Abstract
The research reported here investigated the everyday and scientific repertoires of children involved in semi-structured, Piagetian interviews carried out to check their understanding of dynamic astronomical concepts like daytime and night-time. It focused on the switching taking place between embedded and disembedded thinking; on the imagery which subjects referred to in their verbal dialogue and their descriptions of drawings and play-dough models of the Earth, Sun and Moon; and it examined the prevalence and character of animism and figurative speech in children’s thinking. Five hundred and thirty-nine children (aged 3–18) from Wairarapa in New Zealand (171 boys and 185 girls) and Changchun in China (99 boys and 84 girls) took part in the study. Modified ordinal scales for the relevant concept categories were used to classify children’s responses and data from each age group (with numbers balanced as closely as practicable by culture and gender) analysed with Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample tests (at an alpha level of 0.05). Although, in general, there was consistency of dynamic concepts within and across media and their associated modalities in keeping with the theory of conceptual coherence (see Blown and Bryce 2010; Bryce and Blown 2016), there were several cases of inter-modal and intra-modal switching in both cultures. Qualitative data from the interview protocols revealed how children switch between everyday and scientific language (in both directions) and use imagery in response to questioning. The research indicates that children’s grasp of scientific ideas in this field may ordinarily be under-estimated if one only goes by formal scientific expression and vocabulary.
Highlights
The research reported here investigated the everyday and scientific repertoires of children involved in semi-structured, Piagetian interviews carried out to check their understanding of dynamic astronomical concepts like daytime and night-time
Our research question was as follows: Are both language modes evident in young children’s responses and is language switching from everyday language, including animism, to scientific language—or vice versa—apparent during interviews?
RQ: Are both language modes evident in young children’s responses and is language switching from everyday language, including animism, to scientific language—or vice versa—apparent during interviews?
Summary
In their stimulating book on teaching, Postman and Weingartner (1971) stated that a subject or discipline, such as science, Bis a way of knowing, and whatever is known is inseparable from the symbols (mostly words) in which the knowing is codified^ (p. 103). Fleer’s (2009) study looked into the 4–5-year-old children’s concept formation in two early childhood settings (one rural and the other urban), in particular at the reciprocity between everyday and scientific thinking Her findings indicated that the playful contexts did help children to bring together their everyday ideas with scientific concepts. A teacher might deploy paraphrasing strategies to extend students’ vocabulary (replacement); might invite students to converse about their experiences at home or with friends that connect with a curriculum topic (interweaving); might challenge students to consider the kinds of arguments and evidence that hold sway in this discussion (contextual privileging); and might bring together for consideration a number of plausible representations of a concept and reflect on how the array of representations assists a deeper understanding of the topic (pastiche) The investigations by Jane and Robbins (2007) showed how grandparents often assisted children’s acquisitions of science and technology ideas through the everyday interactions they have during childminding activities involving home computers, games, garden play, outdoor excursions and so forth
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