TEACHING ABOUT WATER IN PRESCHOOL, PRESCHOOL-CLASS, AND PRIMARY SCHOOL : STEPPING STONES TOWARDS SCIENCE LITERACY OR MORE OF THE SAME?

Water is a substance commonly used in early childhood (EC) science education, both as a content to learn about, and as a medium for exploring chemical and physical processes. In this presentation, we will compare how educators across different EC school forms shape science activities focusing on water. The aim is to contribute knowledge about science teaching continuity across EC school forms. Activity Theory was used to describe and analyse how science teaching was shaped, and to compare what was afforded to the children in the different school forms. Data was collected through individual interviews with teachers and observations of classroom activities focusing on water. Many similarities were found in how science was dealt with across the EC school forms, but gradual shifts in how the subject was communicated and from exploring and ‘doing’ towards an emphasis on facts, processes and inquiry resulted in an overall picture of science teaching continuity, rather than ‘more of the same’. Our results also revealed a rather sharp shift between preschool and school in how teachers make way for children’s own questions and agency during science activities, demonstrating how different curricula may give different possibilities for science based on children’s interests.