Preschool Teachers’ Support in Science and Engineering Education in the context of building blocks (PFKiNaT)

我们的目标是在积木的背景下研究幼儿教师在早期科学和工程教育中的专业能力。我们可以在BauSpiel项目中证明，即使是简单的课程材料，由实验者使用的简单的口头和物质支持，也能鼓励学龄前儿童学习静力学。在国际研究中，玩积木越来越被视为一种优秀的学前学习机会，可以让孩子们在内容和过程知识方面建立自然科学和工程技能（Akman & g<s:2> <s:2> han Özgül, 2015； Bonawitz等人，2011;George, Göksun, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2019; Verdine, Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, & Newcombe, 2014）。然而，幼儿教师很难表现出足够的专业能力，以适合儿童年龄的方式向儿童介绍科学内容和过程知识（Piasta, Pelatti, & Miller, 2014; Roth, 2014; van Aalderen-Smeets & Walma van der Molen, 2015）。此外，幼儿教师对“脚手架”（过程质量的认知成分）的使用差异很大（Pianta, Mashburn, Downer, Hamre, & Justice, 2008）。这可能与教学内容知识（PCK）和学科特定内容知识（CK）的差异有关。然而，幼儿教师需要PCK和CK才能成功地使用课程材料并使其对学生的学习富有成效（Granger, Bevis, Southerland, Saka, & Ke, 2018）。因此，本研究将考察幼儿教师的专业能力（信念、PCK、CK、绩效）是否可以在构建模块的背景下被检测到，以及在多大程度上被检测到。构建模块可以被理解为科学和工程本身并不复杂的学习机会，然而，它在学习和教学方面提供了高度复杂的潜力。在设想的项目中，要审查三个问题。A)幼儿教师在积木方面有哪些专业能力？B)通过实施BauSpiel项目的低门槛学与教机会，能否促进幼儿教师专业能力（信念、PCK、CK、绩效）的发展？C)幼儿教师的专业能力是否导致儿童在内容和过程知识方面的学习增加？

We aim at including studying early childhood teachers’ professional competencies in early science and engineering education in the context of building blocks. We could show in the BauSpiel project that even a simple curriculum material with simple verbal and material support used by experimenters encourages pre-school children to learn about statics. In international research, playing with building blocks is increasingly seen as an excellent pre-school learning opportunity that allows for children to build up skills in the natural sciences and engineering in terms of both content and processes knowledge (Akman & Güçhan Özgül, 2015; Bonawitz et al., 2011; George, Göksun, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2019; Verdine, Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, & Newcombe, 2014). However, early childhood teachers hardly show sufficient professional competencies to introduce children to scientific content and process knowledge in an age-appropriate way (Piasta, Pelatti, & Miller, 2014; Roth, 2014; van Aalderen-Smeets & Walma van der Molen, 2015). Furthermore, the use of scaffolds - the cognitive component of process quality - differs greatly between early childhood teachers (Pianta, Mashburn, Downer, Hamre, & Justice, 2008). This could be related to variations in pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and subject-specific content knowledge (CK). However, early childhood teachers need PCK and CK in order to successfully use a curriculum material and make it fruitful for student learning (Granger, Bevis, Southerland, Saka, & Ke, 2018).Therefore, this study will examine whether and to what extent early childhood teachers’ professional competencies (beliefs, PCK, CK, performance) can be detected in the context of building blocks. Building blocks can be understood as a learning opportunity in science and engineering per se not very complex, which, however, offers highly complex potential in terms of learning and teaching. In the envisaged project, three questions are to be examined. A) What professional competencies do early childhood teachers have in the context of building blocks? B) Can the development of early childhood teachers’ professional competencies (beliefs, PCK, CK, performance) be stimulated through the implementation of the low-threshold learning-teaching opportunity from the BauSpiel project? C) Do early childhood teachers’ professional competencies lead to an increase in learning for the children in terms of content and process knowledge?