Abstract:
There is accumulating evidence of the worth of involving families in young
children's learning in informal contexts. By exploring families' engagement with their
children's science and technology learning at home over a 6-month period, the present
investigation sought to illuminate both the nature and the educational significance of what
families do. Initially, in order to seed scientific and technological inquiry in homes, kindergarten
and year-one children investigated flashlights with family members at school.
Each day, equipment was available to take home. Using established anthropological methods,
one of the researchers investigated children's further inquiries beyond the classroom
in diverse ways; for example, by visiting homes and conversing via telephone and facsimile.
The findings showed that families engaged with children's inquiries at home in many
ways-by providing resources, conversing, and investigating collaboratively with children.
Moreover, when families pursued inquiries together and when children conducted
their own sustained intellectual searches, children's ideas deepened. Such evidence of the
educational significance of what families do suggests that early science and technology
education might be made more effective if it were aligned with the ways people learn
together outside formal institutions.
