Conflicts during Science concept formation in early childhood: barriers or turning points?

Young children experience a wide range of conflicts during everyday educational reality. Instead of being intellectual barriers, conflicting situations have a critical role in young children’s learning and development in Science. The present study seeks to explore the kind of conflicts that occur during collective science experiences in early childhood settings and how conflicting situations act as turning points in child’s science concept formation. Empirical data were collected during a collective science experience centred on the natural phenomenon of cloud formation and cloud movement. One hundred and thirteen kindergarten students, aged 4.5 to 6.5 years old, from seven kindergarten classes in Greece participated in the overall study. Indicative case examples are presented. Methodological choices were determined by the dialectical-interactive method. The Cultural-Historical theory concepts of motives and demands and the interrelation between everyday concepts and scientific concepts were used as the main analytical tools. Three main categories of conflicts were noted: a) collisions, b) impasse situations, and c) provocative situations. The way children engaged with, managed and resolved the conflicting situations influenced the way children developed their thinking about the phenomena. It is argued that diverse conflicting situations opened a new space of thinking, created new learnings and led to new types of activity in science for the children. The study suggests that by highlighting, unpacking and facilitating conflicting situations, early childhood educators can create dynamic learning spaces within a pedagogical framework that respects and builds on each child’s perspective.