Nature and Technology in Early Educational Processes

AG Naturbild
Nature and Technology in
Early Educational Processes
Study Companion Vol. 2:
Perceiving and Understanding Children
Nature and Technology in Early
Educational Processes
NATURBILD1
The Natural Phenomena of Air and Water
Study Companion Volume 2:
Perceiving and Understanding Children
for Kindergartens and Grade Schools (4–8 year old children)
AG Naturbild: Sándor Antal, Tünde Barabási, Hans-Joachim Fischer,
Anna Georgieva, Gábor Hegedüs, Astrid Huber, Martina Knörzer, Iliana Mirtschewa, Elena Grassler, Norberta Sági, Edita Szabóová
1
Naturbild Project - This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication only reflects the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held
responsible for any use made of the information contained herein.
Associated Partners:
Germany: Klingenberg Grade School (Magdalene Haug, Jutta Kast), Regenbogen Evangelical Kindergarten, Klingenberg (Silke Breitkreuz, Carola Sonnenberg), Grossbottwar Municipal Kindergarten (Helga Pfahler, AnnaDominga Pfahler), Burladingen Municipal Kindergarten (Heike Pfister),
Nagold Full-Day Kindergarten (Sabine Meyer), Korntal-Münchingen Kindergarten (Birgit Kloiber-Böhm, Doris Kantschar, Sibylle Lieder), Aichtal
Half-Day Kindergarten (Birgit Luz), Stuttgart Day Care Center (Karla Ulbrich), Children’s Center, Gabriele-Münter-Strasse, Ostfildern (Silvie Schatz,
Christa Munz), Wichtelhaus Kindergarten, Mönsheim (Claudia Baumgärtner), Affalterbach Child Care Center (Barbara Kempter, Claudia Gote-Vetter,
Karine Bell), Children’s Center, Fröbelstrasse, Ostfildern (Ariane Dürr,
Brigitte Heß, Angela Hirrle, Silvia Hunsdorfer), Birkhaus Affalterbach (Astrid Kleinschwärzer), “Im Hof” Child Center, Remseck (Petra Haas), Grossbottwar Municipal Kindergarten (Rita Großhans), Walzenhalde Kindergarten,
Leutenbach (Kathryn Ladig), Nagold Municipal Kindergarten (Brunhilde
Rathfelder), Helmut Schneider
Bulgaria: N 149 Partnering Kindergarten “Sornitza”, Sofia (Atanaska Deliyska, Emiliya Yordanova, Lidiya Dimitrova, Rumyana Georgieva, Valentina
Aleksandrova, Zvetana Todorova); N 20 Grade School “Todor Minkov”,
Sofia (Diana Fortunova, Liliya V. Mitkova, Petya M. Stankova, Violeta P.
Petkova); “Palavnizi” Children’s Center, Burgas (Nikolina Gavrilova);
“Wonder World” Private Kindergarten, Sofia (Petya Ilieva, Desislava Nikolova); “St. George” Private School, Sofia (Boryana Yonkova, Stella Kisselova, Bonka Dimova, Diana Georgieva, Emiliya Popova, Tsvetelina Metodieva, Greta Ivanova, Ivona Stoilova, Anna Petrova, Zoya Kakalasheva,
Ilka Yordanova)
Slovakia: Grade School: Základná škola s vyučovacím jazykom maďarským
– Magyar Tanítási Nyelvű Alapiskola, Eötvösa 39, Komárno (Zsuzsanna
Csintalan, Ildikó Markovics); Kindergarten: Materská škola s vyučovacím
jazykom maďarským – Magyar Tanítási Nyelvű Óvoda, Eötvösa 48,
Komárno „Bóbita“ (Katalin Trenčík, Anikó Szegiová, Alžbeta Hradilová,
Anikó Semeníková, Daniela Bakosová, Marta Bachoreczová, Rozália Balla,
Monika Bertová, Judita Kariková, Tünde Labuda, Tímea Takácsová, Anikó
Soósová, Katalin Dégi); Kindergarten: Materská škola Alberta Molnára
Szencziho Senec – Szenczi Molnár Albert Óvoda Szenc, Fándlyho 20, Senec
(Eleonóra Hideghétyová, Andrea Horgosiová, Zuzana Kissová)
Hungary: Practice Kindergarten and Practice School of the Pedagogical Faculty of Kecskemét College (Nagy Istvánné, Prakschné Jónás Éva, Dr. Pé-
terváriné Weinhardt Mónika, Csík Mónika, Király Gabriella, Benkéné
Pungur Zsuzsanna, Sebőkné Balog Emese, Gálikné Papp Ildikó, Hajdu Anett,
Kálmán Mária, Horváth Erika, Dr. Pintér Ferencné, Koncz Jánosné, Szécsiné
Fenyvesi Mária, Szatmáriné Márton Tímea); “Hétszínvirág” Kindergarten,
Szolnok (Kun Szabó Istvánné, Ferenczné Teleky Éva, Telekné Karakas Szilvia, Serfőző Antalné, Orbánné Szabó Judit, Szabó Márta) “Kastélydombi”
Grade School, Budapest (Véghely Tamásné, Mesterné Bíró Anikó),
“Négyszínvirág” Kindergarten, Vésztő (Csányi Istvánné, Kincsesné Fekete
Gabriella, Kara Istvánné, Szegediné Kutasi Emma), “Palánta” Grade School,
Piliscsaba (Majer Ágnes, Ribenszky Mária, Esztergomi Katalin), Technical
Faculty of Kecskemét College (Kiss László)
Romania: Grădiniţa “Zsibongó” (Tót-Harsányi Éva, Simó Melinda, Györfi
Judit, Máthé Adél, Vajna Katalin, László Margit, Benedek Brigitte, Varga
Aletta, Sata Ramona, Magyari Zita, Szabó Boróka, Nagy Piroska, Izsák Irma,
Sipos kata, Kisfaludi Viola); Şcoala Generală “Tompa László” (Antal Irma,
Ambrus-Torzsa Mónika, Pálfi Tünde, Imre Ildikó); Practice Institutions:
Grădiniţa “Ficánka” (Antal Csilla, Péterfi Antónia-Imola, Balázs Etelka,
Sorbán Éva); Grădiniţa “Csillagvár” (Jakab Klára, Sükösd Hajnal, Jakab
Hajnalka, Bajcsi Kinga-Ibolya, Vass Jutka); Grădiniţa “Csicsergő” (László
Ildikó, Jakab Csilla, Benedek Erika); Grădiniţa “Eszterlánc” (Sipos Anna);
Şcoala Generală “Bethlen Gábor” (Péterffy Lenke Júlia); Şcoala Generală
“Orbán Balázs” (Geréb Harmat Izabella); Liceul Teoretic “Tamási Áron”
(Fancsali Adélka-Leilla, László Mária); Liceul “Benedek Elek” (Demeter
Magda, Miklós Izabella)
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chap. 1
Chap. 2
Chap. 3
11
