Example of thematic learning in early childhood science education: seed

Abstract

The aims of the study are to prepare an instructional design that supports the development of children's basic scientific process skills for the seed theme and to examine the effectiveness of this design and to improve the awareness of preschool children about the concept of seed. In line with the purpose of the research, the changes in children’s prior knowledge about seeds after implementing the activities that address the different skills in the acquisitions and indicators in the preschool curriculum were examined. The research was conducted with 198 preschool children attending a public preschool in the province of Izmir in the 2021-2022 academic year. The children’s ages range from four to six years. During the research process, teachers were firstly given training about seed plants, flowering plants, fruit, seeds, and seed germination by academicians who are experts in the field of biology. The teachers who received this training also carried out eight activities with children about the topics of what the seed is, the importance of the seed, and the benefits of seed preservation. With the aim of determining the children's prior knowledge about seeds, open-ended structured questions developed by the researchers were asked to the children before the activities, and their answers were recorded. The same questions were asked after the activities were completed and the answers were recorded again. This study is a case study, one of the qualitative research methods. One-third of the children’ answers were coded by two independent experts, and then preliminary codes were created. Afterward, all responses were evaluated with these codes. The results of the analysis determined that while the knowledge and awareness of the children about seeds were low at the beginning, this level increased after the study. The study is thought to contribute to teachers and researchers who develop activities on seed awareness and can be an example of how to develop thematic instructional designs science education in the preschool period.