Young children’s learning in physics: a (dis-)trustful play with gravity, friction and counterforces?

ABSTRACT This article seeks to contribute to an early childhood specific conceptualisation of physics education. The article is a collaboration between a researcher in science education and two preschool teachers and revolves around the teachers’ work with 2–4 year old children. Grounded in a posthumanist understanding of the world, we focus on physics learning that emerge in children’s intra-actions with material. In our analysis, we first use ‘physics verbs’ to identify everyday intra-actions where physical phenomena act as ‘playmates’. For instance, the verbs climbing and clinging point at intra-actions where gravity and counterforce act as playmates. Next, we seek to identify signs of children’s physics learning within these intra-actions. Our findings suggest that emergent physics learning can be inferred from changing levels of trust in child-matter intra-actions. For example, children may move from distrustfully clinging onto a railing, towards trustingly pushing and pulling the railing to climb higher. The article provides pioneering conceptual support for researchers and teachers who seek to identify non-verbal signs of physics learning in the everyday life of early childhood settings.