Abstract
This study is an approach to pre-school children’s mental representations of the natural phenomena of clouds and rain. The study aims at the creation of a precursor model: an abstract scientific entity adapted to the cognitive abilities of children of this age group and at the same time compatible with the scientific model. The study focuses on capturing children’s mental representations about the general characteristics of clouds and rain, their reasoning about the consisting elements and the formation procedures of clouds, clouds as entities in time, and the origins of rain. The research sample consisted of 44 children (21 boys and 23 girls) aged 4–6 years old, from one public kindergarten in Patras, Greece. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews based on the analysis of the relevant literature and the views expressed by two professors of Atmospheric Physics. Through qualitative data analysis within “NVivo” software, it was found that preschoolers have multiple representations and fruitful experiences about the phenomenon. However, at the same time, children encounter significant obstacles in approaching certain aspects of the phenomenon as well as constructing stable reasoning about it. Importantly, the findings reveal that, despite the knowledge gained in the context of formal didactic intervention, children keep bringing into the foreground their everyday experience, their intuitive knowledge of the phenomenon, and their imagination. The findings give new insight into precursor model literature taking also into consideration the children’s perspective on science learning and development.
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Appendices
Appendices
1.1 Appendix 1
1.1.1 Interview Questions with Preschool Children
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Research question 1
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Q1. What is the color of the clouds?
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Q2. When do clouds display ‘this’ color (white)? When do they display ‘another’ color?
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Q3. What is the shape of the clouds?
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Q4. Does the shape of the clouds always remain the same?
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Q5. Have you seen the clouds moving? Why do the clouds move?
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Q6. Where are the clouds?
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Research question 2
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Q7. What do you think the clouds are made of?
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Q8. How do you think the clouds were formed?
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Research question 3
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Q9. In ancient times were there any clouds in the sky?
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Q10. Do these clouds still exist in the sky today?
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Q11. Are new clouds being formed in the sky?
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Research question 4
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Q12. Where do you think the rain comes from? Where is it formed?
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Q13. How does the cloud (or the sea) fills with water?
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1.2 Appendix 2
1.2.1 Interview Questions with Professors of Physics Department
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Suppose that you were invited to Kindergarten to talk to children about the natural phenomenon of clouds in order to help them get to know better the clouds that are part of their everyday life.
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What kind of topics would you initially discuss with preschool children regarding the general characteristics of clouds?
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Having done this, would you try to introduce preschool children to more complex processes concerning clouds and move toward concepts that transcend their immediate and visible experience? If so, what would be they?
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Georgantopoulou, A., Fragkiadaki, G., Kaliampos, G., Ravanis, K. (2022). Constructing a Precursor Model for Clouds and Rain in the Thinking of 4–6-Year-Old Children. In: Boilevin, JM., Delserieys, A., Ravanis, K. (eds) Precursor Models for Teaching and Learning Science During Early Childhood. Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education, vol 55. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08158-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08158-3_8
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