The Enduring Effects of Early-Learned Ideas and Local Folklore on Children’s Astronomy Knowledge

The research described here examined the sources of knowledge of astronomy of children (age 3–18) in China and New Zealand, together with the development of their awareness of competing sources, ranging from everyday language, childhood literature and folklore to the scientific accounts prevalent in schools. The authors cite examples of the bootstrapping encountered during these years, where children’s expanding knowledge and how they process questions intended to probe their understandings—their metacognitive strategies—are mutually beneficial. The semi-structured interviews utilising three modalities (verbal language, drawing and play-dough modelling) carried out with pupils (n = 358), and questionnaires administered to their parents (n = 80), teachers (n = 65) and local librarians (n = 5), focused on young people’s understanding of daytime and night-time and the roles played by the Sun and Moon in creating familiar events. The findings underscore the arguments put forward by the authors in a recent article in this journal concerning the co-existence of everyday and scientific concepts. The influence of early-learned ideas deriving from pre-school experiences, recalled by children and largely corroborated by family members, was found to be extensive. Evidence of the migration of folklore in one of the two settings investigated (on the North East China Plain) and therefore its continuing influence on children’s comprehension is provided. With respect to teaching, the authors argue the benefits to be had in making more explicit with young students the differences between early-learned (everyday-cultural) ideas—particularly local community knowledge and folklore—and the scientific content found in the school curriculum.


Introduction
The research described here deals with the sources of astronomical knowledge which young people in China and New Zealand identified during a set of interviews; where they said where their learning came from. The questions were put to them following in-depth, semi-structured interviews concerning their grasp of ideas about the motion and shape of the Earth, Sun and Moon (ESM); and their concepts of gravity, time, daytime and night-time, seasons and eclipses; as part of a longitudinal, cross-cultural, ethnographic, comparative study in Changchun, China and Wairarapa, New Zealand. These are described by the authors from a variety of perspectives as follows: & the cultural factors permeating the acquisition and development of children's concepts ; & the changes which occur as knowledge is restructured ; & the similarities and differences in the gender effects apparent in comparative studies (Bryce and Blown 2007); & the conceptual coherence detectable in children's developing ideas (Blown and Bryce 2010); & the relative gains, overlaps and deficits in expertise across the novice-expert continuum ; & thought-experiments about gravity in the history of science and in research into children's thinking ; & the confusions detectable in young people's ideas about the shape and size of ESM (Bryce and Blown 2013); & the relationships between what is revealed as children manipulate their own play-dough models of the ESM and their apparent conceptualisations of these astronomical bodies (Bryce and Blown 2016); & the switching between everyday and scientific language evident in what they articulate during interviews (Blown and Bryce 2017).
The authors also checked how aware they were of the kinds of sources from which they drew their knowledge. Additionally, a sample of teachers, parents and librarians were interviewed in relation to these children's likely sources of knowledge. Based on the literature and pilot studies conducted in 1987 and 1989, the authors started from the assumption that young children's everyday concepts would result from parents, grandparents and other caregivers or significant adults, children's literature, myths, legends and the folklore of their local communities; and that their scientific concepts would, with age, be increasingly sourced from teachers and other 'serious' sources-such as books and magazines; TV and films; the Internet; museums, planetariums and observatories; and visiting experts (such as astronomers) arranged by schools. The authors hypothesised that, with increasing age, children's thinking would become more disembedded 1 as they increasingly recognise the distinctions between the 1 Donaldson (1978) discusses two co-existing modes of thought: embedded and disembedded which permeate children's thinking. The former is analogous to everyday thought and language as used by children and adults in their daily lives "within the supportive context of meaningful events". The latter is synonymous with scientific (formal or abstract) language as used by scientifically literate adults, which moves "beyond the bounds of human sense" and may do so "in a way that leaves out content and meaning entirely" (pp.76-77) (see Blown and Bryce 2017). figurative and the literal worlds and dispense with simple analogies from everyday life and anthropomorphic accounts of phenomena they encounter. We show the wide range of children's sources of knowledge and argue the benefits that should accrue to science educators becoming more familiar with them, the persistence of early learned ideas and their effects, and the importance of careful guidance to better achieve scientific learning. Before describing the investigation in greater detail, the authors review what previous researchers have found concerning the sources of children's astronomy knowledge.

