Assessment for Preschool Science Learning and Learning Environments.

Abstract

Introduction Although interest in preschool science is not new (see Riechard, 1973, for a review of programs to that date), this area of learning is enjoying renewed attention in the United States among those concerned with prekindergarten education and with improving scientific literacy and achievement among the nation's citizens. In the early education field, makers of widely used and respected comprehensive preschool curricula such as the Creative Curriculum (http://www.teachingstrategies.com/page/CCPS_Studies.cfm) are strengthening their offerings in science, and subject-specific programs have emerged (Brenneman, Stevenson-Boyd, & Frede, 2009). The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC, n.d.) holds that children should be provided various opportunities and materials to learn key content and principles of science. The Head Start Child Outcomes Framework includes science among its eight readiness domains (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). Most U.S. states have articulated learning expectations for preschool science, either as a stand-alone area or as part of expectations for general cognition and language (Scott-Little, Lesko, Martella, & Milburn, 2007; Snow & Van Hemel, 2008). The current presidential administration has pledged to make this domain a priority at the prekindergarten level (Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan, n.d.), and the National Science Foundation's Discovery Research K-12 program has begun to solicit and fund proposals to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational programs that support prekindergarten children and those who teach them. Technology and banking industry leaders also support efforts to make STEM accessible to America's preschoolers (e.g., American Honda Foundation, 2010; Motorola Foundation, n.d.). The PNC Foundation (2009) has made a major investment in partnerships between informal science education organizations and preschools through its Grow Up Great with Science! initiative. The Boeing Corporation provides funding support for PBS's Sid the Science Kid (http://pbskids.org/sid/), and Northrop Grumman supports Peep and the Big Wide World (http://www.peepandthebigwideworld.com/), both of which are science-based programs for preschool audiences. These curricula, policy statements, and funding commitments reflect beliefs that early exposure to STEM concepts will lead to increased comfort with them later in life and that early experiences are critical both for school readiness and as foundations for future learning (see also Beering, 2009). These ideas are attractive given well-established findings of the critical impact of early learning experiences on long-term educational and societal outcomes, especially among underserved populations (Barnett, 2008; Bowman, Donovan, & Burns, 2001; Committee for Economic Development, 2006; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000), and research that establishes that measures of general classroom quality show moderate relationships to children's learning outcomes [e.g., Burchinal et al., 2008; Melhuish et al., 2008 (EPPE); Haahr, 2005 (PISA)]. Given these findings, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the provision of high-quality science learning experiences early in development will pay off with increased long-term achievement in, and student engagement with, science (National Research Council, 2005). Increasing the number of studies that can speak definitively to these issues is imperative, especially if, as a recent large-scale study in Florida suggests, school readiness in science lags behind other domains, at least among at-risk learners (Greenfield, Jirout, et al., 2009). Despite the increased interest and investment in early science education and the expectation that high-quality educational supports will result in improved school readiness and achievement in science and related domains, evaluation and research efforts have been severely limited by a lack of appropriate instrumentation. …

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