Learning about the Natural Sciences –
New Ways to Train Grade School Teachers
(Astrid Huber)
40
Building and Testing Technical Craftwork
with Children
(Gábor Hegedűs)
53
Discovering Air and Water in Daily Life
(Norberta Sági)
Chap. 5
Children’s Aesthetic Movement as a Way to
Express Experiences of Nature: Applications,
Findings, and Educational Benefits
(Edita Szabóová)
Chap. 7
Chap. 8
Chap. 9
7
Playing with Air and Water: Children’s
Actions and Reflections
(Hans-Joachim Fischer & Martina Knörzer)
Chap. 4
Chap. 6
Page
78
93
An Analysis of Child Interpretation:
The Line between Reality and Imagination
(Iliana Mirtschewa & Anna Georgieva)
119
Project Design and Children’s Self-Organization
in Projects with Air and Water
(Tünde Barabási & Sándor Antal)
141
Recognizing and Understanding Nature
Education as a Social Process
(Hans-Joachim Fischer)
166
Evaluation of the “Naturbild”
Project – Methodology, Instruments, and Results
(Martina Knörzer & Elena Grassler)
188
Introduction
This volume is a compendium of information about the results of the “Naturbild” project. “Naturbild” – a term which, in German, means the “picture” or
“understanding” one has of nature – is a multilateral research and development project aimed at devising a pedagogical strategy for the early exposure
of children to natural phenomena and technical problems during the learning
phase between four and eight years of age. This strategy sees the primary task
of education as the effort to help children develop implicit knowledge of the
world as it emerges from their explorative play, from their movements and
actions, as well as from intersubjective interpretations and contexts. Thus, we
consider the task of education as one of explicating children’s knowledge,
putting it into words, making it conscious, conceptualizing it, and substantiating it. Our approach also involves supporting children’s creativity, constructiveness, and independent activity as well as their intersubjective coconstruction of knowledge about the world. It is a strategy that opens up
possibilities for encouraging, perceiving, observing and interpreting children’s own knowledge of the world and approaches to problem solving.
The project’s approach is multi-perspectival, and makes use of many
activities, including playing and experimenting, constructing and crafting, as
well as researching the lived world. It also incorporates improvised movement, aesthetic expression through movement, social co-construction, the
explicit interpretation of phenomena, the self-organization of learning in
projects, as well as fantasy, literature, and poetry. In this volume, “air” and
“water” are used as examples to illustrate our approach.
For us, early education about nature is an important part of our mission to connect all children to the world in its important manifestations, and thereby challenge them to develop
multiple capacities.
In this work, we rely on children’s creativity, on their capacity to educate themselves, to
discover the world through their own activity, to pursue their own questions, to try things out
on their own, to keep searching for and finding new points of access.
We see our primary task as challenging children to engage in their own experiences. Therefore, we are continuously striving to make solid, meaningful, and rich experiential worlds
accessible to them.
We also promote children’s acquisition of experience and thinking as a physical process that
comes to life through perceptions, feelings, movements, and actions.
At the same time, we understand and encourage experiences with nature as social and cultural experiences. These elements are cross-linked in the early educational process; they are
mutually stimulating, provide reciprocal reinforcement and support, and exchange meaning
and significance.
7
We challenge children to reflect on their experiences. For this purpose, we create islands of
conversation in the midst of the children’s experiential worlds. We are particularly attentive
to the value of language as an instrument of reflection.
We encourage children to develop their own points of view, to articulate their vision of the
world, and to organize their experiences interpretively in language, to communicate their
interpretations to each other, exchange them and to think about them together.
We encourage children to develop a wide range of languages so they can take a broad view of
their experiences in abstraction, identify them conceptually and make them objective. At the
same time, we want them to be able to capture those experiences in pictures, movement,
music, and poetry, and thereby have the opportunity to give personal expression to their inner
selves.
We guide children into a world that other people have already experienced before. There,
they can encounter traditions and lore, cultural embodiments, storehouses of knowledge, and
objective cultural standards of wisdom.
To support children along their path to learning, we take great pains to understand them as
individuals. We pay attention to what they are doing, to their questions, to the experiences
they are having and to the ways that they interpret them.
