“PhysikSPIEL”: A Playful Approach to Physics Education: Learning physics during playtime at kindergarten
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Profile
- Project leadership
- Sabine Campana (PHZH), Franziska Detken (PHZH)
- Project team
- Michaela Celeryn, Simone Lehrl, Susanne Metzger (FHNW), Stefanie Schnebel
- Organisational unit
- F-FD (Fachdidaktische Forschung)
- Project phase
- In progress (1.11.2023 – 31.10.2026)
- Project type
- Research & development project
- Funding
- Crescere Stiftung Thurgau (Switzerland), Helmut Fischer und Anni Walther Foundation (Switzerland), Crescere Stiftung Bodensee (Germany), Helmut Fischer Stiftung (Germany)
- Participating institutions
- PH FHNW / University of Basel; PH Weingarten
Description
The PhysikSPIEL project supports kindergarten teachers in offering and guiding activities that help children learn physics during playtime. In professional development courses and coaching sessions, teachers familiarise themselves with physical phenomena such as magnetism and levers, and they gain confidence in guiding their pupils during playtime activities. The research and development project combines methodologies from subject-specific teaching and play-based learning, develops practical examples of play-based physics learning, and investigates the skills and motivational beliefs of teachers.
Science education at an early age
When interacting with their environment, children encounter physical phenomena at a very young age. The ideas they develop and their interest for such phenomena form the basis for the acquisition of science knowledge later in their educational careers. Already in kindergarten, teachers are required to create opportunities to learn about science and offer targeted support. The main challenge in supporting physics education in kindergarten lies not in providing traditional, teacher-based science lessons, but in observing relevant activities of the children in play-based learning environments and offering targeted guidance.
Teacher role is key
Many studies have shown that high-quality teacher-pupil interactions are a decisive factor in the quality of play-based activities. When guiding these activities, however, teachers must navigate the boundaries between an active and a purely observational role. Studies have revealed that teachers tend to either delegate explorative activities in play-based learning environments entirely to the children and to play a passive role, or they control the game too explicitly. For play-based learning, however, it is important that teachers are involved in the activities, but that they refrain from dominating them. The key is to provide constructive ideas for playing, to recognise the educational potential in the situation, to discuss the topic with the children, and to help them reflect on observed phenomena.
Complex task for teachers
This type of teaching is very demanding. Playtime settings in kindergarten are often complex, ambiguous and constantly changing. To tap into the potential these situations hold, teachers must have mastered not only the subject itself but also subject-specific education and play-based pedagogical methods. Specifically, they must have a thorough understanding of the physical phenomena, familiarity with the terminology and approaches of physics, command of subject-specific teaching methods, and the ability to offer targeted ideas for playtime activities (materials, how to start, how to guide play, how to evaluate play) – all without explicitly taking the lead.
Facts and guiding questions in the research project
Four professional development groups in Germany and Switzerland develop play-based activities for helping children aged four to six experience, think about, and act on physical phenomena. An interdisciplinary team made up of specialists in education science and physics education support and guide these groups. The existing playtime activities of the participants are considered. The participants reflect on the activities in terms of their potential, adapting and further developing them accordingly. After an introduction on two half-days, a coaching session is arranged on site at the individual kindergartens. Participants then present their activities, ideas and experiences at a final event.
In a related doctoral project, research-related data are collected. A website, scholarly articles, symposia and additional training and professional development programmes are used to communicate the findings to professionals and researchers.