The construction of children´s scientific thinking. The case of blanca nieves y los pingüinitos nursery schools at pre-k levels

Abstract

To characterize the construction of children’s scientific thinking in boys and girls in two nursery schools Antofagasta. A research work was organized based on questions such as: what is scientific thinking in early education? What specific conditions does preschool education require to generate an environment that promotes scientific thinking in boys and girls? Is curiosity and the natural interest of preschoolers the basis for understanding natural phenomena? Do preschoolers really develop naturally a capacity for questioning towards the world of life and the living? How does one address the representation of life and what is alive in the child? As a result of this itinerary, a four-stage investigation was established, a process of experimentation and exploration carried out with 35 boys and girls from the pre-k levels of the Blanca Nieves y Los Pingüinitos Nursery Schools. The ability of autonomy presents a predominance of proto-learning (learning goals intended by the teacher as the executor of instructional design) as opposed to a deutero-learning. The development of this first stage of the research was mainly focused on determining which activities favor the development of curiosity in everyday situations in preschoolers, returning to Popper’s criticism of the classical science conception of the prevalence of observation over theory.