The Young Child as Scientist

Book excerpt: Young children - how they experience the world, interact with each other, pose questions and problems, and construct knowledge - form the basis for this insightful examination of early childhood science education. Authors Chaille and Britain explore the teacher's role in understanding and facilitating preschool and primary-school children's scientific explorations. Using three traditional content areas of science - chemistry, physics, and biology - and translating them into developmentally appropriate practices, The Young Child as Scientist leaves behind rigid views of science education. Both teachers and students of early childhood education are led to reconceptualize science in ways that have implications for their whole classroom. Without being a cookbook approach to curriculum planning or a purely theoretical approach, the text weaves practical examples and theory together to present constructivism as it can be implemented in real preschool and elementary classrooms.