Children exploring light in a Italian ECEC service

Our research is to investigate if is possible and proper to propose some ''scientific'' contents and tools starting with early ages. In this explorative study we selected the topic (light and colours), we designed and tested a proposal with 2-3 years old children in a Italian ECEC. We implemented and revised the proposal on the basis of the effectives children's responses and partecipation. The studies on progressive learning in early childhood talk about an active and competent child, capable to articulate abstract notions and constructor of his/her own knowledge and make sense of the experience (Musatti & Mayer, 2001 & 2011). New perspectives are rising in the pedagogical debate about educational experiences that children have in the ECEC and about competences and knowledge they can develop. These are crucial questions for the education and development of Young children. The research is inscribed in the qualitative educational field. We used video-audio recordings, observing and listening (Sumsion & Goodfellow, 2012) children while they were making meaningful experiences to give sense of light and colour vision in their usual ECEC environment. Data was analysed by researchers with different competences. The Ethics Committee approved parent and teacher's informed consent for videotaping the children. Data analysis shows that children appear to use spontaneously some cognitive strategies and procedures, close to the “scientific” ones: working with variations and giving multiple representations. The implementation from an early age of educational approaches to support scientific knowledge construction about physical phenomena fits properly in the affective, social and cognitive children development.