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1.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using role play (portraying a scientist's life story) on the children's views of the nature of science (NOS). The study was carried out at the Children's University of Trakya in Turkey during the summer of 2010. The participants consisted of 18 children, aged 10–11. They met for 10 days for approximately 3 h per day. All children completed the pre- and post-tests including 16 open-ended questions in order to reveal changes in their views of the NOS prior to and at the completion of the role-play activities. The results revealed that the children had more informed views of the target NOS aspects in comparison with their views prior to the role-play activities. A large majority of the children (around 80–85%) started out with naive conceptions of the target NOS aspects. Following the role-play activities portraying scientists’ lives, there was a 40–45% positive change in children's views of the tentative, empirical and creative/imaginative aspect of the NOS, and a 50–60% positive change in their views regarding the subjective/theory-laden and social–cultural embeddedness of science. The most substantial change occurred in their views concerning scientific method, with a shift of 72%. The percentage of informed views on images of scientists showed diversity. Overall results indicate that role-play/drama-oriented activities portraying scientist's life stories could be used as one of the exciting, informative and constructive ways of developing understanding of the NOS among children.  相似文献   

2.
This study explores the impacts of selected early science experiences in kindergarten (frequency and duration of teachers' teaching of science, availability of sand/water table and science areas, and children's participation in cooking and science equipment activities) on children's science achievement in kindergarten and third grade using data for 8,642 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Kindergarten cohort (ECLS‐K). A theoretical model that depicts the relationships between the study variables was developed and tested using structural equation modeling. Results demonstrated that availability of science materials in kindergarten classrooms facilitated teachers' teaching of science and children's participation in science activities. Likewise, the frequency and the duration of kindergarten science teaching was a significant predictor of children's science activities but not of the children's end of kindergarten science achievement scores. Children's engagement with science activities that involved using science equipment also was not a significant predictor of their end of kindergarten science achievement. However, children's participation in cooking activities was. Children's prior knowledge, motivation, socio‐economic status, and gender were all statistically significant predictors of their science achievement at the end of kindergarten and end of third grade. Results of this study indicate that early science experiences provided in kindergarten are not strong predictors of children's immediate and later science achievement. Findings of the study suggest that the limited time and nature of science instruction might be related to the limited effect of the science experiences. Implications for teacher education programs and educational policy development are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 217–235, 2011  相似文献   

3.
Young children, ages 5–6 years, develop first beliefs about science and themselves as science learners, and these beliefs are considered important precursors of children's future motivation to pursue science. Yet, due to a lack of adequate measures, little is known about young children's motivational beliefs about learning science. The present two‐part study explores the motivational beliefs of young children using a new measure—the Young Children's Science Motivation (Y‐CSM) scale. Initial measurement development involved a thorough literature review of existing measures, and an extensive piloting phase until a final instrument was reached. To establish scale reliability, measurement invariance as well construct and criterion validity, the final instrument was administered to a new sample of 277 young children, age 5–6 years, in northern Germany. Results reveal that children's motivational beliefs can be empirically differentiated into their self‐confidence and enjoyment in science at this young age. Older children were more motivated in science, but no significant gender differences were found. Importantly, children in preschools with a science focus reported significantly higher science motivation. This finding stresses the importance of early science education for the development of children's motivational beliefs science.  相似文献   

4.
In this study we explored how dramatic enactments of scientific phenomena and concepts mediate children's learning of scientific meanings along material, social, and representational dimensions. These drama activities were part of two integrated science‐literacy units, Matter and Forest, which we developed and implemented in six urban primary‐school (grades 1st–3rd) classrooms. We examine and discuss the possibilities and challenges that arise as children and teachers engaged in scientific knowing through such experiences. We use Halliday's (1978. Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press) three metafunctions of communicative activity—ideational, interpersonal, and textual—to map out the place of the multimodal drama genre in elementary urban school science classrooms of young children. As the children talked, moved, gestured, and positioned themselves in space, they constructed and shared meanings with their peers and their teachers as they enacted their roles. Through their bodies they negotiated ambiguity and re‐articulated understandings, thus marking this embodied meaning making as a powerful way to engage with science. Furthermore, children's whole bodies became central, explicit tools used to accomplish the goal of representing this imaginary scientific world, as their teachers helped them differentiate it from the real world of the model they were enacting. Their bodies operated on multiple mediated levels: as material objects that moved through space, as social objects that negotiated classroom relationships and rules, and as metaphorical entities that stood for water molecules in different states of matter or for plants, animals, or non‐living entities in a forest food web. Children simultaneously negotiated meanings across all of these levels, and in doing so, acted out improvisational drama as they thought and talked science. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 302–325, 2010  相似文献   

