Chapter 12 provides insight into the large amount of science learning that can occur through informal experiences. Informal experiences relate to those that happen outside formal educational settings, such as family settings, museums, zoos and natural locations. As learning in these environments is free choice, children tend to be more motivated and interested in learning than in formal educational settings. This chapter describes the importance of informal experiences in the learning of science, the funds of knowledge that families share with their children, the rich and diverse cultural and linguistic science experiences that children bring to their educational settings, and the importance of the EC professional acknowledging and using children’s and families’ funds of knowledge in developing science learning experiences.

In the preschool period the central activity is play. Through play young children become able to differentiate meaning from objects and actions. Play is therefore a way for children to acquire a conscious relation to the world that is revealed in how they come to plan play actions and create shared imagination. We have argued, following Vygotsky’s ideas, that in play children bring the most intimate and personal aspect of their lives into the realm of social life, in the same way that adults may do through art. We have also discussed how children rework their experience in play and how this contributes to their acquisition of everyday concepts that are a foundation for their concept formation in school. Caregivers may help children benefit from play activities by providing them with experiences that they may rework in play. Nonetheless, if caregivers enter young children’s play, they should be aware of how children create lifeworlds in play that may be interrupted by newcomers. We also argue for assessing children’s social situation of development by focusing on activities and not abilities and present a method developed for this purpose.

This chapter focuses on how children’s everyday knowledge when entering school is different from subject matter knowledge and argues that children’s emotional imagination and motive orientation is a foundation for their acquisition of subject matter knowledge. We discuss how imagination supports children’s generalizations of experience, so that it becomes possible for them to move between the general and the concrete in analyzing and using knowledge about the world. We also argue for a dialectical relationship between the culturally developed content the children’s encounters in their interactions in the world and the formation of mind. Within the cultural-historical approach to learning and development Davydov was the first to clarify how concepts, within a subject matter system, that are related through the historical development of its content may become the foundation for children learning in school. Supporting the development of theoretical thinking among school pupils serves both to develop thinking with subject matter knowledge, and support children’s person formation.

Developmental teaching has a long history starting with Vygotsky’s ideas of teaching reaching into the zone of proximal development, an accomplishment that only are possible with the help of qualified teachers. Developmental teaching is oriented both to children’s acquisition of competence and to their formation as persons acquiring theoretical thinking and motive orientation. Central ideas in developmental teaching are that general knowledge in the form of core relations should come before specific and concrete knowledge, and that children through agentic but also teacher-guided exploration should be able to acknowledge these conceptual relations. These ideas have been extended with Hedegaard’s ideas of the double move in teaching and learning. In this process, teaching is a double and moving back to qualify children’s… knowledge to subject matter knowledge and back to quality children’s concept formation. This is illustrated in a project focusing on the subjects of biology, human geography and history working with oppositions, using children’s everyday knowledge and questions to create their activities and motivation for exploration. The Radical-Local approach extends the double move with inclusion of aspects of children’s community as a process of movement from the local to the general and the general to the local. The chapter also addresses assessment challenges through presenting a questionnaire addressing the child’s social situation of development, to capture the child’s perspective on their participation in school practices.

Science learning occurs in many places other than formal educational settings. These are called informal learning experiences. Such places are called informal learning environments and include family settings, museums, zoos and natural locations. As learning in these environments is free choice, children tend to be more motivated and interested in learning than in formal educational settings. This chapter describes the importance of learning in informal learning environments, the funds of knowledge that families share with their children, the rich and diverse cultural and linguistic science experiences that children bring to their educational settings and the importance of educators/teachers acknowledging and using children’s and families’ funds of knowledge in developing science learning experiences.