An Inquiry into the Constructivist Approach to Science Education Classes for Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers

This study investigated the contents and methods of science education classes based on the largely constructivist approach of pre-service early childhood teachers. The subjects of this study consisted of 8 junior students from the Early Childhood department and for reference data, reflective journals, interviews, activity planning sheets, recordings of trial lessons, and lesson analysis were used. The results of this study were as follows. First, changes in key points and contents for children science education were found, and reflective journals, interviews, activity planning sheets, recording of trial lessons, and lesson analysis clearly supported these results. Second, the actual changes in the constructivist approach to children`s science education had a great impact upon the individual characters of the pre-service early childhood teachers. However, with the study period being limited to only one semester, it was found that the potential of this study to lead to any practical changes was simlilarly limited.