Can we play with science? Preschool teachers’ discussions about play-responsive teaching of a science content and supported by digital tools.

The aim is to contribute with new knowledge from a continuous professional development (CPD) study about preschool teachers implementing play-responsive teaching in their practice with a focus on a science content and with support of digital tools. Play and teaching is often conceptualized as two dichotomies (Pyle & Danniels, 2017; Pramling et al., 2019) with play associated with children’s self-guided time and learning with activities organized by preschool teachers (Pramling Samuelsson & Johansson, 2006). In play-responsive teaching preschool teachers and children are mutually engaged in a shared content and the preschool teacher is qualitatively responsive to the children’s perspective (Pramling et al., 2019). Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) is used to thematically analyse teacher discussions about play-responsive teaching, science content and digital technology. The study is conducted as a CPD project consisting of focus group discussions with ten preschool teachers based on an intervention. Stimulated recall by video documentation from the preschool teachers’ practice is used. All participants have been informed and agreed to voluntary and anonymous participation with the right to cancel their participation at any time (Swedish Research Council, 2017). The preliminary results show that the teachers often talk about teaching and play as separated activities. The use of digital tools and knowledge about play-responsive teaching open up new ways of creating a shared play world with scientific content. Analysis of preschool teachers trying to utilize newly acquired knowledge about play-responsive teaching are expected to enlighten future development of play-responsive teaching of science.