainty for Educational Change explores the liberating possibilities for those who seek to embrace existing research into uncertainty and complexity at diverse levels in the world of education. The lives of education professionals are built upon a multitude of decision-making events that frame each working day. With a range of expert contributors, this insightful book brings together varied perspectives on the nature of complexity within educational contexts, focusing particularly on the emotional work involved in change. Organised into two major parts, its first part focuses on the intellectual challenge of thinking about uncertainty by exploring the dominant discourses of certainty in the field of education. The second part, on the other hand, considers how we can embrace uncertainty within practice by exploring conditions that support reflection, agency and acceptance of ambiguity. Presenting themes on a wide range of educational issues including curriculum, pedagogy, equity, leadership and professional learning, this book will appeal to teachers, educational leaders, practitioners and researchers as well as students on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes with an education focus.

Download or read book Precursor Models for Teaching and Learning Science During Early Childhood written by Jean-Marie Boilevin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-27 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume provides an in-depth exploration of a theoretical framework supporting Early Childhood Science Education research and teaching best practices. Particularly by presenting the concept of the Precursor Model from an epistemological, psychological, and didactical point of view at Early Childhood Science Education. The book examines and discusses the nature of Precursor Models and their use for early science teaching and learning. It scrutinizes different aspects of the construction of such models applied in early childhood education settings and contexts. Several empirical studies are presented within diverse scientific domains, as well as in international educational contexts. By providing a vary of examples of precursor models it makes this book a great companion for teachers aiming to teach children to understand and reason about topics such as: floating and sinking; shadow formation; water state changes; air; clouds and rain; electricity; inheritance and selection; as well as variation within populations. Finally, this volume supports the development of science education from an early age by using the original framework of a precursor model to mediate teaching and learning science at school during early childhood.

Download or read book Playful Science Investigations in Early Childhood written by Azra Moeed and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024-01-01 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book showcases a case study of the development of a generalist early childhood education (ECE) teacher into a confident and competent teacher of science in early childhood with support from a mentor. It argues that with guided mentoring, and later, timely support of a mentor as and when required, ECE teachers can deliver the curriculum, teach science by providing opportunities to explore and then build on children’s interest through intentionally planned activities, dialogue, and discourse. It presents a comprehensive literature review and research design including theoretical frames and methodology. It includes a chapter on teacher development and discusses different approaches to science investigations practiced by the teacher in the case study. The book provides evidence of children’s science learning and presents the findings as response to research questions. It also includes a model of teaching as inquiry in the context of early childhood education.