Abstract
The quality of South African learners’ performance in science and mathematics continues to remain poor as reflected in National and International assessments. However, it is believed that learners’ poor performance in these subjects could be attributed to their weak and/or disproportional exposure to science instructions during early childhood development. The research objective of this study was to explore teachers’ understanding and implementation of science process skills (SPS) in the early years. Accordingly, data were collected using a qualitative research design of one on one interviews and lesson observations with eight Grade R teachers that were purposively and conveniently selected. The result showed that though participants believe it is important to start teaching science to children in the early years, most of them don’t have an adequate understanding of the science concepts in the Grade R syllabus. Though teachers engaged learners in activities that allowed them to observe, describe, measure, classify, predict and communicate ideas during the observed lessons, most of the teachers were unable to describe SPS. However, six of the teachers attributed their ability to demonstrate the process activities to years of experience and indicated that the teaching qualification they have did not accurately prepare them to teach science in the early years. Besides, teachers expressed a low level of confidence and competency in planning and demonstrating science activities in the early year classrooms.