Jan Schoultz

Heavenly talk : Discourse, artifacts, and children's understanding of elementary astronomy

In the literature on children’s understanding of astronomical concepts, such as the shape of the earth and gravitation, the difficulties that children have in conceptualizing these phenomena have been documented in many studies. The purpose of this research is to critically scrutinize these findings by taking a situated and discursive perspective on reasoning (and cognitive development). Instead of viewing understanding as the overt expression of underlying mental models, children’s responses in interview studies should be regarded as situated and as dependent on the tools available as resources for reasoning. By modifying the interview situation through the introduction of a globe as a tool for thinking, the outcomes are radically different from those reported earlier. None of the problems that have been reported, where children, for instance, claim that people can fall off the earth, can be detected. Even among the youngest participants gravitation is often invoked as an explanatory concept. It is argued that the globe in this case serves as an efficient prosthetic device for thinking, and this illustrates the tool-dependent nature of human reasoning.

Map Reading Versus Mind Reading

Any study pursuing questions of conceptual development has to position itself with respect to the more general questions of how to conceive human cognition. At one level this study thus presents a contribution to this age-old debate about the nature of human thinking and learning. At another level — the empirical — it pro vides a discussion ofthe difficulties that children face when reasoning about the shape of the earth and gravity. The study reported is part of a project that explores issues of how people use physical artefacts, embodying conceptual distinctions of considerable complexity, when thinking and reasoning.

Engagerande samtal i det naturvetenskapliga klassrummet [Inquiry based dialouge in science classroom]

This study focuses on classroom communication within an inquiry-based science education (IBSE) program, called NTA (Naturvetenskap och Teknik for Alla). The overall aim of the study is to highlight the ways in which productive and engaging conversations are conducted in the classroom. We have analysed the work within the unit ”The Chemistry of food” and the theme testing of fat in food in grade five and six in a Swedish and a Danish science classroom. We have used video cameras and mp3-players to follow the classroom interaction. Our findings indicate that the classroom communication was focused on everyday science content and that the introduction and the summary of the theme were very important for the pupils’ possibilities to productive disciplinary engagement.