Norwegian early childhood teachers’ stated use of subjectrelated activities with children, and their focus on science, technology, environmental issues and sustainability

Abstract

This paper presents Norwegian early childhood teachers’ own evaluations of their practices, interests and attitudes, and of their kindergarten’s learning culture, related to daily activities with children. The purpose of this study was to examine the focus and priority given to activities related to science, technology, environmental issues and sustainability, in comparison to other subjects. Semi-structured questionnaires were completed by 93 randomly selected early childhood teachers. The results show that most of them hold positive attitudes towards science, and are personal interested in science-related subjects. They state that their activities with the children mainly consist of nature- and outdoor-related subjects, followed by social competences, language stimulation and physical education. Activities related to chemistry, geology, physics, technology, gardening and sustainability are infrequent. Science is a natural part of many interdisciplinary themes. Appropriate science competence among early childhood teachers is needed to increase children’s opportunities to gain specific science related experiences.