Exploring Scientific and Engineering Practices in Preschoolers' Play: Implications for Equitable Early Learning Environments

• In Event: Play in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of physical space and teacher pedagogy on children’s engagement with scientific and engineering practices (SEP) through play, and the equity issues that arise in this relationship. Working with four different preschools, researchers identified relationships among specific spaces, pedagogical strategies, and children’s patterns of engagement with SEP. These relationships suggest significant gaps in children’s opportunities to engage in play and therefore deepen their enactment of scientific and engineering practices. In this paper, the authors offer evidence in support the centrality of play to children’s emerging scientific understanding, and raise questions about equity in early science learning environments that have implications both nationally and internationally for science education research, practice, and policy. 

Authors

• Alison Riley Miller, Bowdoin College

• Lauren Saenz, Bowdoin College