Early Childhood Science Education: State of the Art and Perspectives

The last twenty-five years have seen an increase in the development of an area of educational research and implementation which is known internationally as Early Childhood Science Education. In fact, this is a broad framework within which different theoretical trends coexist with corresponding research orientations and fields of teaching applications. These trends converge in an effort to study the mechanisms of initiation of children aged 4-8 years into the properties of the materials and objects and into the phenomena and concepts of Natural Sciences. When the first relevant efforts began to take shape, valid questions were raised as to whether the systematic approach to Natural Sciences at such an early age was desirable, possible and feasible.