Elementary Students' Reasoning in Drawn Explanations Based on a Scientific Theory

Autor/inn/en	Cabello, Valeria M.; Moreira, Patricia M.; Griñó Morales, Paulina
Titel	Elementary Students' Reasoning in Drawn Explanations Based on a Scientific Theory
Quelle	In: Education Sciences, 11 (2021), Artikel 581 (19 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Cabello, Valeria M.)
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2227-7102
Schlagwörter	Elementary School Students; Thinking Skills; Freehand Drawing; Science Education; Grade 4; Foreign Countries; Earth Science; Chile + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Denkfähigkeit; Drawing; Zeichnen; Naturwissenschaftliche Bildung; School year 04; 4. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 04; Ausland; Earth sciences; Geowissenschaften
Abstract	Constructing explanations of scientific phenomena is a high-leverage practice that promotes student understanding. In the context of this study, we acknowledge that children are used to receiving explanations from teachers. However, they are rarely encouraged to construct explanations about the causes and consequences of phenomena. We modified a strategy to elicit and analyze primary students' reasoning based on scientific theory as a methodological advance in learning and cognition. The participants were fourth-graders of middle socioeconomic status in Chile's geographical zone with high seismic risk. They drew explanations about the causes and consequences of earthquakes during a learning unit of eighteen hours oriented toward explanation-construction based on the Tectonic Plates Theory. A constant comparative method was applied to analyze drawings and characterize students' reasoning used in pictorial representations, following the first coding step of the qualitative Grounded Theory approach. The results show the students expressed progressive levels of reasoning. However, several participants expressed explanations based on the phenomena causes even at an early stage of formal learning. More sophisticated reasoning regarding the scientific theory underpinning earthquakes was found at the end of the learning unit. We discuss approaching elementary students' scientific reasoning in explanations based on theory, connected with context-based science education. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01