The Influence of Direct Experience on Children s Ideas about the Formation of the Natural Scenery

The Influence of Direct Experience on Children’s Ideas about the Formation of the Natural Scenery Mustafa Cin Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty ...
Author: Flora Eaton
2 downloads 3 Views 167KB Size
The Influence of Direct Experience on Children’s Ideas about the Formation of the Natural Scenery Mustafa Cin Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Education, Primary Education Department, 28000 Giresun, Turkey Hakk? Yaz? c? Ataturk University, Faculty of Education, Geography Education Department, 25000 Erzurum, Turkey The relationship between 8-year-old children’s ideas about the formation of the waterbased landscape features (a river, a lake and the sea) and their direct experience of these featuresis investigatedin this study. In order to determine the extent of the influence of the physical environment on understanding, two groups of children living in different geographical environments were chosen and their understanding of the selected features was compared. Eighty primary children were interviewed about the features. No statisticaltest was used because of the nature of the data. Children’s responses were categorised and interpreted so that comparisons could be made. The results tended to support the idea that the direct experience of the natural features has no influence on children’s conceptual understanding. The results also showed that the children held a number of alternative conceptions relating to the formation of the water-based landscape features prior to the experience of formal instruction. The implications of these findings for teaching are discussed.

Introduction Children obtain some information about their geographical environment from direct experience before taking any formal instruction. They also receive information about distant places through indirect information, such as picture books, radio, television programmes newspapers and hearsay (Wiegand, 1992). They also gain geographical information about far environments through the Internet, CD-ROMs, multimedia resources, electronic mail, and so on (Moseley, 2001). The knowledge they construct might be either rudimentary or sound, depending upon the way by which they received and assimilated information. Palmer (1993) suggested that the knowledge they build through indirect experience might be incomplete or even false. Consequently, it is important to develop appropriate teaching strategies to integrate new ideas into primary children’s existing knowledge, because as Vosniadou (1991) indicated, a learner’s ability to learn something new is dependent on the interaction between the information that currently exists in the knowledge base already available and the new information to be acquired. When there are gaps in the knowledge base, the result may not be successful learning. 1038-2046/02/01 0005-10 $20.00/0 International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

5

© 2002 M. Cin & H. Yaz?c? Vol. 11, No. 1, 2002

6

International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

Therefore, it is important to know about the ideas that primary children develop before formal instruction. In addition, children’s pre-instructional knowledge may contain alternative conceptions. Osborno and Gilbert (1979) and Nussbaum and Novick (1982) argued that children bring to the classroom views which are usually different from those that are held in schools and by scientists. These views have previously been referred to as misconceptions. Driver and Easley (1978) proposed that these views be called alternative conceptions rather than misconceptions, because children hold them even before they have been exposed to teaching. Alternative conceptions include artificial views which could be described as children having the idea that natural phenomena have been created by humans or God. It is, therefore, important to discover the alternative conceptions in order to adjust them, because there is a danger that children’s alternative conceptions may pass unnoticed and thus, persist over years. Children’s ideas about the formation of the natural features were investigated by Bar (1989), Eyres and Garner (1998); May (1998); Piaget (1929); Smith and Dougherty (1965) and Stepans and Kuehn (1985). However, the studies were not focused on the relationship between children’s ideas about the formation of the natural features and their direct experience of these features. Therefore, this research examines whether children’s ideas about the origins of the natural phenomena are influenced by their first-hand experience.

Investigations into Children’s Ideas about the Formation of the Physical Landscape Features Children’s explanations of the formation of some physical landscape features, such as the sea, a lake, and a river, were first investigated by Piaget (1929). He interpreted responses to his questions about these phenomena in terms of his stage theory. In the first stage, called ‘artificialism’, children (aged up to 7 or 8 years on average) explained the formation of the phenomena as being entirely made by God or man. During the second stage, the explanations of the children (up to 9 or 10 years on average) suggest that the origin of the water is natural, but water-based landscape features’ bed (e.g. a river bed) is made by humans. In the third stage, everything related to these phenomena is explained by natural causes. On the other hand, Smith and Dougherty (1965) suggested that there is no age-related stage in children’s thinking. In their investigation, 282 children in Grades One, Two, Four and Six (aged 6 to 11) were asked to explain the formation of some natural phenomena. One of the purposes of the investigation was to explore the relationship between children’s explanations of natural phenomena and their age. The results indicated that the majority of the explanations were naturalistic in 8 year olds. The study conducted by Stepans and Kuehn (1985) revealed similar results. They examined second and fifth grade children’s understanding of wind, clouds, thunder, lightning, rain, snow and rainbows using interview techniques. Two stages which are particularly significant are ‘religious finalism’ (in which the child refers to supernatural causes such as God and men) and ‘true causality’, where the child provides a natural explanation of the physical phenomenon in

