幼児を対象とした科学教育アクティビティ作成のビジョン構築に関する研究 : グローバル・サイエンス・リテラシーを基盤として

抄録

Science Education in Japan begins only at 3^<rd> grade in Elementary school. Prior to this, children from the ages of 3 to 8 receive no formal science education or school-science education. In this research, the main focus is on the development of a vision for design of early childhood science education activities within a Japanese context. In order to develop a vision for the designing the activities, we need to analyze several things. First, we need to analyze the status of early childhood education in Japan. Second, we need to analyze the cognitive development of children themselves. We also need to consider other countries, for example the United States and Canada, where science education for early childhood has already been well developed. Moreover, the rationale for the acquisition of scientific literacy and global science literacy for young children is discussed. As a result of an over all discussion of scientific literacy and the present situation, a vision for design of science education activity for young children is developed. Finally, in consideration of scientific literacy, five science education activity examples are described.