Exploring connections between teaching strategies and young children’s scientific practices across urban and Indigenous contexts: an epistemic network analysis

This study examined how teaching strategies were linked to children’s scientific practices across socio-culturally diverse urban and Indigenous early childhood settings. Using Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA), the study analyzed the relational patterns and network dynamics of teaching strategies and scientific practices across socio-culturally diverse educational contexts. Participants comprised 98 children and five teachers from four public kindergartens in northern Taiwan, with two in urban cities and two within Indigenous communities. Data were collected from 62 science instructional sessions (approximately 15 per classroom, each lasting approximately 40 min), conducted as part of a project-based learning module. Findings from ENA indicated that in urban classrooms, teaching strategies of direct instruction and simple questioning were frequently linked to children’s planning and measuring practices, resulting in denser and more interconnected networks. In contrast, teachers in Indigenous classrooms applied strategies more selectively; they employed probing strategies to support children's sharing and discussing practices, while using direct instruction primarily to scaffold children’s measuring and recording practices. These findings underscore the potential variations in instructional approaches across different regional contexts, and offer valuable insights into the interrelations between teaching strategies and the engagement of young children in scientific practices.