Science and Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood

Some blog followers may be interested a post [Hake (2010)] of the above title. The abstract reads:

ABSTRACT: A recent Education Week article "Experts Urge Earlier Start to Teaching Science" [Viadero (2010)] may be of interest. Viadero's three main points were (paraphrasing):

1. "Duschl et al. (2007) in Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8, advised introducing scientific study even before the start of formal schooling, with children as young as 4. The commonly held view that young children are concrete and simplistic thinkers, the report said, 'is outmoded.' Refuted, some experts added, by decades of research in cognitive science and developmental psychology."

2. "Gelman et al. (2009) in Preschool Pathways to Science: Facilitating Scientific Ways of Thinking, Talking, Doing, and Understanding reinforce the advice of Duschl et al. to introduce science to pre-school children and present what they call 'research-based ways to teach young children about scientific concepts.' "

3. "Researchers at the Education Development Center (EDC) in Newton, Mass. have crafted a Young Scientist curriculum series with support from the National Science Foundation and field-tested it with 50 Massachusetts teachers working in Head Start, finding 'dramatic' learning gains for teachers, coupled with 'promising' improvements for their young students.' Now, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, EDC is engaged in a larger study testing the curriculum's efficacy in . . . . dozens of other New York Head Start classrooms in Westchester County and on Long Island."

Since science and mathematics education pose similar challenges to early childhood education, the recent book Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity [Cross et al. (2009)] may also be of interest.

To access the complete 16 KB post please click on http://tinyurl.com/yzag7ld .

REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy http://tinyurl.com/create.php.]

Hake, R.R. 2010. "Science and Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood," online on the OPEN AERA-L archives at http://tinyurl.com/yzag7ld. Post of 15 Jan 2010 14:45:10-0800 to AERA-L, Net-Gold, and PhysLrnR. The abstract only was transmitted to various discussion lists.