The pedagogical idea behind the “Naturbild” project
In the initial volume, “Pedagogical Support,” 1 upon which the present volume is based, we developed pedagogical scenarios and strategies designed to
connect children to natural phenomena and technical problems and challenge
them with new experiences and opportunities to reflect upon them. The pedagogical design and practical problem solving presented in this volume were
developed in collaboration with a number of schools and kindergartens during an eight-month phase of the project (December 2008 to July 2009). In a
second phase of the project (August 2009 through March 2010), these principles were put into practice and tested in schools and kindergartens. These
trials were carefully documented. Along the way, we catalogued the pedagogical processes and made video and audio recordings of the children’s
actions, reflections, and interpretations in relation to natural phenomena.
Subsequently, these documents were evaluated. We engaged in qualitative
content analyses to assess the entire spectrum of the children’s actions and
interpretations. Ethnographic individual case studies and microanalyses were
used to provide deeper qualitative insights into the processes of children’s
engagement with natural phenomena. To this, we have added survey results
that examine the effectiveness of the teaching idea behind “Naturbild.” The
results will be presented in this second volume of the study. Our goal has
been to improve the quality and accuracy of our perception and understand1
AG Naturbild (2010): Nature and Technology in Early Educational Processes. Study Compansion, Volume 1: Pedagogical Support. Schneider Verlag Hohengehren: Baltmannsweiler.
8
ing of children as they engage with natural phenomena. Indeed, this constitutes a prerequisite for being able to provide children with effective pedagogical support. The support strategies that we have developed are thus open
to further testing by you, the reader.
DVD with key scenarios
This volume includes a DVD that documents the key scenarios discussed in
the text. It also includes a number of additional scenarios; with the help of an
instrument that is presented in the text, they provide an interpretative tool for
the analysis of children’s play. This material offers teachers an opportunity to
further develop and train their own perceptual and cognitive competencies.
The pedagogical issues
Playing with natural phenomena
How do children play with air and water? What different actions can be
distinguished? What questions and hypotheses lie behind their activity?
What themes do they develop? What implicit knowledge about the world
does their activity generate? How fertile are the play scenarios?
What is the function of language in children’s play? What do the children
talk about? How do they comprehend phenomena in their own language?
How do they interpret and reflect their play?
Experimenting with natural phenomena
What are the ways that children interpret the phenomena of air and water?
What explanations and justifications can they come up with?
How important a part does stimulation by adults play in this process?
Crafting with natural phenomena
How do the children engage with the problems that are presented? What
solutions do they develop? What implicit knowledge of the world do they
generate in this way? How fertile are the problems that are presented to
them?
Discovering natural phenomena in everyday life
What discoveries do the children make? What general knowledge do they
obtain about air and water? How do they interpret their discoveries? How
do they grasp them verbally? How do they connect their discoveries with
their other knowledge about air and water?
9
Interpreting natural phenomena in movement
What kinds of movement play do children develop? What kinds of aesthetic expression in movement do they discover in these activities?
How do they interpret their movements? How do they put them into
words? How to they relate them to their knowledge about air and water?
Interpreting natural phenomena in fantasy
What images and stories do the children develop? What ideas about air and
water do their images and stories express?
What connections do children recognize between their realistic and their
fantastic interpretations of the phenomena?
Natural phenomena in children’s projects
What initiatives, activities, and subjects did the children bring to the project?
To what extent were decisions made by the children reflected and taken
into account?
Natural phenomena in social processes
What individual and collaborative actions, interpretations, constructions,
and subjects do the children develop?
What importance does the social process have for their engagement with
natural phenomena?
10
Chapter 1: Playing with Air and Water: Children’s
Actions and Reflections
(Hans-Joachim Fischer & Martina Knörzer)
The beginnings of engagement with nature and technology occur implicitly in
everyday playful experiences in which the child encounters and adapts to the
world. The task for educators and teachers is to recognize and foster the educational value of play. What children can acquire from explicit learning situations ultimately depends upon the richness of implicit knowledge. Understanding something means, above all, connecting it in multiple ways to what
the child has already internalized (see Fischer 2006). The more that has been
laid down previously, the denser the linkage of the network of meanings,
connections, comparisons, and classifications, and thus the deeper the level
of understanding. When children begin to explicitly engage with technical
problems or with experimental phenomena, they call upon their living, implicit knowledge about the phenomena of the world. This knowledge, which
is rooted deep within the child’s somatic, physical experience of the world,
emerges elementally from movements, feelings, activities, observations,
experiences, etc. (see Fuchs 2008; Hegedűs/Fischer 2010; Schäfer 2010).
This knowledge must be repeatedly confirmed, varied, and expanded through
new undertakings and repeated encounters. It must be activated in explicit
learning situations. Thus, anyone who wishes to promote technical problem
solving and understanding of the natural world must begin by fostering children’s play.
In our first volume of studies (AG Naturbild 2010), we laid out what
is important about play and the nature of its educational effect. Based on this,
we developed scenarios for the pedagogical promotion of children’s play. In
this second volume of studies, we will look at the children themselves.
How do children play with air and water? What actions can be distinguished? Which questions and hypotheses lie hidden in play? What themes
do children develop in their play? What forms of implicit knowledge of the
world are generated in this way?
How do children reflect upon their play? What is the function of language
in children’s play? What do they say, report, and narrate about their play?
How do they capture the phenomena in their speech? How do they interpret their play?
11
We want to observe and to understand how children play 1 and reflect about
their play and how, through these activities, they generate both implicit and
explicit knowledge about the world of natural phenomena. From these observations and understandings emerge valuable suggestions about how to promote learning processes, both generally and with respect to individual children.
