Young children’s views of science – England

McMahon, K ORCID: 0000-0002-3681-6509 (2025) Young children’s views of science – England. In: ESERA2025 : 16th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association, 25 - 29 August 2025, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Abstract

The seminal goal of science education in K-12 schools both in the United States and around the world is scientific literacy. Although there is no universally agreed-upon definition of scientific literacy, it is generally understood that scientific literacy is what students need to know about science to be informed, functioning members of society when they finish their formal education. (Roberts, 2008). This calls for the foundations of scientific literacy to be intentionally in all grades beginning with kindergarten. However, due to a lack of science instruction during early grades this seldom occurs and students continue to graduate high school with a lack of scientific literacy skills (Roberts & Bybee, 2014). The current study aimed to reveal the understandings of kindergarten children’s scientific literacy by assessing their knowledge of science, scientists, nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry (SI). There were 12 countries/regions in this study. This specific subsection of the study focuses on the English site.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Other)
UN SDGs:	Goal 4: Quality Education
Keywords:	scientific literacy, young children's views of science, kindergarten, elementary school, early years, early childhood education, nature of science
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General)
Divisions:	School of Education
Research Centres and Groups:	Centre for Research in Scientific and Technological Education
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2026 17:17
Last Modified:	30 Jan 2026 17:17
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URN:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/17496

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