New Perspectives in Science Education

If we consider science not only as a system of knowledge and theories, but also as a process of investigation, characterized by formulating and testing hypotheses, then we must recognize that this process may also be exercised as early on as infancy. The process of investigation, which coordinates evidence and theories, although not completely understood at preschool age, can find interesting similarities in activities of discovery, exploration and play, even when the context is not explicitly intended to provide the child’s first naturalistic or scientific knowledge .

 

In preschools, activities such as building, exploring and pretend play, which on the surface may seem to be activities for free creativity, often hide logical thought processes and experimental testing typical of science education. Indeed it is precisely the current concept of creativity - defined as the ability to find original solutions that correspond to a given task – which closely links it to the scientist’s problem-solving and investigation procedures (Sternberg & Lubart 2007, Feist 2011) . Both the scientific discovery and the creative processes are triggered when a problematic situation is perceived, and they require logical reasoning based on acquired data and knowledge as well as imagination to be resolved. Equally both make extensive use of combinatorial thinking, in other words the ability to connect ideas, facts and procedures belonging to diverse and remote areas of experience (Vygotskij 1973). The educational and teaching methods suggested by a lot of literature to stimulate creativity, which translate combinatorial thinking in practical terms, include analogy, metaphor, visualization and multiple associations, which are the exact same tools used by the creative scientist (Feist 2011, Kind & Kind 2007, Jalongo Hirsch 2012, Pramling 2010) .

 

A manifestation of the use of analogies and metaphors during the educational process, whether spontaneous or provoked, obtained both from literature and surveys carried out (the European project Creanet 2013), documents forms of scientific thinking in preschool children whilst also bringing to teachers attention the multiple opportunities in early education to promote it.