5.
Abstract: This article reports on a study that investigated the ways that children's use of science journals aided their acquisition of science understandings in one kindergarten and one fourth‐grade classroom. The questions for investigation were: how does the child contextualize the science experience on the journal page? How do child‐produced graphics on the journal page reflect the children's experiences with other school texts? The study found that children recontextualized their understandings of the science investigation and phenomena by using three types of mental contexts that were reflected in their science journals: these contexts were imaginary, experienced, and investigative worlds. By drawing on these three worlds or internal contexts, the children were able to pull the external phenomenon into an internal context that was familiar to them. The child's construction of ideas about a current science experience as expressed on the journal page may reflect experiences with other conventional texts. In this study the children's representations of their imaginary, experienced and/or investigative worlds were shaped by other texts and structures such as school science texts. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 43–69, 2001  相似文献   

6.
This article reports on attitude changes of 300 children, aged 10 or 11 years, from four schools, who visited the UK National Space Centre. Attitudes toward science and space were explored by examining responses to five different attitude scales. These were administered before, immediately after, and 2 months and 4–5 months after a visit to the main exhibition area and Challenger Centre. Observations during the visits and interviews of teachers and a sample of children were carried out. Before the visit girls were more anxious than boys. Immediately afterward, children showed more interest in space and a moderate increase in their views about the value of science in society. Nearly 20% of the pupils showed an increased desire to become scientists in the future. These children also showed a positive advantage over the other children with regard to science enthusiasm and space interest. Two months later, they continued to be more positive about being future scientists but only the girls' scores were still significantly raised. Most children found the Challenger experience positive but had more problems with the exhibition area. Teachers' preparation and support during the visit as well as their personal interest had a significant long‐term effect on children's attitudes. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 53–83, 2005  相似文献   

7.
In the context of growing awareness of young children's capabilities, and debates about the nature of their reasoning in science, this study set out to explore the ways in which reception children make sense of classroom experiences in science. A particular challenge of the study was to develop appropriate and productive approaches to investigating young children's developing thinking. The first phase of research, reported in this paper, concentrated on the topic of electricity. A series of case studies was undertaken to examine children's learning in a classroom context. Classroom sessions were video recorded and transcribed to examine the development of children's practical competence in circuit making, and interviews were carried out to elicit children's views about electric circuits. Analysis of the classroom sessions revealed children's growing competence in circuit making through their self‐directed efforts. The interviews prompted predictions and explanations that were not offered spontaneously. Responses indicated a range of models of the circuit and forms of explanation for what was happening in the circuit. The relationship between children's practical competence, predictions and explanations was not straightforward. Analysis revealed marked differences in models of the circuit and forms of explanation in children with the same levels of practical competence. This has important implications for the ways in which children's views are assessed.  相似文献   

8.
This qualitative research explores children's environmental identity by describing how fifth grade children view their relationship with the natural world alongside their experience of elementary school science. Qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 17 grade 5 children was supported with a survey that included responses to open-ended survey items. Analyses convey that children recognize and describe their own environmental identity, but that identity is often unacknowledged in the science classroom. This lack of acknowledgment may limit connections of school science to children's interests and emotional attachment to the natural world.  相似文献   

9.
This study builds on and contributes to work on assessment of children in primary school, particularly in science. Previous research has examined primary science assessment from different standpoints, but no studies have specifically addressed children's perspectives. This article provides additional insight into issues surrounding children's assessment in primary school and how the assessment of science might develop in England after the science SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) were abolished in 2009. Some research suggests that primary science assessment via SATs is a major reason for the observed decline in children's engagement with science in upper primary and lower secondary school. The analytic focus on engaging children as coresearchers to assist in the process of gathering informed views and interpreting findings from a large sample of children's views enables another contribution. The study, based on a survey of 1000 children in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales, reveals that despite being assessed under two different regimes (high‐stakes national tests in England and moderated teacher assessment in Wales), children's views of science assessment are remarkably consistent. Most appreciate the usefulness of science assessment and value frequent, non‐SATs testing for monitoring/improving science progress. There was a largely negative impact, however, of science assessment on children's well‐being, particularly due to stress. The paper demonstrates that children provide an important perspective on assessment and that including their views can improve policy‐making in relation to primary science assessment.  相似文献   

