Barnet eller ämnet? : Lärarstudenters preferenser av didaktiska val vid naturvetenskaplig undervisning i förskolan

Sammanfattning: Teaching in pre-school usually takes its starting-point in children’s reality and curiosity. Apart from that it has also been important to take contains of a special subject under consideration, for example development of language and communication or mathematics development. The purpose of this study was to investigate how natural science as a special subject in pre-school education is expressed by five trainee teachers when they teach children at the age of 2-7. Generally the study focuses on the students’ teaching actions as well as their line of argument about their teaching and the choices they have to make. More specific the study focuses on the goal and important perspectives in young children’s natural science education, from the students’ point of view. Observations and interviews were carried through during the students’ last period of practical training in five different pre-schools. Natural science as a subject was predetermined but the students were free to choose any contain within the subject. The study is inspired by hermeneutic research, mainly in the procedure of analyzing the students’ expressions and statements. The results show that the trainee teachers have different goals with their science teaching. The purposes for individual learning focus on the subject, the individual child and/or the society in a more wide perspective. The students also have purposes for the pre-school activity which they express as taking the starting point in children’s experiences, interest, specific conditions and letting the children have fun during learning. The two perspectives “The Child or the Subject” became of special interest. The trainee teachers made their teaching choices from the child’s point of view and also from the natural science subject. These perspectives were used in a mix by the students, and even if their first focus was at the subject they immediately took the child’s interest under consideration.