Review of Previous Studies of Children's Sources of Astronomy Knowledge
In their seminal study of children's cosmographies, Sneider and Pulos (1983) identified teachers, parents and books as major sources of knowledge about Earth's shape and gravity. Some half of the 159 children from California, USA who were interviewed by them mentioned school lessons or field trips to museums or planetariums; a third referred to books they had read; a sixth had discussed such matters with members of their family; and an eighth recalled TV programmes or films. 'Fewer than one-tenth of the children mentioned their own observations as sources of information ' (p. 208). These findings influenced their evaluation of the earlier work of Nussbaum and Novak (1976) who were the first researchers to raise the question of children's knowledge sources; Nussbaum (1979) who stressed the significance of informal learning; Nussbaum and Sharoni-Dagan (1983); Howe (1979, 1980) who emphasised the critical role of schooling; and Klein (1982) who concluded that socio-economics, learning about science concepts in a second language, and self-esteem might also influence the acquisition of scientific knowledge. Together with their own comparative study, these led Sneider and Pulos to conclude that concepts of the Earth's shape and gravity may be considered as 'physico-cultural' concepts, i.e. that 'the acquisition of these concepts involves a coordination of observable phenomena and culturally transmitted information' (p. 220). Hannust and Kikas (2007) express essentially the same point, referring to two information sources: 'observations of the world and explanations given by other people ' (p. 90). These references to the cultural nature of concepts are in keeping with Vygotsky's (1962Vygotsky's ( , 1978Vygotsky's ( , 1986Vygotsky's ( , 2012 findings that concepts are shaped by socio-cultural interactions with others. Siegal et al. (2004) discuss whether young children may hold 'both intuitive and scientific concepts-[in separate mental spaces]-without knowing clearly when and where each type of concept should apply (but with no indication of synthesis) ' (p. 321-322). Their article emphasises the need for that synthesis (or integration) and they recommend that future research should look into teaching methods by which the coordination of knowledge from different sources can be encouraged. In their view 'there are cases in which cultural transmission can effectively protect knowledge from intuitions that are sometimes fallible' (p. 323). Nobes et al. (2003) similarly argue the importance of lessons and explanations from adults to combat the difficulties inherent in confused prior learning and intuitions. In a follow-up study, however, Nobes et al. (2005) noted that fragmented knowledge results from topics being taught piece-meal in schools, thereby underlining the need for further research to more fully explicate when, or under what circumstances, learners' ideas become more logical and consistent in a given domain. In Blown and Bryce (2010), we looked closely at the question of coherence in children's thinking, versus 'knowledge-in-pieces', the term used by diSessa (1988). There are divisions of opinion among researchers regarding this matter. On the one hand, those in favour of coherence argue that children's ideas are in the form of conceptsdiffering from adult concepts only in degree of scientific accuracy-and organised into coherent theory-like structures-akin to adult theories but less precise scientifically (see Carey 1985aCarey , 1985bCarey , 1991Chi and Slotta 1993;Donaldson 1976Donaldson , 1978McCloskey 1983;Murphy and Medin 1985;Brewer 1992, 1994;Vosniadou et al. 2008;Vosniadou and Skopeliti (2014); Bryce 2006, 2010). While on the other hand those in favour of incoherence argue that children's ideas are composed of fragmented pieces of knowledge (phenomenological primitives or p-prims) which are loosely connected and lack the characteristics (commitment or systematicity) distinctive of scientific theories (see diSessa 1988diSessa , 1993diSessa , 2008diSessa et al. 2004;Nobes et al. 2005). Our own empirical findings from multimedia interviews, described in Blown and Bryce (2010), firmly suggest that children's developing ideas demonstrate coherence. Furthermore, our analysis ties in with Barsalou's (2003Barsalou's ( , 2008 treatment of concepts as skills, a consideration increasingly favoured in treatments of grounded cognition. The majority of research into the structure of children's astronomical knowledge has been from a constructivist perspective tracing its roots to the work of Piaget (1929Piaget ( , 1930. However, recently in New Zealand, the development and implementation of the Early Childhood Curriculum Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education 1996) has provided an opportunity for incorporation of socio-cultural theory and practice based on the work of Vygotsky (1978Vygotsky ( , 1986. This introduces the concept of 'children's working theories' (akin to Claxton's (1990) 'minitheories') which are synonymous with children's knowledge and skills. As such, they act as bridges between the fragmented worlds of 'knowledge-in-pieces' and coherent theories as children learn to make sense of the world (see Hedges 2014). Jarman and McClune (2007) interviewed 105 children age 9 to 12 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, concerning their awareness of a specific item of scientific news in the field of astronomy and identified five main media sources of scientific knowledge. Following the reclassification of Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, they asked Why was Pluto in the news? Those that knew that Pluto had been in the news and why were asked where they had gained their information from. The responses (published as a bar graph) were approximately television (33%); radio (12%); newspapers (20%); Internet (10%); other people (parents, peers, teachers) (30%). No doubt the New Horizons spacecraft fly-by photos of Pluto and its moons taken in 2015 would have been shared by similar sources with an emphasis on visual media (which did much to restore Pluto's status as a member of the Solar System albeit under a different classification). More recently, Plummer and Krajcik (2010) have again re-emphasised the role of teachers and parents in the acquisition of scientific knowledge: particularly through observational astronomy: While many of the first grade students (35%) describe the sun as rising and setting, nearly all third grade students could give this description (95%). This suggests that early elementary students are likely to easily acquire this level of knowledge, possibly through guided observations by their parents and teachers. Such observations could include the sun appearing low in the sky in the morning, high in the sky later in the day, and then low in the sky at the end of the day (p. 778). Kallery (2010) reported on teaching astronomy to children age 4-6 using videos and cultural artefacts such as globes to support instruction. Multi-media methods involving children's verbal responses, drawings and play-dough modelling were used to answer questions. These investigated the shape and motion of the ESM using action research and collaborative development processes within a socio-cultural framework with the teacher in a central mediating role between children and adults at school and home.
Recently, in his retirement article as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Science & Education, Matthews (2014) made a plea for the role of teachers as transmitters of culturally determined knowledge, … in virtue of the teacher departing from constructivist principles and actually telling the class something and correcting student beliefs against established external, objective knowledge, and not relying on 'what makes sense' to the student or what the majority position is after a round of brain storming (p. 17).
This reminds us that the scientific world view is also, or has been, culturally determined (with input from Eastern and Western sources) and has now become universal.
Parents also have the potential to guide or scaffold their children towards more scientific views (Kallery 2010). Some evidently do, and it would seem that a number successfully encourage their offspring to focus on the science propounded in school. Certainly when (US) children reach adolescence, interest and successful participation in science does seem to be shaped by family encouragement (Sha et al. 2016). With respect to gains in knowledge in younger children, both parents and teachers should be aware of the influence of misleading children's literature and the extent to which myths, legends and folklore impact on the development of children's concepts. The case of basic astronomy: what brings about daytime and night-time; the seasons, the movement of the Sun and the Moon; distinctions between stars and planets; and so forth, is a rich field where-differently in different cultures-alternative stories abound to account for phenomena which conflict with scientific considerations. Researchers need to recognise that teachers, parents and grandparents come from a variety of learning experiences. Some, particularly in China, have had their own schooling interrupted by events beyond their control resulting in their education being less scientific than ideal (see Wikipedia 2017, Cultural Revolution and Oxford Reference: Overview: Cultural Revolution: Quick Reference (2018)). However, and as we reported in Bryce and Blown (2006), there was surprisingly little difference between the scientific concepts of Chinese and New Zealand children; a similarity which we attributed to the universal scientific world view of teachers in both countries and access to scientific ideas though electronic media. For example, children in China have access to many of the science programmes shown on television in New Zealand (see 'Results' section).

Metacognitive Strategies and Conceptual Knowledge: Bootstrapping
Metacognition, 'thinking about thinking' or 'knowing about knowing', has received much attention from researchers since the term was introduced in the 1970s by the developmental psychologist John Flavell (see Flavell 1976). As children acquire knowledge, they begin to think about its meaning and interconnected ideas (not necessarily correctly). Kuhn and Dean (2004) define metacognition from the perspective of cognitive psychology as the developing 'awareness and management of one's own thought'. They argue that the construct bridges the concerns of educators interested in children's knowledge and understanding and researchers who investigate the development of skilled thinking. Lai states that most recent research indicates that massive improvements in metacognition occur during the first 6 years of life; and that it improves with appropriate instruction, there being empirical evidence to support the notion that students can be taught to reflect on their own thinking (Lai 2011, p. 2).
Researchers like Georghiades (2004) note the concerns there now are to blend metacognitive thinking with science subject matter itself, a point emphasised by Schneider (2008) in his detailed review of studies relevant to science education. Furthermore, Zimmerman's (2007) comprehensive analysis of studies where the development of children's metacognitive strategies and their conceptual knowledge can be monitored, concluded that: … these two aspects of cognition bootstrap one another… These strategies, in turn, foster a deeper understanding of the system via more sophisticated causal or conceptual understanding, which (iteratively) foster more sophisticated strategy usage. One of the continuing themes evident from studies on the development of scientific thinking is that children are far more competent than first suspected, and likewise, adults are less so. This characterization describes cognitive development in general and scientific thinking in particular (p. 213).
The notion of bootstrapping as a metaphor means to better oneself by one's own actions, unaided, the expression 'pulling oneself up by the bootstraps' originating in nineteenth century writing. The term has crept into philosophy and science, being of interest to investigators in various fields, including statisticians, computer scientists, biologists, developmental psychologists, language acquisition and science education researchers. In statistics, the computation of a metric is done on repeated samples to improve the estimate of the population value for that metric (which of itself cannot be achieved on single samples). In computer science and artificial intelligence, the expression is used to refer to inductive techniques. For example, Riloff and Jones (1999) report on their attempts to produce a (bootstrapping) algorithm for semantic lexicons that generates both the lexicon and extraction patterns, doing so on an iterative basis. Dawkins (1995) refers to the switching on and off of genes in the cellular development processes through which a full repertoire of cells is generated in a living creature, these mechanisms involving iterations. In her consideration of what contributes to the capacity of children to acquire culturally constructed knowledge through immersion in the adult world, Carey (2004) deems language to be hugely significant and deploys the term bootstrapping to 'explain cases of learning that many have argued are impossible' (p. 59). Of close relevance to the subject of the present paper, Morgan and Demuth's (1996) text analyzes how the acquisition of language begins with auditory perceptions, their analysis and primitive linguistic representations which permit syntactic inductions. They state that: The deductive consequences of these inductions allow infants to exploit new forms of information (semantic, syntactic, or pragmatic) for linguistic purposes and may also allow infants to use aspects of input that were once indecipherable. Access to these new forms of information paves the way for the development of more detailed linguistic representations (p. 20).
The bootstrapping metaphor may also be applied to the metacognitive interactions between the child and the learning environment within the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Vygotsky 1978) whereby the child recognises the need to take control of their own learning to the extent of asking questions from significant adults or looking up information in the library or online. Scaffolding is a two-way process involving metacognitive bootstrapping by the child assisted by access to knowledge in an environment conducive to scientific learning.
Thus 'bootstrapping' and 'scaffolding' are complementary processes: 'bootstrapping' where the child increases their knowledge independently; 'scaffolding', where they do so with the help of parents and teachers within the ZPD where the child is ready to build on what they already know with the assistance of others (see Bruner 1985). In science education specifically, Koslowski (1996) underlines the collaborative discussion and argumentation which scientists actually engage in, recognising that scientific enquiry involves bootstrapping-her definition is 'using theory to constrain data and using data in turn to constrain, refine, and elaborate theory' (p. 281). When students participate in collaborative argumentation during their school education in science (and in other subjects, appropriately handled), they are learning how to learn. As Bricker and Bell (2008) put it: 'Argumentation makes people's ideas visible, it can promote conceptual change because some of the ideas it surfaces might afford avenues for cognitive dissonance, it fosters co-construction of knowledge, and it provides space for deep articulation of the issues at hand' (p. 41). Like Koslowski, these writers emphasise the need for researchers to recognise how collaborative practices and reasoning really operate in science. They also urge researchers to take on board 'what everyday argumentative competencies youth develop and bring to the classroom' (Bricker and Bell 2008, p. 48). These bear significantly on how students learn science, learn to do science and learn about science (c.f. Hodson 1998;and Bryce and Day 2014), and accords with effective questioning strategies used in in-depth interviews designed to ascertain what young people know in particular fields, such as the astronomical ideas figuring in the present research.

