Children’s knowledge about the Earth and gravity and its change in the course of development and learning

Abstract

Inimese teadmiste hulk muutub pidevalt nii igapäevase tegutsemise käigus saadud isikliku kogemuse kui ka teistelt kuuldud ja kirjalikest tekstidest saadud informatsiooni mõjul, kuid alati ei mõisteta ega kasutata õpitut teaduslikus mõttes korrektselt. Siinses doktoritöös selgitatigi astronoomia-alaste teadmiste näitel seda, kuidas omandatakse ja väljendatakse uusi teadmisi ning vaadati küsitlusmeetodite ja analüüsimeetodite rolli teadmiste hindamises. Selleks viidi lasteaias ja algkoolis läbi õpetavad eksperimendid ning hinnati lahtiste küsimuste ja joonistusülesannetega korduvalt laste teadmisi. Lisaks vaadati verbaalse ja mudeleid kasutava õpetuse efektiivsust laste teadmiste parandamisel. Selgus, et erinevalt ootusest, mille kohaselt peaks mudelitele tuginev õpetus andma paremaid tulemusi, kasvab laste poolt antud õigete vastuste hulk nii puhtalt verbaalse kui ka näitlikustamist kasutava õpetamise tulemusena. Ilmnes ka, et õpetamisel kasutatavad mudelid, millel on väga silmapaistvaid, kuid õppimise seisukohast ebaolulisi tunnuseid, võivad soodustada väärarusaamade kujunemist. Kuna üheks oluliseks vaidlusküsimuseks on olnud mitte-teaduslike teadmiste koosõlalisus ning uurimismeetodi mõju teadmiste väljendamisele, uuriti kas mingil hetkel viitavad avatud küsimustele antud vastused kooskõlaliste mitte-teaduslike arusaamade olemasolule. Selgus, et teadmiste kujunemises esineb perioode, mil suureneb vastuste hulk, kus isiklikule kogemusele tuginevat teadmist on ebaõigesti kombineeritud faktiteadmistega. Samas ilmnes, et kooskõlaliste vääruskumuste esinemissagedus on väga madal. Aja jooksul laste vastustes toimuvad muutused sarnanevad muutustega probleemilahenduses – alguses keskendutakse vahetult tajutava kirjeldamisele, faktiteadmiste lisandudes tekib vajadus kooskõlastada kogemusele tuginev info õpituga ning selle käigus võivad ajutiselt tekkida sünteetilised teadmiste ühikud. Enamasti on laste teadmised mõnda aega üsna killustatud ja viimaks kujunevad neist teadusliku teadmisega kooskõlas olevad arusaamad.Teaduslike teooriate õpetamiseks ongi oluline arvestada õppijate olemasolevate teadmistega, õpetada põhifakte ning pöörata tähelepanu sellele, et kasutatavad vahendid ei soodustaks väärarusaamade kujunemist.The knowledge of a person changes constantly due to new experiences gained during every-day activities and as a result of information that comes from other people and from written texts. However, sometimes people do not understand and/or use the learnt infomration accurately. To examine the processes involved in the acquisition and expression of knowledge and to study the role of questions and the analysis-methods on the expression of knowledge the present doctoral thesis investigated children’s knowledge about elementary astronomy. Teaching experiments were conducted in kindergartens and elementary schools and open-ended questions and drawing tasks were used to assess children’s knowledge repeatedly. Also, the effectiveness of verbal and model- based teaching methods was examined. Though it was expected that the model-based instruction would be more effective, the results showed that both verbal and model-based instruction led to an increase in the amount of correct answers. It was also found that models which have very prominent but non-significant attributes can actually induce the development of misconceptions. To examine wheter at any time children’s non-scientific knowledge is consistent and to see whether assessment methods influence the expression of knowledge children’s answers given to open questions were analysed. It was shown that during knowledge development there are periods when children tend to give answers that inaccurately combine exoerience-based knowledge with the learnt facts, but the overall appearance rate of consistent non-scientific models is very low. Changes in children’s answers resemble changes found in problem solving. At first children tend to base their answers on their own experiences and on the directly visible. After they have learnt new facts they may combine the new information with their existing knowledge and construct syntheticanswers. However, in most cases children’s knowledge is fragmented for a time and after a while the scientifically accurate understanding is reached. To effectively teach scientific theories it is important to take the learner’s knowledge into account, to provide learners with basic facts and to make sure that the used methods do not cause the construction of misconceptions.