Children’s Ideas About Natural Scenery

7

questions. A further analysis of the children’s responses revealed that the majority of the children from both grades gave natural explanations to physical phenomena. Bar (1989) found that young children held artificial views. He tested 300 children (ages ranging from 5 to 15 years) to find out their ideas about the water cycle. He asked the children to explain the source and formation of clouds. The questions were presented to the child in the following way: Where do clouds come from? How do they start? What are clouds made of? As a part of his investigation, he also asked the children to explain the mechanism of rainfall. The questions: Can you tell me how the rain falls? and How does it start? were asked to see whether the children could display a sound understanding of the formation of the rain. Analysing the children’s responses showed that younger children had the idea that the formation of the rain and clouds is related to humans or God. May (1998) investigated children’s perceptions of a river and found that 9 to 10-year-old children held artificial ideas. The artificial ideas recorded were (1) the water in the river comes from pipes, (2) men dug it out, (3) streams are smaller than rivers, because they weren’t dug so big, (4) water wants to move and (5) water doesn’t want to move. Eyres and Garner (1998) examined children’s understanding of some physical landscape features. The investigation involved 29 children aged 5 to 11 years old. The children were asked to recognise pictures covering a range of different landforms, such as, mountains, streams, rivers and cliffs. They were also interviewed about the pictures they have been shown. The results showed that the children were not confident about explaining the formation of the selected features, with many children suggesting that they were made by God or humans. For example, some of the 6-year-old children explained that ‘men kept digging, island made by men’. In summary, researchers have disagreed over whether children held artificial ideas about the formation of natural features. While Bar (1989); Eyres and Garner (1998); May (1998) and Piaget (1929) suggest that children hold artificial ideas, Smith and Dougherty (1965) and Stepans and Kuehn (1985) propose that children do not have artificial views.

Research Methodology In order to understand as far as possible the effects of the environment, it was necessary to draw samples from different (geographical) locations. The selection of these locations was based on two major criteria. One was that their prevailing geomorphological features should be different from each other in order to make a comparison of the effects of the physical environment on children’s knowledge. The other was that the participants who lived in these places must share a similar socio-economic status so that this factor could be regarded as secondary. For the purpose of the investigation and using these two criteria, it was decided to choose two locations, one coastal and one inland in the Black Sea Region of Turkey (Figure 1). The coastal location had its own distinctive features. A massive range of mountains lie immediately parallel to the sea and is steeply dissected by rivers running at right angles to the coast. Consequently, the coastal area is

8

International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

Figure 1 Location map of the study area characterised by high and steep cliffs and headlands with interfluves. Another feature of the location is the presence of small deltas where rivers eject into the sea. The inland lakeside location was situated in a deep and steep V-shaped valley formed by the river Haldizan which flows to the Black Sea (in the south–north direction) after receiving many tributaries. Since the distance between the sea and the summits of the mountains (more than 2500 metres in elevation above sea level) which lie just behind the Black Sea is very short (approximately 40 kilometres), the river is characterised by a steep gradient and a swift-flowing current. Another important geomorphologic feature of this place is the presence of a small landslide lake lying at an elevation of 1250 metres. These two sites selected for this investigation showed fundamental similarity in terms of the children’s socio-economic background. Both were residential, suburban areas where income levels were relatively low (per capita annual income is about US$ 2800) and unemployment was high (approx. 14%). A total of 80 children from both sites were selected to participate in the study. In any quantitative educational research, using the largest sample possible is highly recommended in order to avoid sample bias and standard error (Coolican, 1994; Fife-Schaw, 1995; Gall et al., 1996). However, it is not possible to employ the largest sample in every case because of the limitations of time, finances, and so forth. Therefore, researchers have developed rules to determine the minimum number of cases needed for different research methods. In correlational research, it is traditional to use a minimum of 30 subjects. In causal-comparative and experimental research, there should be at least 15 subjects in each group to be compared (Gall et al., 1996). Using this suggestion as a guide, 40 students were selected from each geographical location as a sample. For the purpose of this study, 8-year-old children from the second grade were selected to participate. The main reason for selecting this age group was to eliminate the formal instruction. In accordance with the Turkish curriculum, children of Grades One and Two, 7 and 8 years old respectively, do not have any formal instruction regarding the local and regional environment. In other words, at the time of the assessments, the children of Grades One and Two had not been taught