Research Aims
Guided by these considerations, we set out to: RA1: identify what children regard as the sources of their astronomy knowledge, together with corroborations from teachers, parents and (where appropriate) librarians; RA2: exemplify the awareness which children reveal of the variety of sources which they use or have used, notably in the transition from everyday to scientific thinking and language.

Participants
There were 688 participants in all: 538 children (270 from NZ 2 including 125 boys and 145 girls; 268 from China including 144 boys and 124 girls); 65 teachers (31 from NZ; 34 from China); 80 parents (38 from NZ; 42 from China); and 5 librarians (3 from NZ; 2 from China) (see Table 1). The children attended kindergartens and schools in Wairarapa, Wellington Region, North Island, NZ; and Changchun, Jilin Province, North East China. The teachers and parents were from the local school communities. The librarians were from the National Library Services that served local schools. The number of children in each age group varied from survey to survey but aimed at a minimum of n = 30 for each 3-4 year span (ages 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, 13-15, 16-18) and averaged n = 50 in the most complete survey in NZ in 1998 and in China in 2000. Children age 3 to 18 in each culture participated because of the nature of the longitudinal study which followed the development of children's astronomy concepts from kindergarten and pre-school, through primary school to secondary school. Young people from each culture were 'twinned' 3 within their own culture into matched pairs as far as possible on the basis of age, ethnicity, gender, general ability and socio-economic background (parents' occupations) to form survey and control groups. They were then matched across cultures so that NZ children were being compared with 'similar' children in China. 'Twinning' was done by class teachers so that in general children were being compared with their peers in the same class and school.

Comparative Cultures for Longitudinal Ethnographic Studies
New Zealand was selected because it is the home of the first author who conducted pilot studies in the field in 1987-1989. These were followed by cross-cultural longitudinal studies from 1993 to 2003; and from 2004 to 2006; to investigate whether the cosmologies found in children in NZ would be found in children of other ethnic groups and cultures (following the recommendations of Nussbaum and Novak 1976, for such cross-cultural research). China was selected as the comparison culture because at that time (1993) it was considered to be a very different culture from NZ with ancient roots, a different language system (pictographic versus alphabetical) and thought to be less scientifically advanced than NZ with less access to scientific media and thus likely to have different children's cosmologies. China was also chosen because the researcher had connections with teachers in China through the NZ-China Friendship Society who arranged for him to undertake research into children's science concepts while teaching in China. In retrospect, this period was to be marked by rapid change as China modernised but the cultures remained sufficiently diverse for a comparative study to be viable.

Procedure
The methodology incorporated both constructivist and socio-cultural elements influenced by the work of Piaget and Vygotsky; the former based on Piaget's premise that learners construct knowledge through their activities and experiences; the latter building on Vygotsky's theory that learning is a process founded on children's social encounters and interactions with adults and peers. The procedure was based on an ethnographic and longitudinal approach whereby the researcher (first author) spent several months in each school culture becoming an accepted member of the community. Generally, the children were interviewed one-to-one as with Piagetian clinical interviews (see Piaget 1929Piaget , 1930, with an interpreter present in China. Younger children (age 3-12) were interviewed using an extensive interview guide (see 3 1. We had 'matched pairs' within cultures to provide a survey and control groups to measure the influence of repeated interviews and Socratic dialogue as part of a longitudinal study. 2. We had matched pairs across cultures (NZ and China) to ensure that we were comparing children of similar socio-economic background (based on parents occupation).
3. As far as possible general ability (based on teacher assessment), age, gender and ethnicity (e.g. NZ European, NZ Māori; Chinese Han, Man) were also taken into consideration in 'twinning' children.
4. We also tried to match children in the same school and class with the same teachers to reduce variables such as curriculum coverage; and to make it easier to keep track of children over time.
Appendix A) and older children (age 13-18) completed a written questionnaire (see Appendix B), both with Socratic dialogue. Finally, the participants completed a questionnaire on Sources of Astronomy Knowledge with the assistance of the researcher who asked the questions verbally and took notes on responses (see Appendix C).
The interviews were usually held outdoors or in a room with an outdoor view. The setting was kept as natural and informal as possible with other children and adults being welcome to observe the interviews and experiments. With very young children (aged 3-4), a teacher might also be present as an observer to put children at ease in an unfamiliar one-to-one interview setting. However, when the opportunity arose, small group interviews were conducted in a socio-cultural setting as used by Vygotsky (1962Vygotsky ( , 1978Vygotsky ( , 1986Vygotsky ( , 2012 to clarify points raised in the individual interviews (see protocols in Results). Interviews were initially conducted with children outdoors observing the changes in the motion of a shadow stick shadow as a result of the apparent motion of the Sun. They then observed the Moon if it was visible and where possible repeated these observations within a few days so gaining a sense of its motion (observations of the Moon were sometimes conducted in small groups to enable the maximum number of children to observe the Moon in daytime). While waiting for changes in the shadow stick shadow, we kept children focused on the motion of ESM by a series of questions about associated concepts of time such as a day, month and year, and whether these were related to the motion of the ESM. This was followed by questions on daytime and night-time, as shown in the interview guide (Appendix A). They then moved to a suitable room indoors with a view of the Ground and Sky where they drew the shape of the ESM, the Ground and Sky, themselves and a friend who lived a long way away 'on the other side of the Earth'. These activities gave insights into children's concepts of Earth shape, habitation of Earth and identity with Earth as detailed in Bryce & Blown (2013). Thereafter, children participated in a series of thought-experiments concerning gravity, involving 1. Dropping and throwing balls: plotting the trajectory of the ball; 2. Predicting what will happen to water in a bottle on this side and the other side of the Earth; 3. Describing what would happen to a ball dropped into a hole through the Earth; as described in Blown and Bryce (2012). These activities were followed by play-dough modelling of the shape and motion of the ESM, daytime and night-time; then drawing and modelling the seasons and eclipses.
Interviewing young children in ethnographic research is challenging for teacher-researchers because children naturally ask questions to extend their knowledge and expect the interviewer to teach: they are too young to make a distinction between teacher and researcher. This presented a dilemma for the researcher who, as a science teacher, wanted to engage in Socratic dialogue to guide or scaffold the child with everyday concepts to a more-scientific view. But as a researcher, he recognised his role was to be objective and impartial so as to have the least possible influence on the child's responses. Finding the balance between these sometimes conflicting roles was a constant challenge and the results show that the main interview did influence children, so that in the follow-up longitudinal studies those children who had been interviewed in the past had more advanced scientific concepts than their control twins. To minimise this effect in repeated interviews, the researcher compromised: when it was likely that the child would be interviewed again (the survey group in the longitudinal study), he referred children in need of scaffolding to their teachers or the library; and when he was unlikely to meet the child again (the control group), he answered their question to the best of his ability. By its very nature, the analogy of scaffolding implies building on the child's existing knowledge, be that knowledge everyday scientific, or a mixture of both. Attempts to eradicate the foundations of early learned ideas are likely to end in failure. A better approach is to lead the child to recognise that there are alternative ways of interpreting what they see and what they know: one of which is the scientific view. The interviews were recorded on audio and videotape and transcribed by the researcher (first author) (with the assistance of interpreters in China). These protocols together with the researcher's field notes, and children's drawings and models, provided the main contextual qualitative evidence of sources (informing RA1) and processes of metacognition (informing RA2). The data were initially analysed and coded by the first author using the authors' Cosmological Concept Categorisation Scheme covering 13 cosmological concepts: Earth Motion, Sun Motion, Moon Motion, Time, Daytime and Night-time, Earth Shape, Sun Shape, Moon Shape, Gravity Thought Experiments, Seasons and Eclipses as described by Authors (2006aAuthors ( , 2006bAuthors ( , 2013)-see Appendices D, D1, D2 and D3. Periodically, a range of exemplars from each category were checked by two astronomers from Carter National Observatory in Wellington, NZ, with an intercoder agreement of 85-95%; Cohen's kappa = .83 to .94. The follow-up questionnaires given to teachers, parents and librarians provided in-depth information on sources such as nursery rhymes, fairy tales, myths and legends which may have influenced children's everyday language repertoires. They also gave details of scientific literature and media used by teachers in schools and by parents in the home which likewise could have contributed to children's scientific repertoires.
Because of space restrictions, we have omitted extensive protocols of children's responses to the researcher's questions during interviews and Socratic dialogue including discussion on sources of knowledge (teachers, parents, books, TV, etc.), as these arose during the course of the interviews. We have also omitted drawings, photos and video recordings of children's play-dough models of the shape and motion of ESM. These data provided an in-depth analysis of children's cosmologies in three modalities (verbal language, drawing and play-dough modelling). Examples of metacognition arose during the interviews encouraged by Socratic dialogue. The comprehensive study of the shape and motion of ESM also afforded a clear focus for the questionnaires on sources of astronomical knowledge.
The data were collected over a period of time by a series of surveys in NZ and China. The main cross-cultural longitudinal survey of children's cosmologies of ESM (with children age 3-12) took place in 1993 in NZ and 1994 in China (see Table 2). This was followed by a longitudinal follow-up survey with control groups in 1998 in NZ and 2000 in China (the children now being age [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. A second survey (with new survey and control groups of children, age 3-12, to provide fresh data for comparative purposes; some of the original groups having reached adulthood: e.g. age 12 in 1993; age 22 in 2003) took place in 2003in NZ and 2005 in China. This was followed by a second longitudinal follow-up survey with control groups 2005 in NZ and 2006 in China. Finally, to investigate questions raised by deeper analysis of the data such as cultural mediation of knowledge and migration of folklore, surveys of teachers, parents and librarians took place in 2012-2013 (see Appendix E, upper section), and surveys of parents of Shandong ancestry in 2013-2016 (see Appendix E, lower section). These were conducted by the researcher (in NZ) and researcher with interpreters-research assistants (in China). The procedure involved a combination of interviews based on the questionnaires and collation of written responses. The main surveys (1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006) were conducted by the first author with interpreters-research assistants in China. During much of this time, the researcher taught in NZ and China and because of the ethnographic nature of the research, surveys could not be conducted simultaneously in both cultures. Thus, in general, there is a 1-or 2-year gap between comparative surveys but this was allowed for when selecting age groups.
The current paper reports on the sources of knowledge identified by children, parents, teachers and librarians that children utilised in participating in the main studies (structured interviews) of children's cosmologies of the Earth, Sun and Moon as described. The principal gaps which the research reported in this paper are concerned with are: & how teachers, parents and librarians (libraries, books) continue to be major sources of scientific knowledge despite the rise of electronic media (the Internet) during the period of these studies; & the extent to which folklore-both local and imported by migration-is also identified as an important source; & how metacognitive bootstrapping and a growing awareness of co-existing everyday and scientific repertoires of knowledge result from divergent sources.

