Abstract
The paper is set in socio-material farming to offer a way of conceptualising actions and interactions of children in preschool involved in the understanding of scientific concepts. A model of early science education about the physical phenomena of shadow formation is implemented in group work in a French context. The research involved 44 children (13 females and 31 males) of 5–6 years old. The research design was organised in three video recording steps: pre-test, teaching session and post-test. We focus on the analysis of nine teaching sessions to investigate children’s ‘understanding’ of shadow formation. A descriptive and qualitative approach was used. In particular, we have identified three main categories (the interaction of the children with the tools, the embodiment and verbal dimension)—with respective indicators—to perform the analysis. From the results, all the categories explored seem to influence each other: all material, human and social dimensions contribute to the children’s understanding of shadow formation. Also we have identified some elements that can serve as a potential source of improvement of the teaching session on shadow formation. Finally, the research provides insights on how to improve science activities in preschool with the aim of supporting early understanding of physical phenomena.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackerman, E. (2007). Experiences of artifacts: people’s appropriation/object’s ‘Affordances’. In E. Von Glasersfeld (Ed.), Keyworks in radical constructivism (pp. 249–259). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Austin, J. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bächtold, M. (2013). What do students “construct” according to constructivism in science education? Research in Science Education, 43(6), 2477–2496.
Baillargeon, R. (2002). The acquisition of physical knowledge in infancy: a summary in eight lessons. Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, 1, 46–83.
Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: a political ecology of things. Durham: Duke University Press.
Boilevin, J.-M. (2013). Rénovation de l’enseignement des sciences physiques et formation des enseignants. Bruxelles: De Boeck.
Bruner, J. S. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Carey, S. (1985). Conceptual change in childhood. Cambridge: Bradford Books, MIT Press.
Chalufour, I., & Worth, K. (2005). Exploring water with young children (The Young Scientist Series). St. Paul: Red Leaf Press.
Chen, S.-M. (2009). Shadows: young Taiwanese children’s views and understanding. International Journal of Science Education, 31(1), 59–79.
Clark, A. (2010). Transforming children’s spaces. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Cole, M. (1996). Cultural Psychology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Dawson, C., & Lyndon, H. (1997). Conceptual mediation: a new perspective on conceptual exchange. Research in Science Education, 27(2), 399–404.
Dedes, C., & Ravanis, K. (2009). Teaching image formation by extended light sources: the use of a model derived from the history of science. Research in Science Education, 39, 57–73.
Delserieys, A., Jégou, C., & Givry, D. (2014). Preschool children understanding of a precursor model of shadow formation. In C. P. Constantinou, N. Papadouris, & A. Hadjigeorgiou (Eds.), E-Book Proceedings of the ESERA 2013 Conference: Science Education Research For Evidence-based Teaching and Coherence in Learning. Part 15 (co-ed. E. Glauert & F. Stylianidou, Early years science education) (pp. 5–13). European Science Education Research Association: Nicosia.
DiSessa, A. A. (2006). A history of conceptual change research: threads and fault lines. In K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp. 265-282). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dockrell, J. E., Braisby, N., & Best, R. M. (2007). Children’s acquisition of science terms: simple exposure is insufficient. Learning and Instruction, 17(6), 577–594.
Duit, R., & Treagust, D. F. (2003). Conceptual change: a powerful framework for improving science teaching and learning. International Journal of Science Education, 25(6), 671–688.
Dumas Carré, A., Weil-Barais, A., Ravanis, K., & Shourcheh, F. (2003). Interactions maître-élèves en cours d’activités scientifiques à l’école maternelle : approche comparative. Bulletin de Psychologie, 56(4), 493–508.
Ergazaki, M., Saltapida, K., & Zogza, V. (2010). From young children’s ideas about germs to ideas shaping a learning environment. Research in Science Education, 40(5), 699–715.
Eshach, H., & Fried, M. N. (2005). Should science be taught in early childhood? Journal of Science Education and Technology, 14(3), 315–336.
Eurydice. (2009). Tackling social and cultural inequalities through Early Childhood Education and Care in Europe. Brussels: European Commission.
Fleer, M. (1990). Scaffolding conceptual change in early childhood. Research in Science Education, 20(1), 114–123.
Fleer, M. (1996). Early learning about light: mapping preschool children’s thinking about light before, during and after involvement in a two week teaching program. International Journal of Science Education, 18(7), 819–836.
Fleer, M. (2009). Understanding the dialectical relations between everyday concepts and scientific concepts within play-based programs. Research in Science Education, 39(2), 281–306.
Fleer, M., & March, S. (2009). Engagement in science, engineering and technology in the early years: a cultural-historical reading. Review of Science, Mathematics and ICT Education, 3(1), 23–47.
Fleer, M., & Robbins, J. (2003). Understanding our youngest scientific and technological thinkers: international developments in early childhood science education. Research in Science Education, 33(4), 399–404.
Fleer, M., Gomes, J. J., & March, S. E. (2014). Science learning affordances in preschool environments. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 39(1), 38–48.
