Insects form a highly diverse taxonomic group, which has fundamental ecological functions, but is currently in a process of mass extinction. Here, we present the first cycle of design, implementation, and assessment of a didactic sequence oriented towards improving pre-service teachers' knowledge and appreciation of insect diversity. A…

This study aims to determine what pre-service teachers know about the path of water through the body, and how they intend to explain this knowledge to five-year-old preschool children. This study aims to see the opportunities young children in preschool can obtain from an explanation of the nature of science related to an everyday life activity. A…

This qualitative study focuses on preschool practitioners' teaching about death. The theoretical framework draws on ideas about dialogic teaching and the concepts that are of importance for understanding what biological death entails. The study was conducted within a qualitative, participant centered paradigm. The data consist of video recordings…

Swedish preschool science practice is confined to a unique educational setting where upbringing, care, and education are intertwined. This allows teachers to develop innovative cross-curricular and multidimensional science teaching. At the same time, society demands the digitalization of preschool practice, which has caused concern not only about…

This article presents research designed along one scholar course with first-year pre-schoolers in Spain. A coherent sequence of learning activities, that combined classroom work with working outside the classroom (in the school garden), was designed in order to analyse if the first-year-preschool children were able to apply scientific tools,…

Forest learning has been encouraged globally in recent years as it regularly provides opportunities to interact with nature and one's own abilities. The contributions of forest and traditional kindergarten and home environment to children's ecological cognition and how ecological cognition relates to executive function (EF) is understudied.…

In recent years, there has been an effort to develop reform-oriented and inquiry-based early science instruction. Preliminary studies suggest that participation in inquiry-based learning activities promotes preschoolers' learning and interest in science. In addition, science education in early childhood is of great importance to many aspects of a…

Motor skills during early childhood play a significant role in child development. We used the bioecological model to determine the bioecological factors associated with preschool children's gross motor skills (GMS). The GMS of randomly sampled 280 children were tested using a standardized checklist. The background variables theoretically framed in…

Executive function (EF) is essential for academic achievement, successful work, and physical and mental health. Although evidence shows that several factors have been linked to EF, these results are mixed. This study aims to identify both biological and environmental variables associated with impaired EF in preschoolers. This study was a…

This research presents a qualitative case study that investigates the biology and preschool student teachers' and teachers' experiences of online teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study utilizes the diffusion of innovations theory to understand the adoption and application of online teaching as an innovation. The participants in the study…

Students diagnosed with sickle cell disease (SCD) are eligible for special education services and benefit from advances in medical research that have extended the life expectancy of this population; however, there is a dearth of research on medical professionals' and PK-12 educators' awareness epistemological beliefs about pediatric sickle cell…

In this paper, we investigate the intentions of kindergarten teachers to use the content and to apply the teaching methods that they acquired in a one-day teacher training seminar. According to the theory of planned behavior, the answer to this research question is directly related to a series of social-psychological personal criteria assessments,…

Evolution by natural selection is the fundamental backbone of the life sciences. Therefore, it is important for teacher education programs to ensure graduates possess a strong knowledge of evolution in order to teach at all levels of biology education. The main aim was to investigate the impacts of the Slovene pre-service preschool and primary…

The U.S. Next Generation Science Standards treat biological adaptation as a disciplinary core idea, but various science educators recommend its introduction at different ages. The concept of biological adaptation elicits children's reasoning about organisms, their environments, and the relationship between organisms and their environments. The…

Teaching the children of today about nature is important as they become increasingly removed from the natural world. Children should be exposed to environmental issues so that they will become environmentally aware adults. This article describes a project in which high school biology students teach preschool students about a local environmental…