Understanding Our Pedagogy

Hi again, you are almost there.

Before you go, we are going to go through one more topic that has also to do with parents and other adults. Parents are usually very interested in the quality of the activity you present as a teacher. And usually, parents are really excited about everything. But sometimes our pedagogy might feel new or strange to some parents.

So, we are here to prepare you by giving the research-based arguments behind our pedagogy. We want you to have an idea how to talk about these reasons, since we don't pull them out of hats. We actually have research backing us up with everything we do. So to put it in a teeny tiny nutshell, our methods are shown by research to best promote young children's learning.

Next, to put it in a medium sized nutshell...

Number one, we teach skills rather than facts. This is because children really need to learn the skills first before they can move on to more abstract concepts.

Number two, learning science process skills is good for the children's learning overall.

Number three, we aim for children to experience joy and success because these positive emotions will support learning and children's self-image as a learner for the years to come. Everything they do involves play. Since play is an essential process involved in young children's learning, play can also be sort of a secret passage way that brings to sometimes difficult concepts straight into the children's world.

And finally, number four, we embrace and teach creativity, since this is needed in becoming a competent problem solver that our society will need in the future.

Okay, let's dive a little bit further by finding an even bigger nutshell, like that of a coconut.

Parents and other adults might ask, why are we not primarily focusing on teaching children to memorize scientific concepts? Some adults might think that even the younger children should be able to memorize these scientific concepts after a Kide Science lesson. However, we have research-based arguments for why it's more important to learn skills them to use rote learning.

First of all, before children have developed enough skills to think about abstract concepts, they benefit from more hands-on approaches. Once children master science process skills they are ready to apply their knowledge of science in the inquiry process.

Research shows that early learning of science process skills has positive effects on all learning, not just on STEAM subjects.

Another argument for supporting learning skills is learning scientific literacy.

We live in a world that is full of science-based texts, news, images, and arguments. When today's children reach adulthood, it would be highly beneficial if they really understand how this knowledge is being produced and how it should be interpreted. This is why we focus on finding out how knowledge is being produced.

We solve problems by asking questions, using inquiry-based activities, and using all of the skills we have to solve a problem. This way, the children learn how to actually find out about things and how the knowledge is being produced.

You might also be asked, why do Kide lessons include playing and imaginary stories and having fun? Shouldn't learning be serious business where we practice knowledge as well? Our approach about learning through play comes from research on how young children learn in general and how we could support the interest in science, also, for the years to come. Research unanimously states that play is an essential process for young children's learning.

Playing, thought, and imagination are fundamentally united. If you remove just one of them, children's learning is going to be diminished.

This is why we focus on creating a playful setting at the Kide Science lessons. We tell stories, do drama, and we play with science.

Play brings science learning into a more meaningful context for a child. What we mean by this is that playing is a fundamental part of the child's culture, and we need to approach learning science in a way that is meaningful for the child. This is why we introduce science in our lessons. From the child's perspective, we don't start from introducing a scientific concept and then move on to the experiments, which is quite common in pedagogies used in STEM subjects.

We start with an intriguing story based problem that we get to solve, and by solving it, we learn.

This bring science closer to the child's culture, where stories and play are very familiar.

Experiences of joy and success in exploratory activities support the child's positive self image as a learner, which impacts learning all the way to adulthood. High self-esteem in science has been acknowledged as a remarkable predictor of whether a child will do well in science and whether they will find science interesting.

In the objectives of a lesson, you might see us say something like, enjoy the colorful reactions with children.

Laughter, humor, and enjoyment are fundamental parts of our lessons, and that is also based on research. We might also say, support and praise a child for a good try, even though the idea might not have worked. This is to really support the child's experiences of good self-capability.

Creativity is a key factor in science. It is needed in becoming a competent problem solver that our society will need in the future.

Creativity is connected to the ability to implement scientific knowledge to our everyday lives and in the problems that apply to multiple fields of sciences. We promote creativity in our lessons by using creative problem solving situations and imaginary scenarios in Supraland as spaces for our learning. We want the scientists to really unleash their imaginations.

Now, all we have left to say is, well done. You have gone through all of the training videos. But don't worry, you won't be left alone after this. We are here to help you. So, if you have any questions, just send us a message!

We are so excited to get to know you and have you as part of our team. So thank you so much for joining us. Best of luck.

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