Results
There was substantial evidence from the interviews of children using knowledge from a wide variety of sources to create their everyday (cultural), scientific and other concepts of astronomical phenomena. Children frequently revealed their sources of information during the interview without prompting. In other cases, they were asked where they learned about the ESM. At the end of the interview, participants completed a questionnaire on their sources of astronomical knowledge either verbally (with younger children) or in writing; the sources being grouped by thematic analysis as follows.

Categories of the Identified Sources from Interview and Questionnaire Responses
Parents or people at home: Typically, reference was made to my mother, There was considerable evidence of young children (including many well into primary school) citing everyday ideas as they spoke about where they learned about daytime and night-time [fully exemplified and discussed in Blown and Bryce 2017]. Many of the protocols indicate figurative expressions, animism and anthropomorphism, such as the Moon going to bed and sleeping by day and the Sun doing so by night (not infrequently embellished-closing its eyes or the clouds are its bed). There was also much evidence of folklore as the source of children's knowledge including the Sun going behind the hills at night-time, even in locations where there were no mountains in the vicinity whatsoever [in the North East China plain-see our discussion concerning the migration of folklore in Blown and Bryce 2017] and later in this text. Transitions to disembedded thinking became apparent in examples where children alternated in their explanations between everyday-animistic language influenced by their cultural heritage of traditional stories, myths and legends and the scientific language used by teachers to explain things. Imaginative reasoning reflects the emergence of logic and analogy, precursors of metacognitive use of language to share conceptual meaning. Examples included children in the early parts of an interview referring to the Sun sleeping at night then, later, when asked about where that took place, explicitly discounting bed and expressing a more technical idea, sometimes leaving the dialogue 'hanging'. Or individuals who considered the Sun to be behind the mountains at night, then describing sunrise as the Sun climbing up the hill at sunrise, in a metaphorical sense. Following the completion of this research, the authors came across a Chinese folktale Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story based on the Chinese manuscript Youyang Zazu which, according to Palmer et al. (2012, p. 49) is dated to the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) [Waley 1947 provides a translation of this folktale.] Of relevance is that Palmer et al.'s report is about how students in China learn about their culture through such tales which emphasise figurative language. The authors also observe that while most research about figurative language focuses upon its understanding and interpretation, there are few studies of it in relation to society and culture. The point here is that the migration of folklore which the current authors have described is concerned with concepts being transmitted in the form of figurative language: e.g. 'The Sun goes to sleep behind the mountains'.

Examples of Children Demonstrating Metacognitive Skills While Selecting Between Co-existing Repertoires of Ideas from Everyday and Scientific Sources of Knowledge
Although relatively rare, there were a few cases of children being recorded self-analysing their responses and correcting them from everyday to scientific to suit the interview setting. For example, in a follow-up group interview with three NZ children: Tanya, Samantha and Rhiannon where R denotes the researcher and C the child.
C. And it also goes to sleep... R. I think also you talked about the Moon sleeping in daytime, is that right? C. Yes...sort of. As shown by the exemplars of Tanya, Samantha and Rhiannon self-analysing their interview responses and translating their everyday ideas into scientific concepts to match the context, children employ a variety of cognitive and linguistic skills reflecting an awareness of alternative repertoires and a mastery of language to share ideas and convey meaning. Having brought up their recent observation that the Moon is sometimes visible in daytime, the three children adjust their reasoning about where it moves in relation to the Earth and, with some uncertainty, question the origins of their memory of it 'being asleep'. These findings confirm the work of those researchers we cited earlier with respect to metacognition, particularly in respect of bootstrapping. During Socratic dialogue, the researcher mentions having observed the Moon 'yesterday'. It is advantageous for the researcher to be able to share observations in this way-with the child and researcher talking about the same phenomena as a shared experience.
Examples of Co-existence of Everyday and Scientific Ideas of Daytime and Night-time Although our analysis tended to treat everyday and scientific sources separately, concepts derived from these sources co-exist so that when children create concepts, they generate shapes and motions from a variety of sources. These diverse origins are reflected in combination with children's drawings and models as illustrated below. Emma described and modelled the Earth as ball-shaped, and drew the Earth as a planet-like object in space from a scientific perspective. However, she described the ground as 'Square' and drew the ground and sky flat and horizontal as they appear in the everyday world. Her drawings of 'Self' and 'Friend' standing on the horizontal ground rather than on the spherical Earth is further evidence of conflicting knowledge sources (see Fig. 1a). Thus her concept of the Earth is neither completely scientific nor everyday but a combination of the two depending on the context of the question asked. However, rather than 'knowledge-in-pieces' (as advocated by diSessa,1988, and supported by Nobes et al. 2005, this demonstrates the remarkable ability by children to make sense of a rich variety of information from diverse sources in order to construct a coherent world view (as argued by Carey 1985a; and supported by Brewer 1992, 1994 1 a Emma (age 6 years and 7 months) drew the Earth as a planet like object in space from a scientific perspective. However, she described the Ground as 'square' and drew the Ground and Sky flat and horizontal. Her drawing of 'Self' and 'Friend' standing on the horizontal ground below the Earth rather than on the spherical Earth in space is further evidence of conflicting knowledge sources. Thus, her concept of the Earth is neither completely scientific nor everyday but a combination of the two depending on the context of the question asked during the interview. b Zhang Zhe (age 8 years and 10 months) drew the Earth as a spherical planet like body in space. However, when he drew the Ground and Sky, he reverted to an everyday perspective with the Ground 'flat' below and the Sky 'flat' above his drawing of 'Earth'. He drew 'Self' standing on the everyday Ground, whereas 'Friend on the other side of the world' is standing on the spherical Earth, thus combining scientific and everyday concepts from different sources of knowledge.
R. Just put an arrow up like that (from lower drawing of Ground to surface of Earth Zhang Zhe drew the Earth from a scientific perspective as a planet-like body. However, when he drew the ground and sky, he reverted to an everyday perspective with the ground 'flat' below and the sky 'flat' above his drawing of 'Earth'. Retrospectively, he indicated with an arrow that the ground is on the Earth. He drew 'Self' standing on the everyday ground, whereas 'Friend on the other side of the world' is standing on the spherical Earth, thus combining both scientific and everyday concepts. Scientific ideas are also evident in his drawing of countries and oceans on the Earth, and lunar phases (see Fig. 1b).

