PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN’S IDEAS OF MIXING AND OF HEAT AS EXPRESSED IN A CLASSROOM SETTING
PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN’S IDEAS OF MIXING AND OF HEAT AS EXPRESSED IN A CLASSROOM SETTING
Author(s): Jesper Haglund, Fredrik Jeppsson, Johanna AnderssonSubject(s): Sociology, School education
Published by: Scientia Socialis, UAB
Keywords: heat; mixing; children’s ideas; primary school; classroom setting;
Summary/Abstract: This study investigates primary school children’s (7-8 year-old, N = 25) ideas of mixing of marbles and of heat, expressed in small-group predict-observe-explain exercises, and drawings representing the children’s own analogies in a classroom setting. The children were typically found to predict that marbles of two different colours would mix when rocked back and forth on a board. This idea of mixing is slightly more advanced than previously reported in the literature. The children’s ideas of heat included reference to warm objects, their own bodies when exercising, and the process of one warm solid object heating another object in direct contact. In addition, through scaffolding, some of the children expressed a substance view of heat. Finally, the potential and challenges in probing children’s ideas through a combination of data collection techniques in a classroom setting are reflected upon.
Journal: Journal of Baltic Science Education
- Issue Year: 13/2014
- Issue No: 5
- Page Range: 726-739
- Page Count: 14
- Language: English