A criança e o brincar científico na educação infantil

Abstract

This research seeks to investigate elements of how children’s experiences with the physical and natural world are manifested in the space of early childhood education. Based on this problem, it was also proposed to discuss whether – and how children’s play and their ways of apprehending and feeling the world problematize the teacher’s planning. Pedagogy in this study is the context of defined knowledge, and Science is the object of analysis as a fundamental and powerful right to exercise citizenship. The research, of a qualitative nature, is configured as a case study and was carried out based on reflections on childhood on the ideas of Loris Malaguzzi, John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, and Gaston Bachelard. Data analysis, obtained through pedagogical documentation, led to the conclusion that children experience sophisticated concepts of natural sciences daily in educational institutions. Because, when investigating the physical and natural world, children first observe, manipulate materials, explore space, raise hypotheses and consult sources of information; that is, they experience the conditions they must research. Subsequently, they produce information and, through multiple languages, build different images that allow them to share their research experiences and talk about the answers found. This favors the construction of real and imaginary thinking, actions and symbolizations, interactions, communications, and information about what they can accomplish. Thus, it is understood that for children, it is the action of investigating that provokes conceptual thinking, not the opposite. Scientific play and planning as a public fórum were key concepts revealed throughout the research, explaining a specific transformative experience at CMEI: “the flight of owls.” This experience forms the product of this master’s degree, complementing a series of booklets intended as reference documents for teacher training practices.