Flewitt, R. (2006). Using video to investigate preschool classroom interaction: Education research assumptions and methodological practices. Visual Communication, 5(1), 25–50.
Forman, E. A., & Carr, N. (1992). Using peer collaboration to foster scientific thinking: what determines success? Paper presented at Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, USA.
Gallegos-Cázares, L., Flores-Camacho, F., & Calderón-Canales, E. (2009). Preschool science learning: The construction of representations and explanations about color, shadows, light and images. Review of Science, Mathematics and ICT Education, 3(1), 49–73.
Ghiglione, R., & Blanchet, A. (1991). Analyse de contenu et contenus d’analyses. Paris: Dunod.
Gibson, J. J. (1986). The Ecological approach to visual perception. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gillespie, A., & Zittoun, T. (2013). Meaning making in motion: bodies and minds moving through institutional and semiotic. Culture and Psychology, 19(4), 518–532.
Glaser, B. G. (1998). Doing Grounded Theory: Issue and discussions. Mill Valley: Sociology Press.
Goldin-Meadow, S. (2003). Hearing gesture: How our hands help us think. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Goodwin, C. (2000). Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32, 1489–1522.
Gredler, M. E. (2009). Hiding in plain sight: the stages of mastery/self-regulation in Vygotski’s cultural-historical theory. Educational Psychologist, 44(1), 1–19.
Grossen, M. (2001). La notion de contexte: quelle définition pour quelle psychologie? Un essai de mise au point. In J.-P. Bernié (Ed.), Apprentissage, développement et significations (pp. 59–76). Bordeaux: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux.
Hare, A. P. (1994). Types of roles in small groups: a bit of history and a current perspective. Small Group Research, 25, 443–448.
Herakleioti, E., & Pantidos, P. (2015). The contribution of the human body in young children’s explanations about shadow formation. Research in Science Education. doi:10.1007/s11165-014-9458-2.
Hsieh, H. F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288.
Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Jacobs, J. K., Kawanaka, T., & Stigler, J. W. (1999). Integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches to the analysis of video data on classroom teaching. International Journal of Educational Research, 31, 717–724.
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992). Beyond modularity: a developmental approach to cognitive science. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Kohn, A. (1993). Preschooler’s knowledge about density: will it float? Child Development, 64, 1637–1650.
Kontopodis, M. (2012). How things matter in everyday lives of preschool age children: material-semiotic investigations in psychology and education. Journal für Psychologie, 20(1), 1–12.
Latour, B. (1996). On interobjectivity. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3(4), 228–245.
Lécuyer, R. (Ed.). (2004). Le développement du nourrisson: Du cerveau au milieu social et du fœtus au jeune enfant. Paris: Dunod.
Lemeignan, G., & Weil‐Barais, A. (1994). A developmental approach to cognitive change in mechanics. International Journal of Science Education, 16(1), 99–120.
Lemke, J. L. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning, and values. Norwood: Ablex.
Léna, P. (2009). Europe rethinks education. Science, 326(5952), 501.
Lenz Taguchi, H. (2010). Going beyond the theory: Practice divide in Early Childhood Education. Introducing an Intra-Active Pedagogy. London: Routledge.
Levy, E. T., & McNeill, D. (2013). Narrative development as symbol formation: gestures, imagery and the emergence of cohesion. Culture and Psychology, 19(4), 463–483.
Lockman, J. J. (2000). A perception-action perspective on tool use development. Child Development, 71, 137–144.
Lubart, T. I., Mouchiroud, C., Tordjman, S., & Zenasni, F. (2003). Psychology of creativity. Paris: Armand Colin.
Mäkitalo, Å., Jakobsson, A., & Säljö, R. (2009). Learning to reason in the context of socioscientific problems. exploring the demands on students in ’new’ classroom activites. In K. Kumpulainen, C. Hmelo-Silver, & M. Cesar (Eds.), Investigating classroom interaction. Methodologies in action (pp. 7–26). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Mehmeti, T., Miserez-Caperos, C. & Breux, S. (2014). Objects’ influence on knowledge-oriented argumentation in children: an exploratory study. Poster presented in Workshop “Expansion(s) of experience: Symbolic and material dimensions” Neuchâtel, 6-7 November.
Mercier, H. (2011). Reasoning serves argumentation in children. Cognitive Development, 26, 177–191.
Muller Mirza, N., & Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (Eds.). (2009). Argumentation and education: theoretical foundations and practices. Dordrecht: Springer.
Naylor, S., Keogh, B., & Downing, B. (2007). Argumentation and primary science. Research in Science Education, 37, 17–39.
Newton, P., Driver, R., & Osborne, J. (1999). The place of argumentation in the pedagogy of school science. International Journal of Science Education, 21(5), 553–576.
Nordtømme, S. (2012). Place, space and materiality for pedagogy in a kindergarten. Education Inquiry, 3(3), 317–333.
Ntalakoura, V., & Ravanis, K. (2014). Changing preschool children’s representations of light: a scratch based teaching approach. Journal of Baltic Science Education, 13(2), 191–200.