10.
ABSTRACT

Ages 10–14 mark a period in which children develop a strong sense of whether science is ‘for them,’ a time that typically coincides with the start of middle school in the United States and their first exposure to more rigorous science classes and testing. Experiences with science in and out of school can shape children's motivation to choose science careers or participate in voluntary science classes later on, for better or worse. We explore the hypothesis that children who engage in more informal educational science experiences at the start of this period are more likely than their peers to obtain and maintain interest, curiosity, and mastery goals in science (together forming a construct called fascination). We measured 983 children's fascination with science at the beginning and middle of sixth grade. We found that the children who participated in informal science during this time were more likely to maintain or have greater fascination than at the start. These findings held while also controlling for many potentially confounding covariates and are robust across subgroups by gender and race/ethnicity. Further, the effects are largest for those children whose family generally supports their learning.  相似文献   

11.
This study examined the nature of science (NOS) views of lower elementary grade level students, including their views of scientists. Participants were 23 third‐grade African American students from two Midwest urban settings. A multiple instrument approach using an open‐ended questionnaire, semi‐structured interviews, a modified version of the traditional Draw‐A‐Scientist Test (DAST), and a simple photo eliciting activity, was employed. The study sought to capture not only the students' views of science and scientists, but also their views of themselves as users and producers of science. The findings suggest that the young African American children in this study hold very distinct and often unique views of what science is and how it operates. Included are traditional stereotypical views of scientists consistent with previous research. Additionally, participants expressed excitement and self‐efficacy in describing their own relationship with science, in and outside of their formal classrooms. Implications for teaching and learning NOS as it relates to young children and children of color are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1–37, 2012  相似文献   

12.
Technology is important to all aspects of our lives, so helping students develop an accurate understanding of technology should be an educational goal at the K-12 level. Assessments are important tools in reaching this goal. We developed an instrument to measure the technology conceptions of children ages 8–11, the ‘What is Technology’ (WT) instrument. We gathered evidence for the validity of using the WT instrument to measure children's conceptions of technology, including changes due to an intervention, and we describe those changes. We used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to establish scales, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with new samples of subjects to confirm our hypothesised model of children's conceptions. For further evidence, we analyzed and coded the written responses children gave to open-ended questions asking them to explain their understanding of technology, then calculated correlations between these codes and the CFA-confirmed scale measures. We found that children tend to think of technology as artifacts that are powered by electrical energy; however, after instruction most children's conceptions become more consistent with definitions given in educational standards. The instrument is shown to be valid and reliable for its intended use, to assess preadolescent children's conceptions of technology, and evaluate the impact of an intervention.  相似文献   

13.
Drawings are often used to obtain an idea of children's conceptions. Doing so takes for granted an unambiguous relation between conceptions and their representations in drawings. This study was undertaken to gain knowledge of the relation between children's conceptions and their representation of these conceptions in drawings. A theory of contextualization was the basis for finding out how children related their contextualization of conceptions in conceptual frameworks to their contextualization of drawings in pictorial convention. Eighteen children were interviewed in a semi‐structured method while they were drawing the Earth. Audio‐recorded interviews, drawings, and notes were analysed to find the cognitive and cultural intentions behind the drawings. Also, even children who demonstrated alternative conceptions of the Earth in the interviews still followed cultural conventions in their drawings. Thus, these alternative conceptions could not be deduced from the drawings. The results indicate that children's drawings can be used to grasp children's conceptions only by considering the meaning the children themselves give to their own drawings.  相似文献   

14.
Children's developing reasoning skills are better understood within the context of their social and cultural lives. As part of a research–museum partnership, this article reports a study exploring science‐relevant conversations of 82 families, with children between 3 and 11 years, while visiting a children's museum exhibit about mammoth bones, and in a focused one‐on‐one exploration of a “mystery object.” Parents' use of a variety of types of science talk predicted children's conceptual engagement in the exhibit, but interestingly, different types of parent talk predicted children's engagement depending on the order of the two activities. The findings illustrate the importance of studying children's thinking in real‐world contexts and inform creation of effective real‐world science experiences for children and families.  相似文献   

15.
This study examines the ways in which preschool teachers support the development of children's explanatory language through science inquiry. Two classrooms in a preschool center using a science inquiry curriculum were videotaped during a 5-week unit on color mixing. Videotapes were analyzed for how teachers facilitated children's explanatory language. An assessment of explanatory language was administered to 47 children in the center before and after the color mixing unit. Analysis of discourse revealed that teachers engaged children as conversational partners and as scientific investigators responsible for their own learning. Explanations were dynamically co-constructed by adults and children within the context of participation in scientific inquiry. By the end of the unit, children produced more on-topic responses, more standard color-mixing terms, and more causal connectives in their responses to the assessment of explanatory language.  相似文献   

