The environmental dimension of light in Kindergarden

International Journal of Educational Innovation, Vol 2, Issue 6 (2020), 2020

The involvement of preschoolers in the natural sciences is considered necessary, because young children seem to form very early on the first ideas, interpretations, theories about the concepts and phenomena of the physical world and they are therefore able to approach relevant issues at a first level. The purpose of this paper is to investigate preschoolers' perceptions of concepts that define the environmental dimension of light (ozone, alternative forms of energy, greenhouse effect). The research sample consists of 14 infants attending an all-day Kindergarten of Greece. The data collection was done with questionnaires, with semi-structured interviews, with observation, with recording of children's' actions and with study of children's drawings. Nvivo11 software was used for the statistical analysis of the data.

The aim of this research is to determine the effect of teaching methods aided by activities and visual materials on the seventh grade students’ comprehension level of the greenhouse effect. This study was conducted with three seventh grade student groups in the city of Nizip in Gaziantep in the spring semester of the 2011-2012 academic year. An experimental research method was employed in this study. Nearly three weeks after the application, data were collected by applying a data collecting instrument. Qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were employed in the analysis of the data. In the analysis of the open-ended questions categories developed by the researcher were used by making use of relevant literature. Data were transferred to the computer with the Excel program. The SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) program was used for the statistical analysis. The frequency distribution, a technique of descriptive statistics, was employed in the analysis of the data. The findings obtained showed that the concepts related with the greenhouse effect were in a higher level in the classes where activities and visual materials were used than those in other classes. However, the students’ conception in the level of understanding and partial understanding of the greenhouse effect’s mechanism was below 50% in all classes. The data obtained were evaluated by comparing that in literature. Key words: Primary Education, Environmental Education, Greenhouse Effect, Visual Material, Activ

International Journal of Educational Innovation, Vol 2, Issue 5 (2020), 2020

The involvement of infants in the natural sciences is considered necessary, because young children seem to form very early their first ideas, interpretations, theories about the concepts and phenomena of the physical world and are therefore able to approach relevant issues at a first level. The purpose of the present study is to investigate preschool children's perceptions regarding the role of light and chlorophyll in photosynthesis of plants. The research was carried out in a full-day kindergarten during the period of November to December 2019, where the researcher was working. The sample of the study consisted of 14 children. Activities and experiments were designed and implemented, based on the Constructive Approach. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews, observation, and recording of users' actions. Nvivo11 software was used for the quantitative analysis of the data.

Young children’s ideas about a number of science topics have been steadily studied in recent years and the respective research findings have considerably supported the development of early childhood science education so far. However, according to the sociocultural perspective on young children’s ideas in science, children adopt a variety of theories, since they are based on their everyday cultural experiences, which makes classification quite difficult. It is therefore suggested that any teaching intervention should take seriously into account the ideas of the children it addresses. But such thing presupposes that the teacher implements processes exploring children’s ideas. The present study aims to investigate methodological issues on the implementation in Kindergarten classes of such processes concerning natural phenomena, as an essential stage of designing the respective teaching interventions. Particular emphasis is put on the “educational context” of these processes, while at the same time the function of the different kinds of activities exploring the ideas of Kindergarten children about the Earth’s shape and the day/night cycle is studied with a view to formulating concrete proposals on learning and teaching in early childhood science classes.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a sociocognitive teaching strategy on young children’s understanding of light. It explores their understanding of the concept of light as an entity that is transmitted independently of the light source and the final receiver. The study was conducted in three phases: pretest, teaching intervention, and post-tests. The sample consisted of 170 preschool children who were assigned to two groups. The children in the first group participated in activities which adopted a sociocognitive approach. In the context of this approach, a familiar metaphor was introduced in order to facilitate children to construct a “precursor model” about light. The children in the second group participated in activities with the same teaching objectives, but adopting an empiricist perspective. Statistical analysis using theMann–Whitney U test indicated that the cognitive progress of the sociocognitive group wasmore significant than the progress of the empiricist group. This provides evidence for the effect of the sociocognitive strategy on enhancing children in constructing a “precursor model” for the concept of light.

Science Education, 1993

... EDWARD BOYES Environmental Education Research Unit, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK L69 3BX ANNE QUALTER Centre for Research into Primary Science and Technology, Department of Education, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK L69 3BX ...

2008

In this article we investigated 4, 6, and 8 grade students’ misconceptions about light, sight, vision, source of light and examined students’ conceptual development of these concepts at different grade levels. Data collection was done using five two-tiered test questions with one open-ended question, an interview about concepts and a drawing exercise. Questions were selected from previous Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 9, Issue 1, Article 7, p.2 (Jun., 2008) Cigdem ŞAHIN, Hava IPEK and Alipasa AYAS Students’ understanding of light concepts primary school: A cross-age study Copyright (C) 2008 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 9, Issue 1, Article 7 (Jun., 2008). All Rights Reserved. studies done by different researchers and were adapted to Turkish. An experienced researcher and a lecturer commented on readability and comprehensibility of the examined test questions. Twotiered test questions are used to find students explanations. The data frequencies are calculated and...

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014

The research presented here studied preschool children’s representations of light. A teaching intervention was also carried out, with an aim to construct in children’s thinking a precursor model according to which light is recognized as an autonomous entity, which is independent of the light sources and the results it causes. The teaching intervention was conducted through the use of special software created in a scratch environment. The study, consisting of three phases (pre-test, teaching intervention and post-test), included 30 children aged 4-6 years. The results of the research showed that in the children’s initial mental representations light is identified mainly with light sources. After the teaching intervention, a large percentage of the children had constructed a precursor model which was compatible with the scientific one, based upon which children recognize light as an autonomous entity.