Stories, proverbs, and anecdotes as scaffolds for learning science concepts

Mutonyi, Harriet

doi:10.1002/tea.21255

Cited by 36 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Poetry Science method foster the creation of imaginary situations as poems and related graphics are whimsical and spark children's curiosity. Children's engagement in science activities benefit from approaches that exploit fairy tales and poems as starting points (Kalogiannakis, Nirgianaki, and Papadakis 2018;Mutonyi 2016).…”

Section: Poetry Science Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Playing with science: manifestation of scientific play in early science inquiry

Vartiainen

Kumpulainen

2020

European Early Childhood Education Research Journal

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Drawing on sociocultural theorizing, this case study investigates and unpacks the qualities of scientific play during children's inquirybased science activities framed by imagination and play (i.e. Poetry Science). The data were gathered in Finnish preschool groups with children aged five to six years old (N: 31) over a fiveweek period. The data consist of video recordings, observational field notes, and artifacts, subjected to multimodal analysis. The results show that scientific play that manifested throughout young children's inquiry process has the following four characteristics: (i) creating and maintaining an imaginary science situation, (ii) assigning new meanings to science objects and processes, (iii) combining imaginary situations and problem solving, and (iv) engaging in science talk in an imaginary situation. The study shows how imagination and play are important elements of children's science inquiry, with implications for early science education.

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Section: Poetry Science Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Playing with science: manifestation of scientific play in early science inquiry

Vartiainen

Kumpulainen

2020

European Early Childhood Education Research Journal

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“…Pentland (1995) identified three forms of knowledge storage: living memory, physically written, and computer storage. However, depending on cultural context, knowledge can also be embedded in a great diversity of traditions (Holzner and Marx 1979), stories/narratives (Mutonyi 2015), taxonomies (Pawluk et al 1992), art (Keski‐Säntti et al 2003), religious ceremonies (Harding 2008), and customary laws (Rudolff and al Zekri 2014). In all of these cases, social structures and processes play essential roles in knowledge storage/retrieval subsystems.…”

Section: Knowledge System Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A cultural framework for Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems in ecology and natural resource management

Varghese

Crawford

2020

Ecological Monographs

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The relationship between Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems has been the subject of much debate over the past few decades, especially in ecology and natural resource management. In this monograph, we review available scholarship to develop a pragmatic framework for representation of knowledge systems in general, with specific emphasis on productive engagement between individuals from different communities and cultures. We distill operational definitions/explanations of fundamental concepts associated with data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. With these concepts clarified, we reconsider previous applications of sociocultural knowledge system thinking, focusing on system structure and function. Our analysis leads to convergence on a set of fundamental knowledge system processes and actor roles that have emerged repeatedly across many of the scholarly disciplines. We embed these key concepts within a general framework for operational characterization of sociocultural knowledge systems. In order to demonstrate existing and potential applications of the knowledge system framework, we present and discuss major trends in recent ecology and natural resource management literature. Finally, we propose that continued and collaborative development of this general framework can serve as a pragmatic tool for individuals from Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems who wish to engage in reciprocal and meaningful dialogue with members of other knowledge systems, especially regarding the highly uncertain global future of ecology and natural resource management.

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“…Several studies suggest the inclusion of narrative elements in science education to close the gap between everyday narrative understanding and scientific explanations and language (e.g., Avraamidou and Osborne, 2009). The focus of these studies is primarily on the ways to use narratives and narrative explanations to communicate and advance understanding of science concepts and processes (e.g., Mutonyi 2016).…”

Section: Philosophical Framework For the Integration Of Science Intomentioning

confidence: 99%

The resurgence of everyday experiences in school science learning activities

Kervinen

Roth

Juuti

et al. 2020

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

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Science education can be alienating for students, as it is apart from the mundane world with which they are familiar. Science education research has approached the gap between everyday understandings and science learning largely as a challenge arising while learning about science concepts and the kinds of instructional approaches that may support this. However, the forms of everyday ways of relating to the world fundamentally expand beyond conceptual understandings. In this study, we use data from an outdoor science learning setting to examine a range of non-conceptual but culturally possible and intelligible ways in which students actually connect science learning processes to their everyday world and its characteristic commonsense understandings. Our study shows how students' (a) spontaneous embodied explorations, (b) humor in all of its bodily and grotesque forms, and (c) narrative representation and interpretation of the world are used to contextualize science learning, namely its environment and content, within their familiar world. We show how students draw on these fundamental cultural forms of understanding the world even without particular instructional support while, at the same time, completing their science tasks according to the goals set by their teachers. Our findings suggest that the ways in which students connect their everyday world with science learning do not have to be explicitly related to the particular conceptual learning goals but can parallel conceptual learning while contextualizing it in affectively meaningful ways.

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Stories, proverbs, and anecdotes as scaffolds for learning science concepts

Cited by 36 publications

References 52 publications

Playing with science: manifestation of scientific play in early science inquiry

Playing with science: manifestation of scientific play in early science inquiry

A cultural framework for Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems in ecology and natural resource management

The resurgence of everyday experiences in school science learning activities

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