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Children's understanding of globes as a model of the earth: a problem of contextualizing
[journal article]
Abstract Visual representations play an important role in science teaching. The way in which visual representations may help children to acquire scientific concepts is a crucial test in the debate between constructivist and socio-cultural oriented researchers. In this paper, the question is addressed as a pr... view more
Visual representations play an important role in science teaching. The way in which visual representations may help children to acquire scientific concepts is a crucial test in the debate between constructivist and socio-cultural oriented researchers. In this paper, the question is addressed as a problem of how to contextualize conceptions and explanations in cognitive frameworks and visual descriptions in cultural contexts. Eleven children aged six to eight years were interviewed in the presence of a globe. Those children who expressed views of the earth that deviated from the culturally accepted view did not show any difficulties in combining these different ideas with the globe model. The way that this is possible is explained using a model of conceptual development as a process of differentiation between contexts and frameworks. The child must differentiate not only between the earth as an area of flat ground in a common-sense framework and the planet earth in a theoretical framework, but also between these frameworks and the framework of the representation. It is suggested that a differentiation on a meta-level is needed to distinguish which problems and explanations belong to which cognitive framework. In addition, the children must contextualize the visual description of the earth in the globe in a cultural context to discern which mode of representation is used.... view less
Classification
Primary Education Sector
Curriculum, Teaching, Didactics
Free Keywords
qualitative research; conceptual change; alternative conception; primary school; conceptual development
Document language
English
Publication Year
2008
Page/Pages
p. 221-238
Journal
International Journal of Science Education, 30 (2008) 2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690601185956
Status
Postprint; peer reviewed
Licence
PEER Licence Agreement (applicable only to documents from PEER project)