Laste teadmiste areng. Taevas, Maa ja Päike laste seletustes
The Development of Children's Knowledge: The Sky, the Earth and the Sun in Children's Explanations

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses the development of knowledge in children and the problems children face in the process of constructing this knowledge. The results of the empirical studies, carried out on Estonian preschool and school children are described and the reasons for difficulties analysed. Knowledge about the world is mediated by senses and by various mental and material tools. Infants rely on perceptual information, but, additionally, certain perceptual and conceptual structures (beliefs) help them to interpret and integrate pieces of this information. When children grow older, their learning about the world will be increasingly based on language. Children synthesise information from different sources and form their own interpretations and models. Vosniadou and her colleagues have studied astronomical concepts among children of different age and cultures using interviews and drawings. They have shown that children first construct initial models (e.g. flat disc or quadrangle model of the earth) and afterwards synthetic models (dual, flattened and hollow earth models). Similar models have been found while studying Estonian children (e.g. in their drawings). However, in studies carried out in Estonia, these integrated models were found in the minority of children. The articles present examples which illustrate children's difficulties in understanding the earth as a planet. It is even more difficult for children and adults to understand the reasons for seasonal changes. Several factors influence the changes of temperature: these are taught at school as separate subjects; also, diagrams, which interpretation is not taught to students, also inhibit understanding. A wide-spread explanation behind seasonal changes is `the distance theory', which states that the temperature in summer and winter differs because the distance between the earth and the sun is different during these seasons. The schoolchildren's difficulties in explaining the reasons for seasonal changes are illustrated with examples from interviews and discussions.

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