Ogborn, J., Kress, G., Martins, I., & Mc Gillicuddy, K. (1996). Explaining science in the classroom. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Orlikowski, W. J., & Scott, S. V. (2008). Sociomateriality: challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. Academy of Management Annals, 2(1), 433–474.
Otero, V. K. (2004). Cognitive processes and the learning of physics part I: the evolution of knowledge from a Vygotskian perspective. In E. F. Redish & M. Vicentini (Eds.), Proceedings of the International School of Physics “Enrico Fermi” (pp. 409–445). Amsterdam: Ios Press.
Parker, J. (2006). Exploring the impact of varying degrees of cognitive conflict in the generation of both subject and pedagogical knowledge as primary trainee teachers learn about shadow formation. International Journal of Science Education, 28(13), 1545–1577.
Perret-Clermont, A.-N., & Carugati, F. (2001). Learning and Instruction, social-cognitive perspectives. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (pp. 8586–8588). Oxford: Pergamon.
Perret-Clermont, A.-N., Breux, S., Greco Morasso, S., & Miserez-Caperos, C. (2014). Children and knowledge-oriented argumentation. Some notes for future research. In G. Gobber & A. Rocci (Eds.), Language, reason and education. Studies in honor of Eddo Rigotti (pp. 259–277). Bern: Peter Lang.
Rambusch, J., & Ziemke, T. (2005) Embodiment aspects in Human Computer-Game Interaction. The European Conference on Computing and Philosophy, E-CAP 2005, Västerås, Sweden.
Ravanis, K. (1996). Stratégies d’interventions didactiques pour l’initiation des enfants de l’école maternelle en sciences physiques. Revue de Recherches en Éducation: Spirale, 17, 161–176.
Ravanis, K. (1998). Procédures didactiques de déstabilisation des representations spontanées des élèves de 5 et 10 ans. Le cas de la formation des ombres. In A. Dumas Carré & A. Weil-Barais (Eds.), Tutelle et mediation dans l’éducation scientifique (105-121). Berne: Peter Lang.
Ravanis, K. (2010). Représentations, Modèles Précurseurs, Objectifs-Obstacles et Médiation-Tutelle: concepts-clés pour la construction des connaissances du monde physique à l’âge de 5-7 ans. Revista Electrónica de Investigación en Educación en Ciencias, 5(2), 1–11.
Ravanis, K., Koliopoulos, D., & Boilevin, J.-M. (2008). Construction of a precursor model for the concept of rolling friction in the thought of preschool age children: A socio-cognitive teaching intervention. Research in Science Education, 38(4), 421–434.
Ravanis, K., Christidou, V., & Hatzinikita, V. (2013). Enhancing conceptual change in preschool children’s representations of light: a socio-cognitive approach. Research in Science Education, 43(6), 2257–2276.
Rigotti, E., & Greco Morasso, S. (2009). Argumentation as an object of interest and as a social and cultural resource. In N. M. Mirza & A.-N. Perret-Clermont (Eds.), Argumentation and education (pp. 9–66). New York: Springer.
Roth, W.-M. (2002). Scientific investigations, metaphorical gestures, and the emergence of abstract scientific concepts. Learning and Instruction, 12(3), 285–304.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2003). Knowledge building. In Encyclopedia of education (pp. 1370-1373). New York: Macmillan Reference.
Sørensen, E. (2009). The materiality of learning: Technology and knowledge in educational practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Suchman, L. (2007). Plans and situated actions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tudge, J. (1989). When collaboration leads to regression: some negative consequences of sociocognitive conflict. European Journal of Social Psychology, 19, 123–138.
Tudge, J. R. H., & Winterhoff, P. A. (1993). Vygotsky, Piaget, and Bandura: perspectives on the relations between the social world and cognitive development. Human Development, 36, 61–68.
van Eemeren, F. H. (2010). Strategic maneuvering in argumentative discourse: Extending the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: the Development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Mass, Harvard University Press.
Wartofsky, M. W. (1973). Models: Representation and the scientific understanding. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Weil-Barais, A. (1994). Heuristic value of the notion of zone of proximal development in the study of child and adolescent construction of concepts in physics. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 9(4), 367–383.
Weil-Barais, A. (2001). Constructivist approaches and the teaching of science. Prospects, 31(2), 187–196.
Weil-Barais, A., & Resta-Schweitzer, M. (2008). Approche cognitive et developpementale de la médiation en contexte d’enseignement-apprentissage. La Nouvelle Revue de l’Adaptation et de la Scolarisation, 42, 83–98.
Wittgenstein, L. (1965). Philosophical Investigations. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Wood, D. J., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 89–100.
Worth, K., & Grollman, S. (2003). Worms, shadows, and whirlpools: Science in the early childhood classroom. Washington, DC: National Association for Education of Young Children.
Yin, K. R. (2014). Case study research. Design and methods. UK: Sage Publications.
Ziemke, T. (2013). What’s that thing called embodiment? Retrived from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.453.956&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Impedovo, M.A., Delserieys-Pedregosa, A., Jégou, C. et al. Shadow Formation at Preschool from a Socio-materiality Perspective. Res Sci Educ 47, 579–601 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9518-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9518-x