In service of this goal, our associated partners in the Ludwigsburg
regional network invited children to participate in playful engagement with
air and water on multiple occasions over a period of many months (October
2009 to April 2010) and to reflect upon their experiences. 2 The themes that
emerged were as varied as the pedagogical scenarios. Each partner could
adapt the theme according to his/her own needs, make use of special resources and opportunities on site, and also incorporate his/her own experiences, conceptions, and ideas according to his/her personal interests. Both the
play and the children’s reflections were documented on film. At monthly
meetings, participants presented the films to one another and analyzed them
in the group. The children’s actions and reflections were interpreted and
placed in connection with each other. The interpretations were always questioned and critiqued in the group. In this way, the ability to observe and understand playful processes in nature education for children was deepened for
all participants. In a similar way, the pedagogical situations and scenarios for
nature play and reflection were continuously monitored.
The following presentation is based upon extensive film material.
We extracted key individual situations from this material and subjected them
to examination through microanalysis (see Denzin 2004). From a methodological perspective, we relied upon an ethnographic process of videosupported participatory observation (see Schäfer 1997). The results of the
microanalyses were verified intersubjectively (see Steinke 2004) and validated in group discussions, in which, on average, 25 experts (the educators in
the regional network) took part.
We will begin with a detailed analysis of one example. From this we
will develop a strategy for informed observation of children’s play and for
understanding its significance as the foundation for pedagogical facilitation
1
We would like to refer here to the following essential literature concerning children’s play:
Bilstein et al. 2005; Buytendijk 1933; Flitner 1974; Huizinga 1940; Jünger 1953; Schäfer 1989;
Scheuerl 1954.
2
We would like to thank Claudia Baumgärtner, Karine Bell, Silke Breitkreuz, Ariane Dürr,
Claudia Gote-Vetter, Rita Großhans, Petra Haas, Magdalene Haug, Brigitte Heß, Angela Hirrle,
Silvia Hunsdorfer, Doris Kantschar, Jutta Kast, Barbara Kempter, Astrid Kleinschwärzer, Pia
Kleinschwärzer, Birgit Kloiber-Böhm, Asja Kranaster, Kathryn Ladig, Sibylle Lieder, Birgit
Luz, Sabine Meyer, Christa Munz, Anna Dominga Pfahler, Helga Pfahler, Heike Pfister, Brunhilde Rathfelder, Silvie Schatz, Carola Sonnenberg, Karla Ulbrich, and Wolfgang Schneider.
12
of nature education. Finally, we will present and analyze additional examples
based on the methodological foundation we developed. Since all of the film
examples are documented on an accompanying DVD, they may also be employed as learning and practice material to stimulate and develop the reader’s
personal capacities for observation and interpretation. Finally, we will summarize the most important general findings that we obtained from our analysis of the materials.
Halime: “The light objects sink under.”
Scene 1: Halime squats in front of a box filled with water, in which a
blown-up balloon is swimming. In her left hand she is holding a plastic
cup, from which she is dripping water in a thin stream onto the balloon,
carefully, with short interruptions. Then the stream becomes a bit stronger.
She stops, observes that the balloon first moves jerkily toward her and then
backs off again. She pours a thin stream onto the balloon, under which the
balloon becomes centered and then turns back and forth. “Haah!” Halime
calls out, smiling, and loses sight of the balloon as she looks at a girl who
is sitting opposite her. Halime now completely empties the cup onto the
balloon, which is propelled back and forth in the stream. Halime laughs.
Her laughter is echoed by the other girl while she refills the cup. Halime
pours water over the balloon again and again.
We observe Halime’s movements and actions, dipping the cup, filling it,
drawing the water, dripping it, and making the balloon dance. During this
time, she varies her actions. One time the cup is emptied in a brief, strong
gush, and the next time the stream is thinner and is maintained longer. One
time her hand follows the fleeing balloon, and the next time, it stays in place
in order to permit the balloon to dance in the stream of water. One time she
steps back, the next time she goes straight up close to the balloon. One time
the stream meets the side of the balloon, and next time it hits right in the
middle of the balloon.
Halime’s movements and actions evoke ever new perceptions and
sensations as she plays with the balloon. What Halime actually perceives and
feels is not something we can determine from the outside. But each new
movement and every action with the water balloon gives resonance and is an
expression of the discoveries opened up by the earlier play (see Klages 1950,
Chapter V). Halime certainly notices that the flow that she directs to the side
of the balloon drags the balloon to the middle. She sees the balloon under the
stream of water wander back and forth, circling and twisting, and striking this
way and that. She appears engrossed and in extreme concentration. Her interest is then lost as she calls out, publicizing and communicating her actions
and observations. From the outside, her call finds a response and an echo.
13
The bubbling sense of surprise, perhaps the sense of something comical, the
joy over the jumping ball all return to her as affirmation. Where children can
play at the limits of their previous experiential world, where they encounter
something new and unusual, their excitement frequently results in laughter
(see Plessner 1941). Laughter needs support in communication, in the laughter of the other. Thus, it is not only the new world that is discovered, but also
the self, which has taken a new and unexpected part in discovery.
Halime’s play creates a circle of resonance connecting her actions
and the movements of the water ball. Every action has a parallel response,
which contains the impressions, perceptions, and feelings that have been
triggered in Halime by playing with the balloon. It is like the string of an
instrument; it responds when struck, and that resonance that is the response
creates a sound. The string was struck from outside, but it resonates in the
intrinsic, unchangeable tuning of the instrument. Halime’s responses, too, are
an expression of her own internal tuning. Every action is also a response that
brings together outside and inside, the balloon’s play and Halime’s internal
experience.
At the same time, every action contains a new question. The question goes out in search of a new, previously unheard of answer. She pushes
the balloon backwards, strengthens the water stream or diminishes it. In this
way, new questions and
answers continuously come
into being. Halime and the
balloon provide each other with
Perceptions
echo and resonance. The moveand
Actions
ments of the balloon follow
sensations
external laws and conditions.
