Project Details
Projekt
The quality of early science education: Influencing factors of professionals and institutions
Subject Area
General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
Term
from 2018 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405651961
Science is considered as a central learning area in early childhood education. Moreover, it is well suited for play-based and child-centered early learning practices, because science phenomena are observable in various everyday situations. The process quality of science learning opportunities is considered particularly important for children’s competency development in science. Yet, despite the increasing emphasis on early childhood education, little is known about the quality of early science practices in Germany. Moreover, it remains unclear which prerequisites preschool teachers and institutions require in order to offer high quality science education. According to the structural-process model by Kluczniok & Roßbach, 2014, certain structural characteristics of the preschool center are fundamental requirements for high quality practices. In addition, preschool teachers’ competencies are considered crucial for their ability to initiate and implement high quality science practices. The present project therefore investigates the relation between characteristics of the preschool center, preschool teachers’ competencies and the quality of early science education in German preschools. For the study, 60 preschool centers in Germany will be recruited. Data collection is planned for the preschool center, teacher and process level in a cross-sectional research design. Measures include standardized questionnaires for center managers (e.g. regarding the implementation of science and structural characteristics), questionnaires and tests for preschool teachers (e.g. to measure teachers’ professional knowledge, their ability to recognize science learning opportunities as well as their pedagogical orientations and motivation), and standardized observations of the process quality. The observations will capture everyday practices as well as video sequences of partly standardized practices, in which teachers are specifically asked to focus on science. Well-established rating scales will be adapted to the scientific context and used to code the observational data. The study will provide a better understanding of teacher- and preschool level factors that influence the process quality of early science education, which in turn has important practical implications for the quality improvement of preschool centers and for professional development of preschool teachers.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
Co-Investigator
Professorin Dr. Michaela Hopf
