Abstract
Vygotsky (1987) stated that the restructured form of everyday concepts learned at
home and in the community interact with scientific concepts introduced in formal school
settings, leading to a higher level of scientific thinking for school-aged children. But, what
does this mean for the scientific learning of infants and toddlers? What kinds of science
learning are afforded at home during this early period of life? The study reported in this paper
sought to investigate the scientific development of infants-toddlers (10 to 36 months) growing
up in Bangladeshi families living in Australia and Singapore. Four families were studied over
2 years. Digital video observations were made of everyday family life and analysed using
Vygotsky s theoretical framework of everyday concepts and scientific concepts (51 h of digital
observations). While there are many possibilities for developing scientific concepts in infants
toddlers everyday life, our study found four categories of what we have called small science:
multiple possibilities for science; discrete science; embedded science and counter intuitive
science. The findings of this study contribute to the almost non-existent literature into infants
and toddlers scientific development and advance new understandings of early childhood
science education.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 445 - 464 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Research in Science Education |
Volume | 45 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |