Abstract
Natural sciences are an educational topic in kindergartens. At the same time, little is known about how to promote and facilitate the learning of natural sciences for children in kindergarten. This contribution reports on a quasi-experimental study with 245 children, which compares the learning situations 'experiments' with 'discussions on the relevance of the natural sciences in daily life'. Three experimental groups, in which the learning situations were varied, where compared with a control and a baseline group. Children in the last year of kindergarten took part in three 90-minute learning settings on the topics 'melting and freezing water', 'evaporation and condensation of water' and 'solubility and insolubility in water'. Learning gains were measured using a pre-post-design with a Rasch-scaling. Cognitive performance and family background were controlled for. A significant benefit in comparison to the control and baseline groups could only be found for a combination of both learning situations.
Translated title of the contribution | Daily life and experiments: What are the appropriate learning settings for children in kindergarten? Findings from the SNaKE project |
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Original language | German |
Pages (from-to) | 37-54 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Zeitschrift fur Erziehungswissenschaft |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2012 |