Results of Follow-up Questionnaires for Parents, Teachers and Librarians
The short questionnaire given to parents, teachers and librarians asked for details of any stories that they had told children about ESM. In the case of parents and teachers of older children, stories and literature about astronomy in general were sought. In the case of parents and teachers of younger children, they were asked for stories related to daytime and night-time; particularly, any that mention the Sun going to sleep at night-time, and the Moon going to sleep in the daytime. Or stories that refer to the Sun and Moon going home to bed or going home behind the hills or mountains at these times. They were also asked for details of any books (including nursery rhymes, fairy tales, myths and legends) which may have influenced children's thoughts. Similarly, they were asked for the details of any TV programmes, videos or DVDs that their children had viewed (see Appendix E). Among the responses (NZ parents: n = 38; NZ teachers: n = 31; China parents: n = 42; China teachers: n = 34), songs and nursery rhymes were commonly cited; e.g. The cow jumped over the moon…; The man in the moon came down too soon…; The Sun has got his hat on…. Popular stories were also quoted; e.g. Many children in China are told about Yi (also known as Hou Yi) the great archer who shot down surplus Suns; Chang'e, goddess of the Moon; Yutu (Chang'e's pet rabbit); and Wu Gang who live on the Moon. Local librarians in both China and New Zealand identified a range of children's books, DVDs and videos concerned with daytime, night-time and associated basic ideas in astronomy. From the sample offered, very many of those items intended for young readers express such ideas in animistic terms quite explicitly and convincingly (that is, emphatically teaching animism); some recount mythical stories involving animism, endeavouring (at best) to contextualise folklore and distinguish between it and scientific understanding of phenomena associated with ESM; and a few convey muddled thinking not helpful to children's scientific grasp of basic ideas in this whole area. Appendix F contains an annotated list of texts and other media in these three categories. Figure 2 displays graphically the sources identified by children for each of four stages in school, in the two countries (NZ and China) where the interviews were conducted. The data were based on the question: Which three of these sources (of knowledge) were most important to you?-taking the first choice only into account.
The results show that the influence of parents, books and other sources combined can be seen to be greater than that of teachers in the Primary years during the period of acquisition of everyday concepts. The role of teachers as sources of scientific knowledge becomes dominant at Secondary level. The influence of enthusiastic teachers and parents with a love for nature and science cannot be overestimated. For example, on encouraging the emergence of disembedded thought/language, teachers and parents could engage in unconventional teaching and learning experiences (perhaps as outdoor education during a school camp) such as observing sunrise and sunset with their children and imagining the Earth moving (rotating) towards the Sun (sunrise) or away from the Sun (sunset). In other words, we have to give children 'direct experience with phenomena' (Nussbaum and Novak 1976, p. 549) to enable them to break away from traditional contexts (see Qiantang tidal bore, Appendix F). There is also a need to be more selective about Fig. 2 a Most important sources of astronomical knowledge across age groups and cultures-New Zealand (1998)(1999)(2000). b Most important sources of astronomical knowledge across age groups and cultures-China (1998)(1999)(2000). the role of children's literature to ensure a balance between everyday and scientific perspectives, or to use stories based on folklore to lead into alternative (scientific) explanation. Disembedding (Donaldson 1978) could also be enhanced by the use of media such as drawing and modelling (as in the use of children's drawings and play-dough modelling by Kallery 2010) to reinforce concepts being introduced by verbal language, so encouraging the growth of scientific conceptskill (see Blown and Bryce 2010;Barsalou 2003).
The similarity between the cultures is striking and underscores the argument that children in cultures that have adopted a scientific worldview where children attend school and are taught by scientifically minded teachers, whose parents have also adopted a scientific world view and who enjoy access to libraries and the Internet, have similar sources of astronomical knowledge. The greater dependence of China students on books from Senior Primary may reflect greater emphasis on formal physical science in Chinese society and in the school curriculum from primary school onwards.
Further analysis is shown in Fig. 3 where the majority of sources are compared between cultures across time (between two different groups 6 years apart). These show that (a) dependence on teachers as a knowledge source declined in NZ but remained high in China; (b) reliance on parents as a source declined over the same period in NZ but not in China; (c) books remained high as a major source in both cultures; (d) television was the fourth most important source after books, teachers and parents; and (e) other children (peers) decreased from 39 to 35% in NZ, and increased from 28 to 34% in China. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, teachers, parents and books remained the major sources of astronomical knowledge throughout these studies (1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006). This was against a backdrop of rapid technological change such as access to the Internet and other electronic audio visual media at home and school influencing educational practice and recreational pursuits in both cultures. There was also greater access to information on general astronomy and space exploration through TV, movies and DVDs during this period influencing children in both countries but this did not change the major sources for reference and knowledge of astronomy.

Findings in Relation to the Literature on Earth Science and Astronomy
Our findings are in general agreement with those of previous researchers but there were noticeable exceptions. For example, whereas our results agree with those of Sneider and Pulos (1983), that teachers, parents and books are major sources of knowledge about the Earth's shape and gravity, we also found that children's own observations were, in some cases, major sources (see Appendix C, row 16). This is consistent with Hannust and Kikas's (2007) recent finding that children's sources reflect 'observations of the world and explanations given by other people' (p. 90). Like Nussbaum and Novak (1976) and Nussbaum (1979), our results highlighted the role of informal learning such as the interview itself (resulting in longitudinal survey children who had been interviewed before having enhanced learning over control groups who were interviewed only once). This could be interpreted as an example of scaffolding through Socratic dialogue; although in this case, unintentional from the perspective of the longitudinal study (see Appendix C, row 17, 'This study').
We also found strong evidence in support of Klein's (1982), Howe's (1979, 1980) and Nussbaum and Sharoni-Dagan (1983) emphasis on the all-important role of schooling. Overall, the range of sources and their relative importance was similar to that found by Jarman and McClune (2007). Our results also support the more recent view of Plummer and Krajcik (2010) that teachers and parents with a scientific worldview are key sources of scientific knowledge.
In respect of the aforementioned coherence of children's knowledge, our findings differ from Siegal et al. (2004), Nobes et al. (2003) and Nobes et al. (2005). The current authors found no evidence of fragmented 'knowledge-in-pieces' (as argued originally by diSessa (1988) and countered by us in Blown (2006, 2016) and in Bryce (2006, 2010). On the contrary, the current authors found that children had rich alternative repertoires of knowledge based on everyday and scientific interpretations of their worlds. Possibly, some previous researchers have misinterpreted switching between these alternatives as fragmentation rather than acts of translation from everyday to scientific and vice versa. In other words, some researchers may have focused on minor mistranslations rather than on the richness of co-existing ideas capable of expression in alternative language modes-possibly as a consequence of limited time spent with children and restricted research samples. The current studies embraced an ethnological approach with relatively large samples (n = 538 pupils) and few time constraints on individual interviews involving several years contact with the respective communities. The current authors have also previously reported on differences in Fig. 3 a Sources of astronomical knowledge: comparison between cultures over time (1998 and 2000). b Sources of astronomical knowledge: comparison between cultures over time (2004 and 2006). methodology [particularly open versus closed (forced-choice) questions] resulting in differences in responses: see Blown and Bryce (2012); Bryce and Blown (2012).

