Preschool Science Education: A Vision for the Future
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Preschool Science Education: A Vision for the Future Rachel A. Larimore1
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Reforms in K-12 science education and their implications for PreK teaching, make this a critical time for developing a unified vision for early childhood science education. The goal of this essay is to provide a vision of what it might look like to leverage the best of both early childhood and K-12 science education reform efforts for meaningful science learning opportunities for young children. The essay suggests to best support young children, PreK science education must implement the holistic approach of early childhood education (i.e., physical, social-emotional, and cognitive development) while at the same time taking up the richer scientific disciplinary practices put forth in recent science reform efforts. Bringing together the strengths of both early childhood and science education will support young children in making sense of natural phenomena in the world around them while valuing them as capable science learners with prior experiences. Keywords Science education · Early childhood · Preschool · PreK · Next Generation Science Standards
Introduction Preschool science education currently has a prime opportunity for developing a unified vision. While early childhood and K-12 science education have typically had different emphases, science education is in the midst of reform. Early childhood educators have the opportunity to be proactive in integrating science teaching in preschool in a way that reflects reform-based science education efforts, while maintaining the strengths of early childhood education. Science education reform is a result of the publication of A Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council 2012) and implementation of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS; NGSS Lead States 2013) at the K-12 level. These documents reflect a shift toward encouraging students to “figure out” rather than “learn about” through the use of three dimensions of science learning (i.e., science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts) (Schwarz et al. 2017). At the same time, most states have early learning standards for preschool (PreK) that include science. However, most were written prior to the publication of the Framework and NGSS. Given that young children deserve opportunities to make * Rachel A. Larimore [email protected] 1
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
sense of the world around them (UNICEF 1989) and that K-12 reforms eventually make their way to PreK (Wilinski 2017b), early childhood educators should be intentional moving forward in order to make science teaching and learning the best possible for young children. That is, we’re at a crossroads with an opportunity to bring the best ideas forward for intentional decision-making about what of K-12 science reform is appropriate in PreK settings, what is not, and what should be included in these reform efforts that are absent from K-12 implementation. The goal of this art
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