Entry Two

Entry Two

Social sciences have a significant impact on children’s learning and development. Science is the study of the nature and behaviour of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about the environment. Children explore the world of science in their everyday life. Young children have a natural curiosity about their world and how it works. “The social sciences learning area is about how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizens. Contexts are drawn from the past, present, and future and from places within and beyond New Zealand” (Ministry of Education, 2007).

“Science allows learners to generate different theories and gather knowledge and understanding of the world around them” (Ministry of Education, 1996).

 

In early childhood settings, as teacher's we explore the science of how children learn and how they associate and interact with the world around them. This helps teachers to observe the value of play in children’s development. When children are playing they are exploring, creating, testing, trying, tasting, questioning and observing. These experiences build the foundation of a great future scientist. Teachers provide stimulating science experience for children to explore and become active explorers to make sense of the world (Ministry of Education, 2016).

Another way teachers can help children scientifically is by asking open-ended questions this enables children to think beyond measure use their current scientific knowledge and skills for problem-solving (Ministry of Education, 2007). Open-ended questions are used to find out how others are thinking and making sense of the natural and social world (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). Teachers support children’s holistic development through a range of science experiences from simply being in an outdoors environment where children can get closer to nature, to participate in safe experiments that encourage children to think outside the box and explore the many possibilities (Ministry of Education, 2016). I strongly believe that children experience cognitive, emotional, physical, social and cultural development through science. For example,

Cognitive development: Children build essential science processing skills such as ¨ observing, classifying and sorting

Emotional development: Young children experience a range of emotions, including happiness, pride, shame, sadness etc. These feelings can influence children to interact and communicate with others. Children use a range of communication strategies including gestures, movements and sounds to express feelings (Arthur, Beecher, Dockett, Farmer & Death, 2008)

Physical development: Children experiencing the way they become better at controlling their bodies by repeat the same physical action or skill over and over until they master it. Through science, children can inquire information about the physical nature of things.

Social and Cultural development: Young children learn how to work collaboratively with others. They learn to communicate and interact in social groups. Science acknowledges that learning occurs through the co-construction of ideas and sharing knowledge.

“Children experience the stories and symbols of their own and other cultures, developing awareness of the richness of communication” -(Ministry of Education, 1996, p.97).

Children learn to acknowledge their own identity and learn about the culture they identify with.