Includes updates and/or revisions.
The sand-and-water table in Barry Hoff鈥檚 classroom in the Southampton Head Start program on New York鈥檚 Long Island, used to be filled with sand on two sides.
But water was restored to the table last month as 16 preschoolers stood around it, dipping and pouring water through tubes and funnels, squeezing it through turkey basters, and learning, in the process, something of what it鈥檚 like to think like scientists.
The change in Mr. Hoff鈥檚 room, and in a handful of other classrooms like it around the country, stems from growing interest among academic experts and educators in teaching science to preschoolers.
鈥淚 think a lot of preschool teachers aren鈥檛 aware of the fact that preschoolers can figure out things like they do, or make predictions as they do,鈥� said Mr. Hoff, who鈥檚 been teaching preschool for four years. 鈥淏ut some of the things we鈥檙e doing now are things that children find a lot of wonder with.鈥�
Three years ago, when a task force of the congressionally chartered National Research Council issued influential recommendations for improving K-8 science education, it also made a pitch for introducing scientific study even before the start of formal schooling, with children as young as 4.
鈥淭he commonly held view that young children are concrete and simplistic thinkers,鈥� the report said, 鈥渋s outmoded.鈥� It is refuted, some experts added, by decades of research in cognitive science and developmental psychology.
Concerns about American students鈥� performance on international science tests and the supply of students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, fields, combined with the expansion of federal testing requirements to include science, have served in recent years only to heighten that call.
Shells and Magnets
Yet, as University of Miami researcher Daryl B. Greenfield found in a testing the school-readiness skills of more than 5,000 Head Start graduates, science is one of the areas in which children show the least learning growth during their preschool years.
鈥淢ost teachers will have a science area in their classroom, ... and if you look on plans, you would see something listed as science but, in reality, there would be some shells, some magnets, and maybe a pumpkin, or a book about animals in winter,鈥� said Nancy Clark-Chiarelli, a principal research scientist at the Education Development Center, a research group based in Newton, Mass. 鈥淏ut those items are not conceptually related, and they don鈥檛 promote children鈥檚 independent exploration of them.鈥�
If preschool teachers had water tables in their classrooms, Ms. Clark-Chiarelli and her EDC research partners found in their work, they were often turned into bathing areas for plastic dolls rather than used as science-teaching tools.
Ms. Clark-Chiarelli and her colleagues sought to improve preschool science teaching by crafting a 鈥淵oung Scientist鈥� curriculum series with support from the National Science Foundation. The guides focus on teaching children about the natural world and developing their knowledge of physical science through building structures and water play.
Because preschool teachers are often uneasy about teaching scientific concepts, the research team also developed an accredited professional-development program for them, and assessments to determine whether teachers and their pupils were benefiting from the added instruction.
The EDC researchers field-tested the program with 50 Massachusetts teachers working in Head Start, the federal preschool program for disadvantaged children, and found 鈥渄ramatic鈥� learning gains for teachers, coupled with 鈥減romising鈥� improvements for their young students in two of the three science content areas on which the guides focus.
Beyond 鈥楢mazing鈥�
Now, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 Institute of Education Sciences, the researchers are engaged in a larger study testing the curriculum鈥檚 efficacy in Mr. Hoff鈥檚 class and dozens of other New York Head Start classrooms in Westchester County and on Long Island. Halfway into the six-month training program, Mr. Hoff said the knowledge he has gained is already transforming his teaching.
鈥淚 do consider myself scientifically minded, but before it was more or less 鈥楲et鈥檚 see this,鈥� or 鈥楾his is amazing,鈥� and I鈥檇 kind of explain what was occurring and move on,鈥� he said in an interview. 鈥淭his is something to guide [students] on to exploring, and it seems to have more lasting impact on their learning.鈥�
When his students play with the water, for instance, he makes notes of what they鈥檙e doing and uses the notes later on, during discussion time, to coax children to share their discoveries. What did you do with the funnel, he might ask, or how did you get the water in the tubes? Did you notice any bubbles?
鈥淏ecause kids can parrot back what they hear, teachers think they know more than they do,鈥� said Cindy Hoisington, who is working with Ms. Clark-Chiarelli as a lead instructor and teacher mentor on the project. 鈥淜ids don鈥檛 know bubbles are full of air, and teachers are kind of shocked because they thought their kids knew that.鈥�
鈥楪uided Play鈥�
New efforts to teach more science in preschool come at a time when early-childhood educators worry that a growing emphasis on academics during those years is crowding out the playtime that children need for healthy development.
Kathy Hirsh-Pacek, a psychology professor at Temple University, in Philadelphia, counts herself as one of those advocates. But she says efforts to expand preschool science teaching need not necessarily conflict with young children鈥檚 need for playtime. Science can be taught in the context of play.
鈥淭he people who are pure play people suggest that you need to have free play for young children, and I think the evidence is pretty clear on that,鈥� Ms. Hirsh-Pacek said. 鈥淏ut I also think the evidence is pretty clear that you don鈥檛 just need to have free play for children. There鈥檚 free play, and there鈥檚 guided play.鈥�
鈥淵ou just have to be careful,鈥� she added, 鈥渂ecause sometimes adults can become too intrusive and the play just stops.鈥�
The EDC researchers say their efforts also go hand in hand with the growing emphasis in preschool programs on developing children鈥檚 language skills.
鈥淲e believe in order to have good discussions, you have to have something to talk about,鈥� Ms. Clark-Chiarelli said.
Research-and-development efforts aimed at improving preschool science instruction are also under way at the Center for Math and Science Education at the University of Texas and the University of Miami, where Mr. Greenfield is developing an assessment of preschoolers鈥� science readiness, as well as at other locations.
In September, meanwhile, a team of researchers led by Rochel Gelman, a cognitive psychologist from Rutgers University鈥檚 Busch campus in Piscataway, N.J., published a book on the subject called .
鈥淚n preschool, you find that kids are natural scientists, whether it鈥檚 life science, earth science, or physics,鈥� said Mr. Greenfield. 鈥淵oung kids are interested in changes in the weather or whether something is hard or soft. They have a natural curiosity about the world.鈥�
