LEARNING TO BE AFFECTED: CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE EDUCATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

ABSTRACT:

The link between Science Education and Early Childhood Education has been constituted in a timid way. This is because it is often thought that the way the young child investigates the world around him/her is wrong or not appropriate. However, using the actor-network theory and its conception of learning in this study, we analyze an episode in which children aged 4 and 5 years old were engaged in the exploration of clues left in the courtyard of a Municipal Unit of Early Childhood Education. Our findings indicate that children actively participate in investigative activities and learn to be affected by the constituent elements of the designated space for exploration. More over, children were able to turn technological objects available on scientific instruments. Through our analysis, we were able to break away from the concept of learning as conceptual appropriation. In that sense, we sought to understand learning as an ability to be affected and, therefore, as building a body.

Keywords:
Early Childhood Education; Science learning; Actor-network theory; Affected theory.