These are a given for Halime.
By contrast, Halime’s actions
emerge from her inner moods
and conditions. These might be
adapted and adjusted, and
Movements
become more similar to the
of the object
external givens (see Wulff
1997), so that Halime’s own
Figure 1: Resonance model of children’s play
actions
capture
the
insubordinate movements of the balloon. There is no greater felicity or
deeper motivation in children’s play than to feel and to enjoy one’s own
actions resonating with the movements of the object of play. At this point, the
resonance circle gradually closes. The child might continue to enjoy the successful play of actions and movements for a while, but the play no longer
stimulates new questions and answers.
14
Of course, Halime is just starting out. Her actions are still precarious and
uncertain and the movements of the balloon are total surprises. Halime does
not know yet precisely how the balloon will respond to her questions. Who is
the balloon, anyway? Is it merely a non-living object that one can manipulate? Are Halime’s actions directed at discovering the natural laws that determine the movements of the balloon? Would she want to anticipate its responses? Or does Halime wish to awaken the balloon to life? Maybe what
she is seeking to elicit are not objective responses at all, but subjective ones.
Maybe the reason she is so excited is that she is not playing with some sort of
thing, but with somebody, with whom she has built a relationship (see Scholz
2010). And her happiness about the success of the relationship she has taken
up is expressed in laughter. Like waves, Halime’s feelings and ideas may at
one moment dip more into the relationship, and at another they may free
themselves, rising upward to discover, objectify, and see from above. To
what extent is Halime truly conscious of these wavelike movements by which
she shapes her contact with the balloon? What can she intellectually make of
it all? What language does she have for identifying and communicating what
is important and meaningful for her? If one observes her hand, it also appears
to be leading an independent existence (see Bräuer 1985). When it hesitates
and pulls back or when it abruptly chases after the balloon as it jumps away,
her hand appears to be communicating with the balloon directly. Certainly,
Halime is not fully aware of the resonance circle of perceptions, feelings, and
actions and the dancing balloon. But the questions that are played out in this
dance arise both spontaneously and impulsively, for Halime is totally involved with this dance. In no way is she an outside observer, but rather an
enthusiastic teammate. The answers she seeks are not for satisfying some
need for external understanding. They are meant to help the game succeed.
Halime wants to make the balloon twist and jump and jerk, and maybe she
wants to attract it and capture it. Maybe she wants to conclude a secret pact
of friendship with the balloon. Much of what Halime does – to stay with the
image of the wave movements – is under water. Experiencing and that which
is experienced are undivided (see Straus 1960). Awareness can only be introduced when it is set outside the waves of action, when it relates to a point of
observation above and outside, that is, distanced, abstracted from living action in order for her to contemplate herself and her play-partner from a distance. Facing her, at some distance, it turns into an object that can be named,
described, conceptually considered, and identified. Halime does have a vantage point of this kind that is outside her actions. We encounter it as she narrates the story of a picture that she has drawn.
15
In the week before
she played with the
balloon, Halime had
already tried out
other objects in the
water. The drawing
shows the water cup
and
the
objects
Figure 2: Halime’s picture
swimming inside it
from a side view.
Arrows point to her name, which Halime has written on the page. At the
bottom of the cup there is an unnamed object (probably a stone), directly on
top of a piece of Styrofoam, further up there is a stick and toward the top
there is a (wooden) ladybug and a braided ball. Halime tells the story:
Scene 2: “That is … a ladybug. And I put the ladybug in so it would be
washed over, and go underwater. And the whole thing there is water. Then
I wrote ‘water’ here. That is some Styrofoam and a stick. And that is a
ladybug and that (pointing to the sphere) I haven’t written down yet.”
“Could you also tell about what you did with it?” “Sure, I put this on top of
it. Then it went under the water, too (points to the Styrofoam).” “What did
you put on top of it?” “They were stones.” “Oh. And what happened?”
“Then, slowly, they went under the water, too, because it became a little
lighter, and then even more, because I slowly took away the stones.”
“When did it get lighter, when you put the stones on top or when you put
them underneath?” “Yes.” (silence) … “Did you do something with this
ladybug?” “Yes, I put it on top, and then it just slowly sank, too.”… “Why
did it go under?” “Because it was a little bit light, too. Like I told the others: the light things sink under, yes. It was also a bit light.” “Why do the
light things go under?” “Because then the water comes on top of them, and
the water pushes them under, because with water it gets stronger, stronger,
stronger, and if it gets stronger, then it sinks down, too, but when it is more
medium, then it doesn’t sink down.” “Aha, is the water strong?” “Not so
strong, because it just makes light things go under.” “Is it about the water
being strong and the light things being weak?” “Yes, the little things that
go under, the water makes them stronger, stronger, stronger, and then they
keep sinking, and when it doesn’t make it stronger, then they stay on top,
that means, that is, so for example (points to the objects at the bottom of
the basin). If it was with stones, then with three stones or so, those would
still stay on top.”
16
Halime had been intensively engaged with the objects in the water. She put
them in the water, pushed them under, and placed objects in the water on top
of each other. She now organizes her experiences by putting them in a picture. In the picture, the objects float in different depths of water. It is the
processes of floating and falling, of swimming and sinking that impress
Halime and that induce her to seek causes for them. The causes verbalize
something more general: “heavy” and “light” – general properties that belong
to the objects and determine their behavior in the water. Halime struggles to
encompass the causes in language. She also has an idea of what it means to
go under. The water pushes with a particular strength, maybe even with a
varying strength on the objects. Light things cannot hold out for long. In the
picture, the different depths of the water in which the objects are floating
clearly correspond to their lightness, where the Styrofoam probably first
became light by virtue of the stones. Halime is thus of the opinion that light
objects sink. She holds this concept in common with many other children,
something that has long been reported in the literature (see Fischer 2009b).
