Faculty Publications

Physical Science in Constructivist Early Childhood Classrooms

Comments

ERIC Document - EJ795540 found in the ERIC Database

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Constructivism (Learning); Experimental Schools; Young Children; Physical Sciences; Science Instruction; Science Activities; Class Activities; Thinking Skills; Mathematics; Experiments; Child Development Centers; Teaching Methods; Iowa;

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Childhood Education

Volume

v84

Issue

n4

First Page

234

Last Page

234

Abstract

Teachers at the Freeburg Early Childhood Program know that experimentation with physical science is of great interest to young children, and can begin as early as the age of 3. The constructivist teachers at this experimental school at the University of Northern Iowa worked for six years to develop a center-based approach to physical science with young children. Kamii and DeVries (1993) define physical knowledge activities as those in which children experiment and figure out how things work in the physical world. In these activities, children act on objects to produce desired effects and observe the objects' reactions. In this article, the authors illustrate how such activities can be implemented in the classroom to foster young children's thinking and reasoning.

Department

Department of Teaching

Original Publication Date

2008

Object Description

1 PDF file (3 pages)

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright

©2008 Tsuguhiko Kato, Beth Dykstra Van Meeteren

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Link to Full Text

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