Aim of this study was to investigate children’s scientific view of the earth, aged between 5-6 years and 8-9 years, and different mode of questions, open and forced-choice questions, elicited different responses in terms of scientific or inconsistent/non-scientific concepts of the earth. One hundred and twenty-eight children were asked to draw picture of and answer questions about the earth. The finding indicated children, aged 5-6 years, made more inconsistent/non-scientific and fewer scientific responses, whereas children, aged 8-9 years, made more scientific responses and fewer inconsistent/non-scientific responses. However, different mode of questions did not elicited difference responses as children found the questions confusing.
Intruduction
When asked about the shape of the earth, children might say the Earth is flat and that people could fall off. This is because many aspects, scientific view of the Earth, contradict everyday observations (e.g., it is spherical) and are counter-intuitive (e.g., people can live in Singapore without falling off). Studies on children's conceptions of the Earth could reveal some key issue in conceptual development, such as the origins of scientific knowledge and the structure and content of emerging concepts (Nobes, Martin & Panagiotaki, 2005).
Vosniadou and Brewer (1992) investigated the children’s conceptual knowledge about the earth by asking various ages of children to draw picture of, and answer question about the Earth. It indicated that many children did not make consistent scientific view of the Earth (e.g., it is spherical) and that they believed the earth is flat or hollow sphere with people living inside on a flat surface. Vosniadou and Brewer claimed that young child...
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...Survey Research. Retrieved January 2, 2010, from Colorado State University website: http://writing. colostate.edu/guides/research/survey/com4a2a1.cfm.
Nobes, G., Martin, A. E., & Panagiotaki, G. (2003). The development of scientific knowledge of the earth. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23, 47-64. doi: 10.1348/ 026151004x20649.
Panagiotaki, G., Nobes, G., & Banerjee, R. (2006). Children’s representations of the earth: a methodological comparison. British Journal of Development Psychology, 24, 353-372. doi: 10.1348/026151005X39116
Reja, U., Manfreda, K. L., Hlebec, V., & Vehovar, V. (2003). Open-ended vs closed-ended questions in web questionnaires. Developments in Applied Statistics, 19, 159-177.
Vosniadou, S., & Brewer, W. F. (1992). Mental models of the earth: a study of conceptual change in childhood. Cognitive Psychology 24, 535-585.
Concrete operations (ages 7-11) – As a child accumulates experience with the physical world, he/she begins to conceptualize to explain those experiences. Abstract thought is also emerging.
During a child's second and seventh year, he or she is considered to be in the preoperational stage. Piaget stated that during this stage, the child has not yet mastered the ability of mental operations. The child in the preoperational stage still does not have the ability to think through actions (Woolfolk, A., 2004). Children in this stage are considered to be egocentric, meaning they assume others share their points of view (Woolfolk, A. 2004). Because of egocentricism, children in this stage engage in collective monologues, in which each child is talking, but not interacting with the other children (Woolfolk, A. 2004). Another important aspect of the preoperational stage is the acquisition of the skill of conservation. Children understand that the amount of something remains the same even if its appearance changes (Woolfolk, A., 2004). A child in the preoperational stage would not be able to perform the famous Piagetian conservation problem of liquid and volume, because he or she has not yet developed reversible thinking – "thinking backward, from the end to the beginning" (Woolfolk, A., 33).