But she has her own, entirely personal experiences and explains them in her
own way.
Now it should become clear why Halime is dripping water onto the
balloon (Scene 1). For her, the
water does not have overInterpretations
whelming power, but just
enough to push the objects from
above. The more they are pushed
under the water, the stronger the
power becomes. Halime also
tries this out with the balloon.
This is the reason that she pours
more and more water on it and
Perceptions
and
Actions
tries this out at different locasensations
tions. But the balloon gets out of
the way. It pulls away from the
water that is pushing it. Is the
balloon too clever to allow the
water to grab it? Or is it too
heavy for the water? Could it be
Movements
that Halime understands the
of the object
pressure movement from above
in terms of “heavy” and “light?”
A balloon would be heavy,
Figure 3: Expanded resonance model of children’s
because it powerfully resists
play
being pushed under the water. A
stone, by contrast, is light,
17
because it demonstrates no such resistance. Or is the balloon experience well
suited for shaking up Halime’s theory about floating and sinking? Surely, in
her play with the dancing balloon, Halime lost herself completely in its mesmerizing movements. But from a little distance, the experience could still
become food for thought. The example shows that Halime is not simply playing and having random experiences, rather that she is consciously interpreting her play. She is in a position to think about her play afterwards, and in a
position to take the experiences that she has had and provide them with a
language. She locates signs and meanings that organize the circumstances
and events that she has come upon. She formulates explanations and theories
that relate her observations to each other in terms of causes and effects.
Halime formulates them in this way so that she can go beyond what she has
experienced. All light things sink. Therefore, Halime’s interpretations, once
made, can be deliberately introduced and tried out in future play situations as
conscious ideas, expectations, and questions. When she is pouring water on
the balloon, she is pouring it along with the question whether the water is
strong enough to force the balloon to go under. Maybe she even stages the
battle between two combatants – the water that is lying on top and becoming
“stronger, stronger, stronger,” and the balloon that is cleverly trying to dodge
the stream and leaping aside. In any case, we must expand our own concepts
about the resonance circle of children’s play to include the deliberate interpretations that grow out of the play and, in turn, go on to have an impact
upon it.
Observing and understanding children
To be able to foster learning processes, one must perceive them and understand them. Observation and documentation of the results of observation are
thus indispensable companions to any effort to promote learning, including
early childhood education. In addition to standardized observation procedures, which serve to monitor progress in learning and to document delays in
development, the most important measures are those that do not set normalizing standards for children but instead seek to understand them in their individuality. 3 In relation to our first example and the place we have come to in
our discussion, we would like to offer in what follows a few methodological
suggestions for the perception and interpretation of children’s actions and
reflections during nature education.
The basis for examining children’s actions should be documented
key situations. They may be drawn from qualitative research or from daily
practice, with the aim of obtaining deeper insight concerning connections of
3
Among these are the educational and learning narratives developed by Margaret Carr (2001),
the Leuven Involvement Scale for young children (see Laevers 1997), recognizing children’s
interests (see Andres/Laewen 2005), and the “Perceptive Observation” approach of the Weltwerkstatt Continuing Education Institute.
18
context and meaning. This is precisely the criterion for selecting them. They
should be documented in the course of participatory observation, which in
ideal cases is video-supported and takes place in a team. Videography makes
it possible to view an event repeatedly and thus provides a chance to enrich
and to monitor the observation. 4 Every perception and interpretation is subjective. Objectivity can only be achieved when one can compare one’s records with the records of others and with their subjective perceptions and
interpretations. Moreover, objectivity can be methodically developed through
a critical process that continuously places things in question: What were my
expectations, my preconceptions regarding children’s play and the way children understand the world? What touched me about the situation? What other
observations support my perceptions, interpretations, and preconceptions?
Which observations contradict them? In order to keep perceptions and interpretations separate from one other, we suggest careful transcription of the
videographed scene. This transcription should describe the events in colloquial terms, to the extent that is necessary for interpreting them. What the
children say should be noted down verbatim. Given this, we would recommend the following considerations for the subsequent analysis of the key
scenes, which may, of course, need to be modified, expanded, or further
specified:
Analysis of the children’s play
What is the child doing? Which movements and actions can be differentiated?
How does the child vary his/her actions?
What progression can be ascertained in
the sequence of actions? Are there turning
points or breaks?
How is the child acting? What feelings
does the child express? To what extent is
the child’s play sustained by joy, alertness, awareness, curiosity, persistence,
courage, and the willingness to take risks?
What can we surmise about the intensity
and quality of the experience? What verbal elements accompanied the child’s
actions?
What meanings does the child assign to
his/her actions? Are the actions based
The example of Halime
H pours water onto a floating
balloon while varying the
duration, intensity, distance,
etc.
H is extremely excited. Her
excitement bursts into joy and
surprise about the jumping
balloon: “Hahhh!”
Can the water sink the balloon?
Does
it
become
4
Experienced educators also report with great unanimity that the instrument of video-supported
analysis provides for an astonishing amplification of depth and expansion, as well as a chance to
correct their views about children’s processes of learning. They rate them as the most effective
form for observing children’s learning processes.
19
upon explicit deliberation? Are there
pauses in the action, phases of reflection
and orientation? Does the child comment
on or explain his/her actions? Are there
implicit questions and hypotheses that
one can guess at? What does the child try
out? Is there an over-arching story line?
Are there subjective life issues, and past
experiences, as well as brand new experiences, taken up and pursued in the child’s
actions?
What significant conditions affect the
activity? Are there external factors,
frameworks, or adult influences that have
an impact upon the child’s play?