Children’s Ideas About Natural Scenery

9

about their physical environment. Therefore, any ideas these pupils had about their local environment would probably be due to personal constructs based upon their own daily experience or the information they receive from adults and the media. Briefly stated, this age group was chosen so that the impact of the curriculum upon young children could be eliminated as much as possible. The most common natural features with which the children were familiar were selected from each site: the sea and a river from the coastal location, and a lake and a river from the lakeside site. The selection of these concepts was based on the following reason. According to Marsden’s classification (1995) these physical features are vernacular terms since they are common in everyday speech, and concrete since they can be directly experienced. Investigations in this domain have shown that young children have difficulty in understanding technical and abstract concepts, even if they have direct experience of these phenomena. For this reason, vernacular and concrete concepts, which correspond to 8-year-old children’s cognitive capacity, were selected in order to avoid this possible source of error.

Data Collection A number of studies have been carried out in order to investigate children’s knowledge concerning the physical phenomena. Much of this work involved the use of the interview technique because it was believed that this technique allows children’s ideas to be revealed more eloquently than any other techniques. Besides, Stepans and Kuehn (1985: 47) state that: ‘The interview technique, with its use of follow-up questions, seemed to be helpful in revealing a great deal about a child’s true understanding of a concept’. A structured interview consisting of open-ended questions was employed in this study. Wiegand (1996) identified three items, which are used in the construction of structured interviews: fixed alternative items, open-ended items and scale items. One reason for using structured, open-ended questions was that, as he suggested, it gives the interviewer an opportunity to elucidate misunderstanding. A second reason for using structured, open-ended questions was the fact that they allow a comparison of children’s ideas collected from different places. In particular, this type of interview is quite acceptable in geography education, where comparative data are obtained from a number of locations (Wiegand, 1996). Therefore, in order to obtain a comparison between the coastal and the lakeside children’s ideas, it was necessary to have a structured interview programme. The following questions were included to find out whether children’s responses would differ from each other, because of their different environments: Do you know how it [the name of the phenomenon] begins? and Do you know how it [the name of the phenomenon] was formed? If the children were not able to give a response to these questions, they were asked: Was it [the name of the phenomenon] formed by itself or did someone make it? to encourage them to reveal their ideas.

Results and Discussion The tape-recorded interviews were transcribed and then analysed. The children’s responses were scrutinised and categorised so that comparisons could be

10

International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

made. The choice of the categories is not arbitrary; it is grounded on the content of the responses. Graphs were constructed based on these categories. The children’s responses were categorised as ‘artificial explanations’, ‘natural explanations’ and ‘no idea’. Figure 2 displays the children’s ideas, about the formation of the sea, by the category of geographical location.

Figure 2 The children’s ideas about the formation of the sea As Figure 2 shows, 14 children (35%) from the coastal area and 19 children (47%) from the lakeside area did not have any idea about the formation of the sea: 16 coastal children (40%) and 14 lakeside children (35%) were classified as having artificial ideas. A relatively small number of children from both groups shared the idea that the sea was formed naturally. Figure 3 provides a summary of the children’s ideas about the formation of a lake.

Figure 3 The children’s ideas about the formation of a lake Figure 3 indicates that 16 coastal children (40%) and 14 of their lakeside counterparts (35%) were not able to give a response: 16 coastal children (40%) and 20 lakeside children who made up half of the whole sample appeared to hold the artificial view. These children stated that a lake was created by either humans or God. The remaining 8 children (20%) from the coastal location and 6 children (15%) from the lakeside area) thought that a lake was formed naturally. Figure 4 gives the frequency and the patterns of the children’s responses about the formation of a river.

