WHAT IS SCIENCE?

• Science is a body of knowledge, and a range of skills.

• conceptual knowledge
• procedural processes = skills of science  Scientific skills
include Thinking Skills
• Science process skills
• Science develops scientific attitudes
• Attitude = habit, behaviour, motivation, interest.
• SYC focuses on developing skills and attitudes, not so much 1

on the conceptual knowledge.

 SCIENCE IS A PROCESS OF INQUIRY
• What is INQUIRY? (find out more and discuss in tutorial)
• Scientists ask questions about the world and investigate them.
• Similarly, children ask a lot of questions ... and they ‘investigate’.
• So children are like ‘SCIENTISTS’!
• Who else do you think work like a scientist?
• This process of asking questions and conducting investigation is
called INQUIRY PROCESS.
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WHAT IS SYC?
About understanding
• How children learn science
• How children gain knowledge of the world around them;
• What they can see, hear, smell, taste and touch; and what they feel and think.
SYC is also about being curious and using scientific processes to make new
discoveries.
To gain knowledge about SYC, take a look at children’s cognitive development.
• Two different perspectives on how children’s mental abilities develop.
• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Lev Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory of cognitive
development (both these theories are called “CONSTRUCTIVISM”)
• How to stimulate children to think?);
• How to help children develop thinking skills?
 WHY TEACH SCIENCE TO YOUNG CHILDREN?

Because..
• Young children are by nature like to investigate their
environment
• Their natural curiosity and sense of wonder lead
them to observe, question, investigate, and make sense
of the possibilities of the world around them.
• They are truly natural scientists!
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 WHY TEACH SCIENCE TO YOUNG CHILDREN?

Continue…
• Children are very eager to discover all they can about the world.
They are always investigating.
• ‘Our world is like a museum, like a field trip, like a
laboratory, and a natural resource just waiting to be
discovered, explored and enjoyed’ (Taylor, 1991).
• Children science is a time for discovery (Bredekamp & Copple,
1997). …our class is also a time for discovery.
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What is this child/
children learning
about?

• What concepts?
• What skills?
• What sets of
behaviors (attitudes)?
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