What new experience does the child
gain? Are there resistances and difficulties? Do the actions succeed? What effects and outcomes does the child take
notice of? How does the child interpret
these results? Which experiences does the
child have by herself or himself, which
ones with others?
How does the child communicate
his/her actions and experiences? Does
the child establish contacts and connections with other children through his/her
actions? Do they develop common
themes? Are actions coordinated with
others? Does the child imitate the behavior of other children? Are feelings, experiences and interpretations communicated? Does the child develop and convey
his/her own ideas? What resonances do
the actions find in the social environment?
What do we learn about the child? How
20
“stronger, stronger, stronger”
when I pour it on the balloon?
Prior experiences with Styrofoam, wood, and stones persuaded H that “light things”
sink.
Implicit meanings: wanting to
hunt, entice, and catch the
balloon.
The girl across the way is
observing and communicating
about H’s actions.
At other stations, children are
trying out different objects in
water basins. There are calls,
laughter, and the sounds of
activity all around.
The balloon jumps, rotates,
and kicks under the water
shower. You can use the water
shower to attract the balloon,
to make it dance, etc. But the
pouring water will not sink the
balloon.
Maybe the balloon is simply
“too heavy” for the water.
Joy, surprise, and humor are
communicated with the girl
across the way. Common feelings, common laughter. In this
way, H finds an echo and confirmation of her own actions
and feelings.
H enjoys the play and inter-
does the child interpret and understand
this phenomenon? What opportunities for
reflection can the child make use of?
Motivations, stimuli for reflection, questions that we can ask the child. Suggestions for additional offers and challenges.
prets it. She will continue to be
occupied for a while by the
idea that light things sink. How
does she understand “light”
and “heavy?” Should we shake
up her theory by confronting
her with the fact that heavy
things sink and light ones
float?
What do we learn about children’s
play?
Play as a resonance circle of “responses”
between the objects and the perceptions,
feelings and actions of the child.
Explicit interpretations play a part in this
resonance circle.
Based on this analysis of children’s play, we can derive suggestions for reflection. Children are able to reflect upon their play in multiple languages
(see Edwards et al. 1993). The conceptual-abstract language, which describes
experiences, places them in relation to one another, and provides explanations and interpretations, is only one among several possible languages. Each
of them has its own educational value. Thus, music has moods, movements,
emotions, and feelings that can probe the soulful depths of an experience.
Dance activates hidden body knowledge about phenomena. Poetry and theatrical play paint pictures that trace the roots of the experiences in the children’s own lives (see Duncker et al. 2010). The Naturbild Project also uses
these aesthetic forms to reflect upon and interpret children’s experiences of
nature. In children’s play, there are also multiple models and opportunities
for aesthetic reflection: every action, every gesture, every sensory impression, as well as the overall mood of the play collectively reflect the experiences that the child has just had. The experiential process is always also a
process of reflection. Such close, direct reflections determine to a great extent
the quality of the external experiences, because they make them internally
meaningful for the child. Since all of this is already present in children’s play
as it takes place, we have challenged children in their subsequent reflections
to free themselves up from their direct experiences and to objectify them at a
greater distance in an explicitly conceptual and abstracting way; this distance
provides a wider perspective for organizing and interpreting them. This can
be achieved by using one or more of several methods, including showing (i.e.
the children reenact what they have done and experienced), and drawing,
which is related to showing but requires greater abstraction, narration, which
repeatedly dips back into lived experience but also frees itself up to orient
21
and to survey, and finally, explanation and interpretation, which present the
greatest challenge to step away from lived experience and place it in a larger
perspective. At this point, children are already beginning to draw upon objective cultural interpretive patterns, including scientific concepts and theories.
Children playing and reflecting on their play – case examples
In what follows, we will present several key scenes in which children are
playing with air and water. We have chosen them with an eye to deepening
our understanding of children’s play in the context of learning about nature.
To accomplish this, we will analyze these examples using the various tools
that we have just presented.
Supper
Scene 3: Two three-year olds are sitting at the edge of a piled up snow
bank, and fill a large plastic bag with frozen pieces of snow that they are
finding on a slope. “Let’s have our supper, OK?” says one of the children,
while collecting a large chunk. “Hmm,” agrees the other child, “but if we
have our supper, then we’ll have to brush our teeth.” His hand goes to his
mouth and he makes brushing movements. “Ha, and then we’ll go to bed,
OK?” Affirmative head-nods. “Clean mouth … again … then we’ll go to
bed.” “Yes.” “And then, my mom … you have to eat your supper.” Some
more diligent collecting of chunks of snow. “And then … OK” … “and
then…” “and then we’ll dig everywhere.” And now the child’s hand
pushes into the snow again and again like a shovel.
Scene 4: The two children are sitting next to their bag of snow filled to
capacity. Each of them is holding a chunk of snow in his hands and licking
it. Noisy, squealing laughter. Two other children come close. One of them
puts a chunk of snow back into the bag that it had slipped out of. “This is
supper,” one of the children who is dining remarks, “it’s really our supper!” “Would you like some supper?” asks the second child. Loud laughter
again, while the children consume their supper. When the third child wants
to get rid of the supper bag, it is quickly rescued. Licking, chewing, laughter. Turning to the teacher, one child notes: “This tastes good.” The other
child raises a piece of snow in the air and repeats, “This tastes good.” Loud
laughter. “I don’t like it,” says the teacher. “But I do,” counters one of the
children. “Lick it twice,” says the other with a sheepish smile, while the
teacher reaffirms, “I don’t like it.”
