Förskollärares tal om fysik i förskolan: Från avgränsad aktivitet till vardagen som utgångspunkt

The study investigates whether and how kindergarten teachers’ statements related to physics and physics teaching change over time. The purpose is to develop knowledge about how physics content can be constructed as a learning object for science teaching in kindergarten. The research question is: In what qualitatively different ways do the statements of kindergarten teachers regarding the teaching of a physics topic change during a work team’s four planning sessions?

The study points out that kindergarten teachers’ use of language develops over time from the use of everyday language to the use of scientific terms. The results also show that learning processes and increased knowledge help develop kindergarten teachers’ views on where and how physics content can be made into objects for learning. The kindergarten teachers also become aware that new learning objects can be based on different everyday activities together with the children.

The researchers observed a work team through four planning sessions where the purpose was to prepare a teaching programme in physics related to children’s science learning in kindergarten. The work team consisted of three kindergarten teachers from a kindergarten that was located on the outskirts of a small town in southern Sweden. The researchers perform a phenomenographic analysis in order to identify variations in kindergarten teachers’ conversations and statements by following them through four planning sessions over a period of four weeks. The source data consist of video and audio recordings of the planning sessions.

Hellberg, L., Thulin, S., & Redfors, A. (2022). Förskollärares tal om fysik i förskolan: Från avgränsad aktivitet till vardagen som utgångspunkt. Educare, (4), 1–26.