16.
Nowadays, early science education is well-accepted by researchers, education professionals and policy makers. Overall, teachers’ attitudes and conceptions toward the science subject domain and science education influence their ways of teaching and engagement. However, there is a lack of research regarding factors that affect this engagement in pre-school years. The main assumption of this study is that teachers’ attitudes regarding science in pre-school can shape children's engagement in science and develop their scientific curiosity. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to investigate the attitudes of pre-school teachers toward engaging in science and to explore their views about the nature of curiosity: who is a curious child and how can a child's natural curiosity be fostered? An extensive survey was conducted among 146 pre-school teachers by employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Results indicate that most of the participants believe that scientific education should begin in early childhood; very young children can investigate and take part in a process of inquiry; and scientific activities in pre-school can influence children's long-term attitudes toward science. Despite these views, most participants felt they did not possess sufficient scientific knowledge. Furthermore, participants expressed diverse opinions when asked to identify what constitutes curiosity, how the curious child can be identified and how a child's curiosity can be fostered. The research findings carry significant implications regarding how to implement scientific activities in pre-school, and how to encourage pre-school teachers to engage children in scientific activities in a way that will nurture their natural curiosity.  相似文献   

17.
The purpose of this study was to explicate the impact of an 8‐week science apprenticeship program on a group of high‐ability secondary students' understandings of the nature of science and scientific inquiry. Ten volunteers (Grades 10–11) completed a modified version of the Views of Nature of Science, Form B both before and after their apprenticeship to assess their conceptions of key aspects of the nature of science and scientific inquiry. Semistructured exit interviews provided an opportunity for students to describe the nature of their apprenticeship experiences and elaborate on their written questionnaire responses. Semistructured exit interviews were also conducted with the scientists who served as mentors for each of the science apprentices. For the most part, students held conceptions about the nature of science and scientific inquiry that were inconsistent with those described in current reforms. Participating science mentors held strong convictions that their apprentices had learned much about the scientific enterprise in the course of doing the science in their apprenticeship. Although most students did appear to gain knowledge about the processes of scientific inquiry, their conceptions about key aspects of the nature of science remained virtually unchanged. Epistemic demand and reflection appeared to be crucial components in the single case where a participant experienced substantial gains in her understandings of the nature of science and inquiry. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 487–509, 2003  相似文献   

18.
In this paper, an Anishnaabe educator and university researcher/former primary teacher make a case for viewing children's dramatic play as multimodal identity texts. Indigenous children in our research study take up an agentic role and construct positive identities in dramatic play, creating narratives that reflect Indigenous cultural practices, as well as some practices of mainstream Canadian society that may be imbued with colonising perspectives. We argue that the Indigenous Cultural classes and follow‐up dramatic play counter the marginalisation of Indigenous knowledge, culture and languages that has occurred with devastating effects on generations of Indigenous families. Our paper is based on video recordings of 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children's dramatic play that were analysed collectively by 12 Indigenous educators in terms of the Indigenous cultural meanings that children created in their play. We conclude with implications for non‐Indigenous teachers, arguing that a case can be made for including child‐led dramatic play in the literacy curriculum when dramatic play narratives are viewed as multimodal identity texts. These texts, which can involve multiple modes including print, draw from children's own cultural and linguistic knowledge and experience.  相似文献   

19.

Case studies have been constructed of primary school children's developing explanations of a range of air pressure phenomena. A range of conceptions relating to air pressure have been identified, and insights gained concerning the way these interrelate over time and over context. It was found that children are naturally generative in their construction of explanations, but that they use conceptions in quite complex and fluid ways. It is argued that naive conceptions maintain a valuable function as intuitive recognition elements that feed more sophisticated conceptions, and that generating a satisfying explanation for a phenomenon can involve having access to a range of interrelated conceptions. A range of contextual factors were identified, which influence the construction of explanations, and can act as barriers to the application of scientific conceptions.  相似文献   

20.
Children's everyday ideas form critical foundations for science learning yet little research has been conducted to understand and legitimize these ideas, particularly from an international perspective. This paper explores children's everyday ideas about the environment across the US, Singapore and China to understand what they reveal about children's relationship to the environment and discuss its implications for science teaching and learning. A social constructivist lens guides research, and a visual methodology is used to frame children's realities. Participants' ages range from elementary to middle school, and a total of 210 children comprized mainly of Asians and Asian Americans were sampled from urban settings. Drawings are used to elicit children's everyday ideas and analyzed inductively using open coding and categorizing of data. Several categories support existing literature about how children view the environment; however, novel categories such as affect also emerged and lend new insight into the role that language, socio-cultural norms and perhaps ethnicity play in shaping children's everyday ideas. The findings imply the need for (a) a change in the role of science teachers from knowledge providers to social developers, (b) a science curriculum that is specific to learners' experiences in different socio-cultural settings, and (c) a shift away from inter-country comparisons using international science test scores.  相似文献   

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