Death discussion in science read‐alouds: Cognitive, sociolinguistic, and moral processes

Abstract

Little research has been conducted on how to address the complex topic of death when teaching science to children. The present paper addresses this issue by examining how three elementary teachers discuss the death of wild animals during science read‐aloud sessions. Our findings reveal the variety of ways in which nonhuman death can be cognitively, sociolinguistically and morally organized in such contexts. In terms of cognition, animal death was conceptualized metaphorically in terms of linear or cyclic motion (SOURCE‐PATH‐GOAL and CYCLE image schemas). Sociolinguistically, animal death was sometimes approached as the product of an agent's action (e.g., a predator) and at other times as an agentless outcome (e.g., a biological event that simply befell upon living creatures). Lastly, natural death was presented as morally “good” (i.e., acceptable biological outcomes of life in the wild), whereas pollution‐related death was organized as unnatural and morally “bad” (i.e., unacceptable loss of natural life whose occurrence students should critically question). This study highlights the centrality of metaphorical structuring to nonhuman death discussions in the science read‐alouds investigated and the possible pedagogical implications of favoring the approaches described. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 51: 117–146, 2014

Preservice elementary teachers' emotional connections and disconnections to climate change in a science course

“…What is interesting in this present study is that the students were not wildlife enthusiasts but still engaged emotionally with the impacts of climate change on other organisms. Oliveira, Reis, Chaize, and Snyder () also found that animals provided a source of engagement in their study of discussions of death in elementary classrooms. Using metaphorical representations of animals' deaths in response to environmental issues provided a means for elementary students and their teachers to engage deeply about death.…”

Teaching Scientific Metaphors Through Informational Text Read‐Alouds

“…Chaize, and M.A. Snyder, , Journal of Research in Science Teaching , 51 (2), p. 128. Copyright 2013 by Wiley.…”

“…Carol uses a motion verb ( to go ) as a scientific metaphor (Filipovic, ), where dying is conceptualized as a type of motion. Death is “a change of location along a biological path” (Oliveira et al., , p. 131). Carol's choice of the word eaten shows movement by transfer of energy from one organism to another.…”

“…Description ■ A linguistic or rhetorical device that employs two terms and the relationship between them (Richards, 1936, as cited in Ortony, Reynolds, & Arter, 1978 ■ A linguistic, physical, or visual device that establishes a correspondence between concepts from different domains of knowledge (Bowdle & Gentner, 2005;Fernández & Remondino, 2013;Oliveira, Reis, Chaize, & Snyder, 2014) Features ■ Expressibility, vividness, compactness ■ Topic/tenor (subject term), the vehicle (metaphorical term), and ground (the common relation between the topic and vehicle; Ortony et al, 1978) ■ Target (the abstract entity/concept) and analog (known or understood entity/ concept; Harrison & Coll, 2008) Purpose ■ Creatively explains a relationship between two different terms, perhaps illuminating hidden similarities ■ Emphasizes language for ornamentation ■ "Invent, organize, and illuminate theoretical constructs" (Bowdle & Gentner, 2005, p. 193) ■ Describes invisible processes, structures, or concepts ■ Describes data ■ Emphasizes scientific content…”

“…Andrea's read-aloud with her second-grade class spanned 20 minutes, whereas Carol's read-aloud with her fifth-grade class lasted 27 minutes. A detailed description of the full analysis can be found in Oliveira et al (2014).…”