Findings in Relation to the Literature on Metacognition
As shown by the exemplars of Tanya, Samantha and Rhiannon self-analysing their interview responses and translating their everyday ideas into scientific concepts to match the context, children employ a variety of cognitive and linguistic skills reflecting an awareness of alternative repertoires and a mastery of language to share ideas and convey meaning. These findings confirm the work of those researchers we cited earlier with respect to metacognition, particularly in respect of bootstrapping. Similarly, the protocols of Emma and Zhang Zhe showing children constructing coherent world views by interweaving, combining and translating concepts from diverse sources of knowledge (folklore, culture, scientific) demonstrate that even relatively young children show some degree of mastery and conscious control of alternative modes of expression, as argued by Bryce and Whitbread (2012). While difficult to capture in interview situations (relying as they do on unique one-to-one Socratic dialogue between child and researcher in a conducive environment for interchange of ideas), the evidence suggests that these cognitive and linguistic skills are commonplace as children develop consciousness of the world and an increasing degree of control through language and thought. The role of scientifically minded teachers in this process through strategies such as scaffolding within the ZPD cannot be overestimated.

Findings in Relation to Theory, Methodology and Cultures
In light of the literature, it may be helpful to place the sources of astronomical knowledge in the context of the overall study, the questions on sources having been put to children following an extensive interview about their astronomical concepts. The main study utilising the interview guide yielded spontaneous contextual information on sources of knowledge either directly or through Socratic dialogue which formed the qualitative base of the analysis (see protocols in Results and Fig. 1). The questionnaire and interview on sources of astronomical knowledge administered at the end of the main study provided more general information on sources and the quantitative basis of the analysis (see Figs. 2 and 3).
In terms of the main study, it was found that an ethnographic approach involving the researcher spending relatively long periods of time in each school setting utilising elements of both constuctivist and socio-cultural methods afforded children in both cultures the opportunity to share their cosmologies and their sources of knowledge. The use of Piagetian interview techniques combined with Socratic dialogue produced data similar to that found by other researchers. The application of a multi-modal approach provided an opportunity to triangulate verbal language with drawing and play-dough modelling modalities. In this respect, the methodology diverged from the classical Piagetian approach and used drawing and modelling as tools in the socio-cultural sense. However, the researcher avoided the use of pre-made cultural artefacts such as globes, maps and pre-made models since these were thought to influence the outcome by reducing conceptual variability. The results showed that NZ and Chinese children's concepts were remarkably similar, a result that the authors attributed to both being taught by teachers with a scientific world view. There were however some cultural differences such as differing ideas about the nature and phases of the Moon attributed to the use of a lunar calendar in China. Although the development of cosmological concepts followed similar paths in NZ and China and could be seen to become more scientific with age, there was no evidence of the ages and stages theorised by Piaget, thus echoing findings by many researchers over the years (c.f. Ausubel 2000). Some very young children were found to have scientific ideas, whereas some older children were found to hold essentially everyday concepts: the two modes (everyday and scientific) being found to co-exist.
The same pattern between cultures was evident with similar sources of knowledge being identified, but there were some differences such as greater reliance on teachers and parents in China in the latest survey. The latter is probably a result of China's one child family policy: a socio-cultural influence that, combined with competition for higher education leading to secure employment, caused parents to invest greater time and energy into their child's education than in NZ. This is not entirely altruistic on the part of parents and grandparents since investment in the education of their offspring brings socio-economic benefits to the entire family. [See our detailed discussion and references in Blown and Bryce 2010].
Pre-school and after-school classes in China also provided greater opportunity for scaffolding which may have accounted for Chinese children having more advanced science concepts than their NZ counterparts at senior primary school; an additional factor being specialist science and technology teachers at primary level in China.

Findings in Relation to Research Aims
The authors set out to (1) identify what children regard as the source of their astronomy knowledge, together with corroborations from teachers, parents and (where appropriate) librarians; and (2) exemplify the awareness which children reveal of the variety of sources which they use or have used, notably in the transition from everyday to scientific thinking and language.
With respect to RA1, we have described, through excerpts from interview protocols taken from the main study guided by the semi-structured Piagetian interview with Socratic dialogue, children's knowledge sources in their own words, and illustrated how knowledge from scientific sources may conflict with and co-exist with everyday ideas to form semi-scientific cosmologies (see Fig. 1). In addition, we have summarised the results of the interview and questionnaire on sources of astronomical knowledge applied at the end of the study. The major sources identified in both cultures were teachers, parents and books; a pattern that has persisted over the years of the longitudinal study (see Figs. 2 and 3 on sources in general; and Appendix G on books, television and films as sources).
Addressing RA2, the authors have included excerpts and protocols of children switching between co-existing everyday and scientific ideas and vice versa as they try to respond to questions about the shape and motion of the ESM and related concepts such as the cause of daytime and night-time. Such switching is thought to be relatively commonplace; indeed the norm; but such episodes are difficult to capture and record because children are aware of being engaged in a 'language game' with the researcher where they are expected to talk and think scientifically but everyday concepts come through as children compose a response based on a variety of sources of knowledge (see Blown and Bryce 2017;Donaldson 1992). Donaldson draws attention to the critical role of 'language games' in a practical rather than a philosophical sense as preparation for making sense of the language of adults, what Donaldson (1992) calls 'using language in an intellectual way', at school and in the everyday world; enabling children to switch from their natural children's language to adult language, as the situation or rules of the game demand: Some parents encourage close attention to words before their children go to school. They talk to their children about words, not just with words. They play language games.
The children of such parents go to school with a great advantage: when it comes to the interpretation of speech they are already able to move from mode to mode as the occasion demands. Their teachers usually decide that they are 'intelligent' (p. 118).

The Migration of Folklore
In a recent research paper (Blown and Bryce 2017), we reported that there was evidence from children's interviews and drawings of astro-geographical concepts which were at odds with the interview setting in China. For example, many children spoke of and drew the Sun setting behind mountains, but (unlike the case in Wairarapa, New Zealand) no mountains are visible in Changchun, a city in Jilin Province, on the North East China Plain. Further investigation revealed that several of these children were offspring of parents and grandparents who had migrated from Hebei and Shandong-more mountainous regions to the south-to Jilin, a distance of more than 1200 km. This raised the question of whether the migrants brought their folklore with them and passed it on to their children and grandchildren. The migrants from Shandong came from both urban and rural areas (Gottschang and Lary 2000, p. 3). Thus the folklore that they brought with them would have been rich in myths, legends and stories embedded in natural settings such as hills and mountains; and as farmers and farm labourers, they would have personal experience of natural phenomena such as sunrise and sunset against the backdrop of their villages surrounded by hills. Some migrants made repeated return journeys to their old homes whilst others made a one-way planned trip. This would allow a gradual assimilation of folklore. To test this hypothesis (of migration of folklore), we gave a short follow-up questionnaire to parents of Shandong ancestry to see whether concepts such as the Sun and Moon rising from behind and setting behind mountains are part of traditional folklore and appear to have been passed on to children who have never been there. As shown in Appendix H, there was clear evidence in support of the theory that parents and grandparents from Shandong brought their ideas, myths and legends about mountains and hills, and their relation to astronomical events such as sunrise and sunset with them when they moved to Jilin.