Children’s Ideas About Natural Scenery

11

Figure 4 The children’s ideas about the formation of a river Figure 4 indicates that 11 coastal children (27.5%) and 13 lakeside children (32.5%) could not offer a response to the questions. However, 17 children from the coastal area (42.5%) and twenty children living by the lake (50%) gave artificial responses. They attributed the formation of a river to humans or God. The rest of the children, that is, 12 coastal children (30%) and 7 of their lakeside peers (17.5%), were able to provide a natural explanation. As has been shown, a large proportion of the children from both groups failed to give a response when they were asked questions about the formation of the features. Failure to understand about the formation of the features might have resulted from the children’s lack of information, because they had not been taught about them. The fact that the children from both sites gave more artificial explanations than natural explanations might be explained by the fact that the children may have adopted the belief that everything is created by God, which might be attributed to the religious environment in which they lived. The following discussion was typical: E: C: E. C:

How did the sea begin? God created it. How did he create it? First of all he created the stones, then he arranged them in a circle, then put water in it. (Pupil 18, lakeside location)

The children from both sites obtain information about religion from a number of different sources. One of the most important sources of children’s knowledge about religious is the religion courses given by prayer leaders in mosques in summer and at weekend. Parents send their children to these courses to give them access to an education that is intended to generate moral and religion propriety. Another source of children’s knowledge about religious is the formal instruction given by teachers in primary schools. Religious education is required in primary schools in Turkey, but the time allocated to it is relatively low. The children also receive information about religion through interaction with their family members and the people living in the area. No apparent difference has

12

International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

been noted between the children living by the sea and the children living by the lake in terms of religious knowledge. It appears that the children from both sites are exposed to excessive information about religion. Therefore, it is not surprising that the children’s responses are heavily influenced by their religious background. Eyres and Garner (1998) have suggested different causes why children have artificial ideas about the formation of the natural phenomena. They stated that when children cannot provide a reasoned explanation of a physical process, they tend to give responses involving a religious explanation. Another reason why the children gave artificial responses might be that young children construct their own ideas by observing the interaction between the environment and humans. Most of the coastal children who provided artificial responses explained that the sea was made by humans, because they had seen vehicles and machines working on the coast. For example, a discussion about the formation of the sea prompted the following response from one child: The bulldozer opened a hole and put stones and rock around it, afterwards they [men] flowed water from a river (Pupil 15, coastal location). Similar responses were given by some of the lakeside children to explain the formation of a lake. They considered that a lake is made by humans. The children might have held this idea as a result of dam construction in the area. These results suggest that children may have alternative conceptions in their ideas arising from their direct experiences. Harlen (1993) and Cin (1999) state that children pay attention to what they see rather than to the logic which may suggest a different interpretation. The influence of the media might be considered as a third reason. There are several instances where the children’s ideas about the formation of the sea were affected by the media. One child, for example, explained the formation of the sea as, The men in the television made it (Pupil 20, lakeside location). Piaget believes that there is an age-related stage in children’s thinking. His investigations show that children up to seven or eight years tend to take for granted that natural phenomena are human or divine. The results of the present study also showed that the children from both sites tended to give artificial responses. Therefore, it could be suggested that the results related to the children’s explanations of the features are consistent with the Piagetian stage of conceptual development. To conclude, the results of the responses suggest that certain ideas predominate in the thinking of children about the formation of the sea, a lake and a river. The most common impression held by both groups of children was that the phenomena were made by humans or God. Fewer children had the idea that they were formed naturally. Since no apparent difference between the coastal and the lakeside children’s ideas emerged from this study, it might be suggested that their immediate environment had no influence on their ideas about the formation of the features.

