Early years teachers’ interests and motivation when teaching Science

Abstract

Children are naturally eager to explore their surrounding world. It is thus important to expose them to science early. At the heart of successful science learning lies the teacher’s motivation and interest. This study aimed to probe early years teachers’ interests and motivation in science and the impact on their science teaching. This qualitative study involved interviews with six early years teachers; a Year 1 and a Year 2 teacher from each of the State, Church, and Independent sectors. The interviews tackled the school’s commitment to science and the teachers’ personal views, attitudes towards and confidence in science. The teachers also shared two science lesson plans which they considered to be inquiry-based. The study found that the factors influencing these teachers’ motivation and interests when teaching science were: (i) school commitment to science: availability of resources, time allocated to science, space available, and ongoing professional development; (ii) curriculum content: teachers’ experience and training/support, confidence in science, curriculum load, workbook pressure and confidence in implementing continuous assessment and LOFs; and (iii) personal views/attitudes towards science: own schooling experience, perceived benefits, understanding of inquiry based science pedagogy and their awareness of local/international initiatives. Five notions emerged from this study pertaining to the teachers’ interest and engagement, confidence and competence, teacher and student autonomy, and the role of school support, which are important for policymakers to consider to enhance science teaching and learning in the early years in Malta.