Concluding Discussion
The findings address both research aims satisfactorily, having (1) identified what children regard as the source of their astronomy knowledge, together with corroborations from teachers, parents and librarians; and (2) exemplified the awareness which children reveal of the variety of sources which they use or have used. We should therefore encourage teachers and parents to teach children astronomy and to ensure that local libraries are retained and are well stocked. Children should be taught how to discriminate between folklore and scientific knowledge. Although everyday and scientific knowledge coexist, children should be taught which is appropriate in different contexts. For example, 'I watched the Sun set' is part of everyday language; but from a scientific perspective, this effect is due to the rotation of the Earth. Media such as movies, TV and DVDs can illustrate these phenomena and are valuable sources for children and teachers. While the results confirm those reported in Blown and Bryce (2017) concerning the coexistence of everyday and scientific ideas and expressions, the extent of the continuing influence of early-learned ideas during the primary school years is marked.
The research has focused on one area of children's knowledge and, while corroborations of the findings should be sought in other areas, there is little reason to suppose that the results will be confined to ideas in this area alone-apart from acknowledging the longstanding fascinations over astronomical phenomena which have prevailed in cultures worldwide, thus lending them to rich forms of folklore and intrigue. The extent of the influence of early-learned ideas bearing on many school topics is likely to be similar, if perhaps less marked for that reason.
Thus, with respect to instruction in school, the transition to scientific thinking and language as children respond to questions is challenging for teachers, though metacognitive awareness does provide opportunities for constructive analogical bridging (see Bryce and MacMillan 2005;Gentner 1983Gentner , 1989. The findings here support the recommendation made earlier by the current authors that, rather than attempting to replace everyday language with scientific language, as has been argued by some writers, their coexistence should be more explicitly recognised and managed positively. The bootstrapping which occurs between growing knowledge and the metacognitive strategies which children develop (exemplified in this study) underscores the attention which needs to be paid to scaffolding within the ZPD (c.f. Bruner 1985;Wood et al. 1976;Vygotsky 1978Vygotsky , 2012. Tackling this sensitively and satisfactorily requires much more than simply rehearsing what was in children's past then proceeding to set out scientific considerations. Pursuing the detail of the differences between everyday and scientific ideas thoughtfully, taking the time required for pupils to internalise them and articulate them during group discussion, will have considerable benefits for current and future learning. Hedges (2014), referred to earlier in the literature review, also considers that teachers need to be more alert to what she describes as children's 'working theories', the term suggesting the prospects for revision and development with experience, particularly when appropriately scaffolded by adults. Her article gives illustrations demonstrating the involvement of beliefs as well as knowledge in children's thinking, and relevant to the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum (see Te Whāriki, Ministry of Education 1996).
An issue raised in practice is what happens in all early learning settings where programmes may be dominated by (well intentioned) interpretations of Piagetian or Vygostkian theory, these ensuring the use of concrete materials to give children an experiential base for commonplace ideas. Fleer and Ridgway (2007), for example, reflect on the observations they have made about the relations between everyday and scientific concepts in such early learning contexts, noting that more time was spent on building more everyday concepts. However: 'Less time has traditionally been devoted to introducing scientific concepts, particularly in ways that interlace everyday and scientific concepts' (p. 42, emphasis added). Niebert et al. (2012) advice on the merits of handling metaphors and analogies with care is useful in this regard; to be effective, they must be grounded in real pupil experiences-'earlier knowledge resources' if we follow Wagner's (2010, p. 1) analysis of what brings about the transfer of learning. A crucial step for schoolteachers is to realise that, not infrequently, young pupils will probably be alternating between everyday and scientific connotations as they wrestle with the new ideas they are encountering in science. We argue (see Bryce 2010, 2017) that children maintain a coherent world view to enable them to make sense of and function in the world. Careful attention must therefore be paid to those clues which signal the personal meanings which pupils are likely to come up with during lessons, personal meanings derivative of their own family exchanges and local folklore which have such enduring influences on the acquisition of scientific understanding throughout school.
Reflecting on the preparation of future teachers for both primary and secondary schools, our research suggests that teacher educators also require to be become aware of the richness of children's cosmologies and the co-existence of everyday and scientific ideas, not simply in the astronomy areas dealt with here, but in respect of the world in general. In addition, the resources available to students and children (and the public at large) need to be vetted by responsible and knowledgeable adults to ensure that a balance is maintained between everyday and scientific knowledge (be it from books, television, DVDs, film or the Internet). We would argue that this suggests an additional role for teacher educators, for they are probably best placed to make the greatest difference given the extent of the challenges signalled by the findings on the continuing influence of early learning. Drawing from the data we described earlier and in Blown and Bryce (2017) Clearly, early-learned ideas persist into late childhood in coexistence with scientific concepts and can be recalled in certain contexts.
Finally, two things are worth recognising. The first is that in the non-science areas of the curriculum (language, art, history, and so on), folklore is rightly celebrated and values infuse the cultural activities used in lessons. Strong messages of ethics and respect are conveyed in folk tales where clear, straightforward explanations are used to generate feelings aimed at social unity and shared human values; these are what adults set store by. A generalised message therefore accompanies any folklore brought into school lessons: the ideas are reputable with the implication that these are 'how things should be'. Thus, family-based stories, even those not particularly associated with moral values (as in the research we have described), count as respectable knowledge. Science teachers should therefore not be surprised at the resilience of all early prior learning. Hence, during the initial stages of instruction, interchanging everyday and scientific meanings should be teased out explicitly in the classroom but with due care for the community origins and values implicit in children's thoughts. For example, as Fleer and Ridgway (2007) suggest, rather than spending time building more everyday concepts divorced from scientific concepts, more time should be spent on interweaving everyday and scientific concepts, thereby allowing opportunities for 'bootstrapping' to take place. One way in which this could be done would be to found metaphors and analogies on children's own experience as Niebert et al. (2012) recommend.
The second thing to recognise is that there is a rich tapestry of folklore in our pre-scientific history which can be used to scaffold from everyday to scientific ideas. Some folklore has tended to become so engrained that it is taken as fact (e.g., Newton's apple). Teachers, teacher educators, and parents should be aware of what is and what is not folklore. As we report above in the case of children's literature, ideas such as 'the Sun rising and setting' are so embedded in our psyche that they are accepted intuitively as 'fact' when in truth they are misconceptions based on centuries of everyday observation and experience passed down through stories, legends, myths and folklore.

Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Motion Study
Questions about the motion of the Sun, Earth and Moon Outdoors in sunshine observing the divergence of shadows of a shadow-stick and a pencil Questions about a Friend who lives on the other side of the Earth Imagine that you have a new friend, a friend that you have never met before, imagine that your new friend lives a long way away in another country like China (Australia or New Zealand) on the other side of the Earth. So far away that it would take a whole day in an aeroplane or over 4 weeks in a train to visit them.
Identifying 'Friend with the other side of the Earth Just as you have drawn yourself where you thought you would be on the Earth, so I would like you to draw your friend where you think they would be in China (Australia or New Zealand) on the other side of the Earth, as far away from you as they could possibly be.
Draw your friend on your drawing Label your friend as 'My friend'. Note. Each element had descriptors and thumb-nail sketches encapsulating the key ideas. These were arranged in order from bottom (value1) to top (value 10) to form 10-point ordinal scales from least scientific to most scientific (see Siegel and Castellan Jr. 1988).
The schemes for Motion and Nature of the Earth, Shape and Structure of the Earth, and Daytime and Night-time are shown in Appendices D1, D2, D3.

