Browsing by Author "Niiniharju, Marianna"

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract The objective of this study was to examine early science education and children’s scientific curiosity. Previous studies have shown that children benefit from inquiry-based learning of science, and curious behavior is often used when talking about small children. However, most previous studies focused on adults, and research about young children’s scientific curiosity is sparse. This study is part of The Joy of Learning Multiliteracies (MOI) program. The goal is to examine children’s scientific curiosity about natural science and study what shapes children’s curiosity. A theoretical framework is based on previous studies on curiosity and how previous researchers studied the nature of curiosity. The research questions are: What subjects cause curiosity about natural science? What shapes scientific curiosity? Data was collected in group interviews with several children while they drew pictures of what causes curiosity and what they wanted to study. The interviews were collected in two rounds, before and after the poetry science sessions. There was also a structured interview based on the Scientific Curiosity scale. Data was gathered with videotaping and consists of nine group interviews. The participants were 17 pre-school children from three different daycare facilities in Helsinki, Finland. According to the first round of interviews, children’s scientific curiosity is related to biological subjects and geological sciences. After the poetry science sessions, curiosity came up in subjects relating to physics, chemistry and astronomy. Children also talked about what they were doing in the poetry science sessions and described how they used the scientific equipment. During the interviews, much of the children’s curiosity was influenced by their social situation in the context of the interview. This indicates that the nature of curiosity is alive, and new subjects emerge when children learn collaboratively. However, some children had their own interests, and other children did not influence these children’s curiosity choices. The study showed that children’s experiences was either an enriching or limiting factor when scientific curiosity was observed. The results indicate that for this reason, it is important to create opportunities for children to be part of playful learning and scientific learning based on children’s needs and support positive experiences. Without the provided opportunities, children’s curiosity cannot be developed, or it can be hard to know what can be studied. This study’s results support previous research on the meaning of children’s curiosity in the social situation and the meaning for the learning process.