Affective imagination in science education: Exploring the emotional nature of scientific and technological learning and engaging children and teachers

The emotional nature of scientific and technological enquiry of young children is investigated in order to find out how to motivate and increase concept formation in science teaching in preschools. The research will make visible the relations between affect and cognition in group settings where fairytales act as a cultural device for framing scientific learning, and where children use emotional imagination to work scientifically. The study will yield foundational knowledge about how affect interacts with concept formation, as well as, generate new early childhood science teaching methodologies that engage early childhood teachers to teach more science.