Making a fictitious animal: 6-7 year-old Swedish children’s meaning making about evolution during a modelling task

Abstract

ABSTRACT Whereas previous studies show that children are able to make meaning about evolutionary concepts within read-aloud contexts, little is known about how semiotic resources and interaction influence children’s meaning making about evolution. This study investigates children’s meaning making about evolutionary concepts during a modelling activity conducted after an interactive storybook read-aloud describing the evolution of a foraging trait of a fictitious mammal (the pilose). Forty children (13 groups) were videotaped as they produced a clay pilose model, while explaining how they thought their pilose would appear after inhabiting a ‘future’ environment (mountainous, snowy or forest). A multimodal analysis focused on how children demonstrated their meanings of seven evolutionary concepts described in the book. An eighth concept, ‘adaptation to environment’, was also often discussed. While all eight concepts emerged, the most frequent concerned survival and adaptation. The eighth concept appeared to serve as a synthesis of children’s interpretation of the storybook that highlighted the visible consequences of evolution. The children engaged five interactional resources, dominated by the interactional resource of communicating the concepts in direct relation to their produced pilose models. The findings shed light on how children’s representational and relational practices impact making meaning about evolution.