Abstract
In this article, we will present a research on the tracing of pre-school students’ mental representations on the phenomenon of dissolution of solids in a liquid. Thirty-one children drawn out of four different kindergarten classes participate in this research. The main subject of this research was the listing and ranking of 5-6 year old children’s representations, when called to predict problems concerning the dissolution of a solid substance in two different liquids (water or oil). The approach was qualitative and the research was carried out based on personal interviews and children’s drawings. The results showed that a significant percentage of the subject sample does not detect differences between the dissolution of sugar in water or oil, that there are major differences when children draw or predict and that while in their drawings children seem to comprehend the preservation of sugar in the solution, in their predictions many of them view that sugar is not preserved.
Highlights
In this article, we will present a research on the tracing of pre-school students’ mental representations on the phenomenon of dissolution of solids in a liquid
The study of children’s mental representations on concepts and phenomena in the natural world is for the past 20 years a field of study in preschool age as well, as it allows for the approach of their reasoning structures (Ravanis & Papamichaël, 1995; Dedes & Ravanis, 2009a, 2009b; Küçüköze, H. & Bostan, A., 2010; Fyttas, Komis & Ravanis, 2013)
Researches that, apart from ranking and coding the representations, focus on children’s thought structures that are frequently repeated and present data as well as relationships between data compatible with educational scientific knowledge are important. Those structures are characterized as precursor models (Weil-Barais, 2001; Ravanis, Koliopoulos & Boilevin, 2008; Canedo-Ibarra et al, 2010)
Summary
The study of children’s mental representations on concepts and phenomena in the natural world is for the past 20 years a field of study in preschool age as well, as it allows for the approach of their reasoning structures (Ravanis & Papamichaël, 1995; Dedes & Ravanis, 2009a, 2009b; Küçüköze, H. & Bostan, A., 2010; Fyttas, Komis & Ravanis, 2013). Researches that, apart from ranking and coding the representations, focus on children’s thought structures that are frequently repeated and present data as well as relationships between data compatible with educational scientific knowledge are important Those structures are characterized as precursor models (Weil-Barais, 2001; Ravanis, Koliopoulos & Boilevin, 2008; Canedo-Ibarra et al, 2010). Rosen & Rosin (1993) studied [3,4,5] year old children’s thoughts on dissolution of substances that, when dissolved in water, are not visible This particular research attempts to confirm the findings of Piaget & Inhelder (1974) concerning children’s representations on the preservation of taste in a solution, despite their disbelief of the solute’s preservation. We attempted to cross-check the data of certain techniques in order to form the representations of approximately [5,6] year old children in relation to school reference learning, which is formed for younger students with no mention to the microcosm, apart from the division of sugar into “tiny bits”
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