Conclusion The data showed that there was no apparent difference between the coastal and lakeside children’s ideas with respect to the formation of the concepts of the

Children’s Ideas About Natural Scenery

13

sea and a lake. Both groups of children held artificial explanations rather than natural explanations. This result suggested that direct experience of the physical environment did not influence the children’s understanding of the formation of the features. The results have a number of implications for teachers to teach the formation of the features. Since the results revealed that the children held alternative conceptions, even those who had direct experience of the features, it could be suggested that teachers should consider children’s artificialviews explicitly as a starting point for teaching. The results of the investigation also suggested that the children’s knowledge of the origins of the natural phenomena was not affected by their first-hand experience. This finding implies that fieldwork should not be considered as an appropriate method to tackle children’s artificial ideas. Yet, it could be suggested that teachers should place children in situations in which they have to appraise empirical evidence that is opposed to their beliefs. This can be done by showing children, in relevant laboratory activities, empirical observations which are not consistent with their current beliefs. Therefore, teachers should design simulation activities to help children to give up their artificial explanation and accept natural explanation. Strictly speaking, teaching the formation of natural features through fieldwork might not be as effective as teaching it through simulation activities in the classroom. Young children might have difficulty in conceptualising the formation of a physical feature through field teaching, because the process of geomorphological formation cannot be observed directly. Taking the formation of a river as an example, children’s cognitive capability might not be adequate for them to understand how water erodes the land for thousands of years due to gravity. However, they can observe this process in the laboratory instantaneously, and therefore, they can develop sound knowledge about it and accept the natural explanation. The results of the investigation also imply that teaching physical geographical concept through ICT could be beneficial. Since computer programs offer an opportunity to simulate the formation of the natural features, it helps children develop conceptual understanding of these features. For instance, a simulation program concerning the formation of a volcanic lake enables children to understand how rain or spring water fills the craters of extinct volcanoes. As the children view its motion and hear its sound, they begin to construct images in their mind of how the lake was being formed. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Mustafa Cin, Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Education, Primary Education Department, 28000 Giresun, Turkey.

References Bar, V. (1989) Children’s views about the water cycle. Science Education 73 (4), 481–500. Cin, M. (1999) The influence of direct experience of the physical environment on concept learning in physical geography. Unpublished EdD Thesis, University of Durham.

14

International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

Coolican, H. (1994) Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Driver, R. and Easly, J. (1978) Pupils and paradigms: A review of the literature related to concept development in adolescent science students. Studies in Science Education 5, 61– 84. Eyres, M. and Garner, W. (1998) Children’s ideas about landscapes. In Scoffham (ed.) Primary Sources. Sheffield: Geographical Association and Thanet Press. Fife-Schaw, C. (1995) Surveys and sampling issues. In G.M. Breakwell, S. Hammond and C. Fife-Schaw (ed.) Research Methods in Psychology. London: Sage. Gall, D.M., Bory, R.W. and Gall, P.J. (1996) Educational Research. USA: Longman. Harlen, W. (1993) Teaching and Learning Primary Science. London: Paul Chapman. Marsden, B. (1995) Geography 11–16. London: David Fulton. May, T. (1998) Student research project 3: Children’s ideas about rivers. Primary Geographer 25, 12–13. Moseley, W.G. (2001) Computer assisted comprehension of distant worlds: Understanding Hunger Dynamics in Africa. Journal of Geography 100 (1), 32–45. Nussbaum, J. and Novick, S. (1982) Alternative frameworks, conceptual conflict and accommodation. Instructional Science 11, 183–200. Osborne, R.J. and Gilbert, J.K. (1979) A technique for exploring students’ views of the world. Physics Education 15, 376–9. Piaget, J. (1929) The Child’s Conception of the World. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Palmer, J. (1993) From Santa Claus to sustainability: Emergent understanding of concepts and issues in environmental science. International Journal of Science Education 15 (5), 487– 95. Smith, F. and Dougherty, J.H. (1965) Natural phenomena as explained by children. Journal of Educational Research, 59 (3), 137–40. Stepans, J. and Kuehn, C. (1985) Children’s conceptions of the weather. Science and Children (September). Vosniadou, S. (1991) Designing curricula for conceptual restructuring: Lessons from the study of knowledge acquisition in astronomy. Journal of Curriculum Studies 23 (3), 219– 37. Wiegand, P. (1992) Places in the Primary School: Knowledge and Understanding of Places at Key Stages 1 and 2. London: Falmer. Wiegand, P. (1996) Interviews. In P. Williams (ed.) Understanding Geographical and Environmental Education. London: Cassell.

Suggest Documents