I observed a first-grade science lesson at Moore Elementary in Pasadena ISD on a Monday February 5, 2018 from 1-3pm. The class is a general education with 11 boys and 10 girls in the class it also has a five ESL (English as the Second Language) students. In the lesson the students were learning about the four different seasons. The first thing the teacher did to introduce the lesson was have the students watch a brain pop video about the four seasons. After the video the teacher went over the different seasons and asked the students what season we are currently and what season come next until they have covered all four seasons. Next, the teacher had the students do two different interactive board activities. The first interactive board activity
Children in this stage (aged 4 to 8) understand the world by perceiving it, being influenced by it, and acting on it. In turn, the surrounding world shapes the child. This demonstrates the role of nurture within the child’s
... (2009) The science of development. In R.V. Kail & A. Barnfield (Eds.), Children and their development (pp. 8 – 22). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
The behavior of people is strongly influenced by the effect of society. Starting from a young age, education systems limit children’s knowledge by educating them out of their creative capacity which enables to, let alone use their imagination, but from even learning about imagination. However, to curious people it has slowly become human nature to “’want to know more than we can see’” (Fontenelle 11), which concept has risen because of the idea of existence beyond planet earth. Fontenelle uses imagination as a tool to visualize the unknown; he speculates that there is life in all the other planets surrounding the planet earth. He himself does not believe what he is imaging but continues to describe the world by looking beyond what it portrays, leaving place for the mind to wonder. Even more, imagination and proof couple together as tightly as mind and body. In other words, just like the human body needs
Children make sense of their world by thinking and communicating in different ways and by expressing their understanding using a range of creative and critical thinking processes and strategies. Teaching the whole child requires an understanding of the interests, disposition and prior knowledge developed within the child’s social and cultural context and individual stages of development. Focussing on children’s strengths, t...
Demarcation between science and non-science or pseudo science is particularly important in scientific education, as it determines, for almost every member of our society, what they will accept as true regarding science, particularly creationism and evolution. Having public ...
Woolley, J. D., & Wellman, H. M. (1990). Young children’s understanding of realities, non-realities, and appearances. Child Development. 946–961.
Identifying that early people believed that earth was a flat surface until now that we came to an agreement that earth is round shows how our mentality and knowledge has revolutionized. By looking at Aristotle he argued that the earth is round, reasons because the shape of the
Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development suggests that children have four different stages of mental development. The main concept of Jean Piaget’s theory is that he believes in children being scientists by experimenting with things and making observations with their senses. This approach emphasizes how children’s ability to make sense of their immediate everyday surroundings. Piaget also proposed that children be perceived to four stages based on maturation and experiences.
It is important for children to be able to develops the necessary skills to make sense of data, memorising information is no longer the most key skill for children to possess (Inquiry-based learning, n.d.). Inquiry-based learning is defined by Lutheran Education Queensland (n.d.) as seeking for truth, information or knowledge and understanding and is used in all aspects and stages of life. Inquiry based learning assists children with learning by developing critical and creative thinking skills. The twenty-first century requires “young people to be creative, innovative, enterprising and adaptable, with the motivation, confidence and skills to use critical and creative thinking purposefully” (ACARA, 2016b). According to Touhill (2012a) Inquiry-based learning is supported when educators are co-learners with children as they develop, supporting and extending on a child’s own attempts at understanding. This knowledge can be broadened by ensuring that children have the time, space and resources to become deeply involved in their investigations and there are opportunities for reflections during and after activities (Touhill, 2012a). Furthermore, it is imperative that the physical environment contains spaces as well as materials that encourage a child’s curiosity and investigation (Touhill, 2012a). By providing interesting and engaging materials educators are able to provide stimulus for children’s investigation and
Like Piaget, Vygotsky claimed that infants are born with basic abilities for intellectual development. These are called Elementary Mental Functions and include processes like attention, sensation, perception and memory. When children develop within the socio-cultural environment, these are developed into more sophisticated and effective mental processes, also referred to as Higher Mental Functions. For example, culture can determine our perception and how we see things. One example could be tribe cultures; they might help children to understand that plants are living things, as much as animals are. This understanding might come about from being exposed and interacting with nature on daily basis. Children that grew up in towns and cities, on the other hand, might not get as much interaction with the nature and their understanding that plants are living things might come about later on. Vygotsky therefore sees cognitive functions as affected by our beliefs, values and tools of intellectual adaptation of the cultu...
The ability for children to discover is innate. From birth children discover all sorts of different things about the world around them. It has even been said that "babies are as good at discovery as the smartest adult" (Gopnik, 2005). Discovering is the natural way that children learn. By interacting with the world around them, they ar...
Piaget theorised that children’s thinking goes through changes at each of four stages (sensory, motor, concrete operations and formal operations) of development until they can think and reason as an adult. The stages represent qualitatively different ways of thinking, are universal, and children go through each stage in the same order. According to Piaget each stage must be completed before they can move into the next one and involving increasing levels of organisation and increasingly logical underlying structures. Piaget stated that the ‘lower stages never disappear; they become inte... ...