ECE214 TEACHING SCIENCE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
| Course Code: | 4110214 |
| METU Credit (Theoretical-Laboratory hours/week): | 3 (2.00 - 2.00) |
| ECTS Credit: | 6.0 |
| Department: | Early Childhood Education |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Study: | Undergraduate |
| Course Coordinator: | Prof.Dr. REFİKA OLGAN |
| Offered Semester: | Spring Semesters. |
Course Objectives
- Enhance students’ knowledge of the nature of science and scientific inquiry
- Develop a clear understanding of how children do, know, and learn science
- Demonstrate students’ growth as a professional teacher
- Integrate science with other content areas and life
- Develop alternative strategies for teaching science
Course Content
Importance of science and nature in early childhood education. Methods of teaching science and nature concepts in early childhood, construction of concept maps and hands on activities; basic concepts in science and nature; living-nonliving concepts; distinction of sky and space; basic events about heat and light.
Course Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- critically evaluate and reflect upon their own views and represent their own practices about science teaching and learning.
- develop positive attitudes towards science and be motivated to teach science
- be a professional science doer
- recognize developmental milestones of children
- learn how to support young children’s positive attitudes and practices about science
- motivate young children to do science and to be a professional science doer
- plan and practice developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant preschool science activities
- use appropriate teaching methods to enhance children’s science learning
- use a variety of assessment techniques to monitor children’s science learning
- develop and practice science integrated preschool activities
- involve parents and community in science teaching
- integrate science into daily life
- become familiar with alternative resources to assist children
- prepare and organize hands-on and minds-on science materials
- prepare challenging and supportive indoor and outdoor learning environments for science teaching
Program Outcomes Matrix
| Level of Contribution | |||||
| # | Program Outcomes | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 1 | To have the knowledge about 0-72 month old children's cognitive, motor, language, social and emotional development and self help skills and to be able to make applications to support this area. | ✔ | |||
| 2 | To be able to take measures for the protection of children's health. | ✔ | |||
| 3 | To know the importance of game in pre-school education and to support the education and development of the child through play. | ✔ | |||
| 4 | To recognize the pre-school education institutions in the scope of the purpose, structure and functioning of the Turkish education system. | ✔ | |||
| 5 | To have information about classroom management approaches to be used in educational environments and to effectively implement these approaches. | ✔ | |||
| 6 | To have information about international programs that are applied in the field of pre-school education and to use these programs' aspects that are appropriate to our culture in classroom practice. | ✔ | |||
| 7 | To be able to conduct research in the field of pre-school education and analyze and interpret research findings. | ✔ | |||
| 8 | To be able to prepare, implement and evaluate Turkish, science, math, art, music, movement, games, reading and writing preparation and field trip activities that support different areas of development (cognitive, motor, language, self-care, social and emotional) of pre-school children and can be planned as individual, small group, large group and integrated groups. | ✔ | |||
| 9 | To be able to use and to allow students to use audio-visual teaching materials appropriate for pre-school age children for their development. | ✔ | |||
| 10 | To be able to take responsibility and to fulfill these responsibilities in individual and group work. | ✔ | |||
| 11 | To understand the importance of family involvement in children's education and to plan activities related to family involvement. | ✔ | |||
| 12 | To have knowledge about literary genres prepared for pre-school children and to examine existing publications in terms of literary and artistic perspectives. | ✔ | |||
| 13 | To have knowledge about the importance and purpose of the use of formal and informal assessment methods appropriate for the age level and developmental level of pre-school children, and to apply and interpret different evaluation methods and to be able to interpret findings. | ✔ | |||
| 14 | To be able to follow/access, understand and question scientific publications for pre-school education. | ✔ | |||
0: No Contribution 1: Little Contribution 2: Partial Contribution 3: Full Contribution