Questions for Parents on Sources of Children's Ideas about the Earth, Sun and Moon
As many of you will know, I have been studying children's ideas about the Earth, Sun and Moon for many years. One of the points raised by this work is where children learn their ideas about the world and I would be grateful for your help in answering this question.
Young children often refer to the Sun going to sleep at night-time, and the Moon going to sleep in the daytime. Sometimes, they refer to the Sun and Moon going home to bed, or going home behind the hills or mountains at these times. In other words, they give the Sun and Moon human characteristics as if they were alive. When asked where they learned about the Earth, Sun and Moon, younger children mention parents, teachers and books as their main sources of information. Older children refer to teachers, TV, videos, DVDs, movies and the internet.
I would be grateful for the details of any stories that you have told children about such ideas and any books (including nursery rhymes, fairy tales, myths and legends) which may have influenced children's thoughts. Similarly, I would appreciate details of any TV programmes, videos or DVDs that your child or other children have viewed.
Note. A similar questionnaire was given to teachers.
Questions for Librarians on Sources of Children's Ideas about the Earth, Sun and Moon I am researching children's everyday concepts of the Earth, Sun and Moon. Last year, you assisted me through the School Library Service in Palmerston North with titles of children's books on the shape and size of the Earth, Sun and Moon which my colleague and I wrote up for a paper in press. This year, I would appreciate help with titles of children's literature pertaining to nursery rhymes, folklore, fairy tales, myths and legends that may have influenced children's ideas about the motion of the Earth, Sun and Moon particularly their everyday notions of daytime and night-time. For example, young children often refer to the sun going to sleep at night-time and the Moon going to sleep in daytime, Sometimes, they refer to the Sun and Moon going home to bed, or going home behind the hills or mountains at these times. In other words, they give the Sun and Moon human characteristics as if they were alive. Any books that contain such elements that might be read to children as bedtime stories, or used as home reading, or used by kindy or primary teachers would be helpful. Three books that children frequently refer to are 'Maui and the Sun', 'The cow jumped over the Moon' and 'The Sun has got his hat on'. DVDs and other media portraying the motion of the Earth, Sun and Moon in general and anthropomorphism in these in particular would also be helpful.
Note. A similar questionnaire was given to selected librarians in China,  (2003).
& On Earth written and illustrated by G. Brian Karas (2005).
'On earth we go for a giant ride in space, spinning like a merry-go-round.'(p. 1).
[Note. The motion of a merry-go-round is an example of revolution (with the axis of revolution at the centre as with the Sun and solar system) rather than rotation].
& Sun, Moon and Stars by Mary Hoffman and Jane Ray (1998).
'We know that the sun stays in the same place while the earth revolves around it, yet we still use words like sunrise and sunset.'(Introduction).
"Until 1510, when the Polish astronomer Copernicus first worked out that the Earth went round the sun, people thought that the Earth was the center of the universe and that the sun travelled around it. Still, this new knowledge didn't stop them from orienting their journeys by the sun's rising in the east and setting in the west. The word orient comes from the Latin sol oriens, 'the sun rising.'" (p. 13).
[Note. Revolution of Earth around Sun being associated with sunrise and sunset] & I wonder why the Sun rises by Brenda Walpole (1996).
'The Earth doesn't really rise at all! It's the Earth which turns round to give you a sunrise each morning. The Earth is like a spinning ball. Wherever you are, it starts to get light as your part of the Earth spins round to face the Sun' (p. 4).
'We have seasons because of the way the Earth spins round, or orbits, the Sun…the Earth spins round as it orbits the Sun. It doesn't spin upright, though, but tilts to one side' (p. 8). Note. Houyi or Yi was a mythical archer who saved the Earth from destruction by fire. According to legend there were originally ten suns in the sky and the Earth was being scorched. The people sent for Houyi, the best archer in the land, and asked him to help. Houyi shot down the suns one by one until only one remained and the Earth was saved. Note. The stories differ broadly in length, the shortest being less than a page long. Many are classified as Chuangqi, or Zhiguai, sometimes translated as "marvel tales", i.e., stories written in classical Chinese starting in the Tang dynasty. Pu borrowed from a tradition of oral storytelling where the boundary between reality and the odd or fantastic is blurred. Note. It is interesting to note the growing influence of western texts, TV programmes and other media on Chinese children's sources of information about the world; e.g. A different Carmella by French author Christian Jolibois; The magic school bus by Joanna Cole (USA); and Discovery and National Geographic Channels (BBC and CCTV).
Other media with accounts of the nature and motion of the Sun and Moon ( such a marvellous spectacle in China, the principle of which is as follows: the moon and earth attract each other…the moon is like a big magnet which attracts the sea on the earth…Meanwhile, because of centrifugal force by the rotation of the earth, the side of it facing the moon is more seriously affected than the side against it. The water on two sides rise in different directions and thus the middle part is down. So the sea shapes like an oval…with the rotation of the earth, the sea level keeps changing, (and) tides are formed.' Note. An example of 'direct experience with phenomena' (Nussbaum and Novak 1976, p. 549) which enhances children's concepts of Earth and Moon motion and encourages disembedded modes of thought. Although not as "direct" as the real thing, live TV is a safer practical option in this case.
General sources with no specific literature reference ( Traditionally she is known as Huang Feihu (a fertility goddess). Similarly in Daoism she is known as Bi Xia Yuan Jun who blesses couples to have children when they pray to her.
Note. SF: Mount Buzhuo: In Chinese mythology, Gong Gong (sometimes translated as Minister of Works) was ashamed that he lost a fight with Zhu Rong (God of Fire) to claim the throne of heaven. In a fit of rage, he smashed his head against Buzhou Mountain (a pillar holding up the sky) greatly damaging it and causing the sky to tilt towards the northwest and the earth to shift to the southeast, which caused great floods and suffering.
Note. ZZ: Jingwei was a mythical bird, the reincarnation of Nüwa (daughter of Emperor Yan). Nüwa was drowned at sea when her boat sank and in her reincarnation as Jingwei, she filled in the sea with pebbles and twigs so that it could not claim anymore lives.
ZX: Jiazi Mountain is not high but there are many strange stories about it. There is a cave named Sun Bin hole at the top where a legendary figure lived in ancient times.
Q3: Did you ever tell your children stories about the Sun or Moon going to rest or sleep behind the mountains? SF, ZZ, ZJ: Yes, I did. LJ: Yes, I told her the sun goes to sleep behind the hill but I also told her how they move in reality. ZY: Yes, we often tell our children the Sun or the Moon go to sleep behind the mountain. LY: My daughter is too young at present but I will tell her when she grows up. TY: Yes, for example, "the Sun and the Moon are from one family. When the Sun comes to work, the Moon stays home to do housework. Day by day it goes like that." Then (my daughter) would have a sweet dream. ZX: (Yes: the story of Kua Fu, a mythological giant): One year, the weather was very hot, so Kua Fu decided to catch the Sun. The Sun would go to sleep behind the mountains in the night. Kua Fu ran fast, chasing the Sun. He felt very thirsty when he got close to the Sun, so he came to the Yellow River and the Wei River to drink water. However, the two rivers were not enough for him. So he wanted to go to Daze to drink more water but he died half way.

Note.
Daze is an ancient name for a large lake and river at Hunlun in Inner Mongolia.
LYH: Yes I did. And many people that I know did also. We learned about Grandpa Sun, and Grandma Moon (or Moon Nana) from our grandparents. SYH: Yes; when the Sun goes up the mountain (at Sunrise) it means the Sun goes to work. When the Sun goes down the mountain (at Sunset) it gets off work. SXC: I told my daughter: "The Sun comes out when it is daytime, and goes back to sleep when it is night-time. The Sun won't come out until the next day." Note. The terms Grandpa Sun and Grandma Moon are steeped in Chinese culture and tradition. They are in effect the root metaphor of Shandong folklore on the nature and motion of the Sun and Moon. 'Grandpa Sun, Grandma Moon is neither a story nor a nursery rhyme: it is about Chinese traditional thinking. Our ancestors believed that the world is made up of two materials, Yin and Yang. For example, man stands for Yang, and woman stands for Yin. Day stands for Yang, and night stands for Yin. Warm stands for Yang, cold stands for Yin. The Sun is strong and powerful, so we consider it as a man. The Moon is gentle and peaceful, which are like the qualities of woman. So we call the Sun grandpa Sun, the Moon grandma Moon.' The Sun and Moon are personified as grandparents because of their age which is associated with reverence far more in China than in the west. 'I think it is because the