Kindergarten teachers’ beliefs and practices towards elicitation in science teaching

Abstract

This study investigated a) how teachers view children’s ideas in science, b) if and how they elicit young learners' thinking about natural phenomena and concepts, and c) what is the meaning and the purpose of elicitation for the teachers. Α two-phase mixed-method was implemented with 15 kindergarten teachers including a) drafting a lesson plan for teaching a science concept, and b) in-depth interviews. The results indicated that although the participants value elicitation practices in early science for various and important reasons and state that they implement elicitation practices in their curriculum, they seem uncertain about how to incorporate the information they derive from elicitation in their science curriculum.