Teacher self-correction of conceptual error: Fictionalisation and shifting epistemological stance in early childhood education teaching

Abstract

Teachers making errors in explanation that require subsequent self-correction is presumably common in education. However, it may be difficult to capture in research. In this study, teacher self-correction in the context of early childhood science education within a fictive frame was captured on video when documenting science activities over a prolonged time. How the teachers address the error they discover in their teaching and work in correcting it in subsequent activities are analyzed. The error identified and addressed concerns the distinction between a tornado and a dust devil (dust vortex). The empirical data consist of video recordings of teachers-children interaction in Swedish preschool. The participating children are 4 to 5 years old. The findings clarify how the teachers in addressing and correcting the conceptual error uses different semiotic means, with a particular emphasis on the coordination of gesturing and verbal explication when contrasting and explaining the different phenomena. The analysis also clarifies how the fictive character employed leads to a shift in epistemic status of the teachers to becoming co-learners with the children. How addressing and amending errors in explanation may function in deepening meaning making rather than working detrimental to it is discussed.