Exploring Science Concepts in Everyday Interactions with Infant-toddlers at Home: Caregivers’ Raised Science Consciousness Through Fleer’s Conceptual PlayWorld

Family is the core institution for infant-toddlers’ science learning. However, little is known about how caregivers support infant-toddlers’ science concept formation at home. The study presented in this paper follows 18 families with infant-toddlers aged 4 to 24 months old (mean age 10 months old) over five weeks in an educational experiment of Fleer’s Conceptual PlayWorld (CPW) at home using We Are Going on a Bear Hunt story. 46 h of recorded data, including 29 h of Zoom workshops, 5.5 h of the family-collected videos, and 11.5 h of pre-and post-CPW interviews, are analysed from a cultural-historical perspective to explore how families identify and engage with science concepts in moments of interaction with infant-toddlers at home. The findings show that with the support of CPW educational experiments, families become more conscious of science possibilities in their everyday lives at home, and they reframe routine activities into enjoyable science learning experiences for infant-toddlers. Three family practices have been identified to draw out science concepts from their moments of interaction with infant-toddlers: (1) creating phenomena central to a science concept using cultural objects such as mirrors for light reflection; (2) drawing infant-toddlers’ attention to the salient aspects of a phenomenon through scientific narratives, and (3) creating imaginary play scenarios in CPW or everyday routine activities that require problem-solving actions informed by science concepts. It is argued that by reframing routine activities into enjoyable science experiences and drawing out science concepts, families become more confident and skilful in enriching infant-toddlers’ learning in science.