Teaching chemistry and physics in preschool: a matter of establishing intersubjectivity

The article describes analyses of teaching events as part of active pre-school teachers’ chemistry and physics teaching in pre-school. The teachers participated in a professional development programme related to science. The aim is to develop knowledge about the communication that arises between teacher and child in connection with a pre-school science curriculum objective (physics and chemistry). The research question is: How can intersubjective communication be described in connection with a science curriculum objective? 

Intersubjectivity can arise in different ways and have different consequences regarding children’s opportunities to achieve the curriculum objective. It is pointed out that it is important that the teachers connect the children’s experiences and the learning objective together when communicating with the children. 

15 activities were observed and recorded on video. The videos were transcribed and all four researchers then conducted qualitative analyses of the recordings. Attention was focused on intersubjective communication between the teachers and the children and what characterises such communication. The researchers then discussed the analyses among themselves.

Fridberg, M., Jonsson, A., Redfors, A. & Thulin, S. (2019). “Teaching chemistry and physics in preschool: a matter of establishing intersubjectivity”. International Journal of Science Education, 41(17):2542-2556.