Scene 5: Later, the children are climbing a snow hill. One of them sits on
top and licks on his “supper” while the other persistently tries to pull the
heavy bag up the hill. Over and over, new attempts fail, and finally, a hand
is requested and help is offered from above. While one child relentlessly
persists in attempts to climb to the top of the hill, up above, small pieces of
22
snow are already being set out, with singing, for supper.
What are the children doing? The children are sitting on the ground, are
sliding around, digging in the snow with their hands, gathering frozen chunks
of snow, and putting them in a bag. They take individual chunks out of the
bag in order to lick snow off them and chew it. The bag is carried and
dragged along, they climb a snow hill, and futile efforts are made to get to the
top with the bag.
How are the children acting? The children are bundled in heavy snowsuits,
and their gloves make it hard to grab things. They are clearly enjoying sliding
around on the ground, stretching out, digging, and collecting. Their actions
are lively and purposeful. However, during the times when the story of the
supper is being communicated, the action stops for the moment. Later, all the
concentration is on eating and communicating about it in the social space. It
is noteworthy in Scene 5, how tirelessly the child persists in the nearly futile
effort to get the bag to the top of the hill. The activity does not slacken, and
the child is not frustrated or discouraged. He has a purpose, experiments with
different ways to achieve it, seeks help and rescue, and nevertheless appears
in every phase to feel perfectly sufficient, and even having a good time.
What meanings do the children assign to their actions? All of the activity
places the children in a context of meaning, which they communicate to each
other along the way. Each of their actions is to be understood in this context,
even though it may also be based upon other underlying motivations. One
child raises the subject of supper, which is accepted and further developed by
another (brushing teeth and going to bed). The amplification is initially only
named but not yet acted out in play. All of the actions are thematically significant: eating supper, packing up, eating, carrying it in the bag, dragging it
up the hill (taking it home?). The explicit interpretations are not about the
children’s perceptions and feelings about snow, but rather serve to meaningfully organize their actions. However, there are also implicit interpretations,
questions, and hypotheses through which the children externalize their perceptions and feelings about snow. How can you dig up snow? How can you
eat it? How can you move in the snow? How can you transport the bag? How
do you get to the top of the hill?
What are the significant outside circumstances that enter the play? In their
stories, the children are creating their own reality, which is surrounded by the
play worlds of other children. Sometimes this leads to contacts and connections – for example, when two children arrive at the meal and one of them
tries to take away the supper bag. Similarly, when a child wants to make a
23
fire with the bag and has to be shown that the bag, in fact, contains supper. In
this supper thematic, an everyday event from the experiential world of home
is being staged and brought into the situation. This actualizes and brings to
life meanings, opinions, and activities from another sphere. As they are eating supper, the presence of the teacher and her interpretive world becomes
apparent (and is openly declared in her two statements), which stands in
contradiction to the interpretations of the children.
What new experiences do the children have? The children engage in multiple
experiences with snow. They feel its consistency, the hard frozen chunks, the
resistance to digging so one has to strike hard with the shovel, the cold and
sharp ice crystals against the tongue, the weight of the heavy chunks in their
hands, the heavy sack that they are no longer able to lift. They see that if you
want to climb the steep slope, you might slip and slide back down, and scrape
away part of the snow as you slide, etc. For the most part, the children are
learning these things unconsciously. Along the way, they are gaining perceptual and kinesthetic knowledge, a kind of action and body knowledge, even
when they do not have any immediate occasion to contemplate these things
or to speak about them. What is mostly on their minds is their concern about
supper.
How do the children communicate their actions and experiences? The subject
of supper organizes all of their actions. However, at the time it came up, the
children had already been engaged for quite a while in gathering snow. They
were already in the midst of a world of pleasurable actions that they were
passing along to each other and imitating. Digging and gathering, carrying
and sliding clearly originate from the perceptions and feelings of the world of
snow, but their motivation develops to a significant degree from their communicative actions. Then, the subject of “supper” plays out quite enthusiastically in the children’s actions. It is actually a subject that represents safety,
feeling protected, being taken care of and coming to a restful place at the end
of the day. But the children use it to dare to experiment with a dangerous,
forbidden transgression of boundaries. They all know: you aren’t supposed to
eat snow. Their loud laughter, which serves as a signal; their emphatic “tastes
good!”; the remarks made to the teacher; as well as the embarrassment that is
revealed – these are all signs and indications of an experience that explores
personal limits. Under the disguise of supper, the children are groping towards a zone of experience that is unknown to them: they are not only learning how snow tastes but also what being outside tastes like, in those places
where the grown-ups are no longer completely protecting you.
What do we learn about the children? The children are active and explicitly
interpret their actions. Along the way, they gain implicit knowledge. A sub-
24
sequent reflection about the play could be connected to the story of the supper. The children could tell the story of what they had done. Did they realize
that licking the snow was a venturesome thing to do? What would they have
to say about this strange supper?
What do we learn about children’s play? Younger children organize their
knowledge by playing out stories in nature from their day-to-day lives. Imitation and make-believe are important stimuli in this world of action. Their
knowledge remains in large part implicit. The contexts of meaning and interpretation do not as yet organize or reflect this knowledge to a great extent;
instead, they organize and reflect the actions themselves.
Bisma and the flying leaf
Scene 6: The camera encounters Bisma as she is bending forward to pick
up a wilted leaf that she had just let fall. Bisma is in the middle of a group
of children who are taking a walk on a paved vineyard path. The thumb
and forefinger of her left hand are holding the leaf stalk and quickly letting
go of their grip. Next, Bisma tries it out with her other hand. She lets the
leaf hang down from its stalk for a while and then she very gradually and
carefully loosens her grip. Her eyes are following every movement of the
leaf in the wind. The next time, Bisma suddenly turns her glance to the side
before she lets the leaf fall, as if she wanted to make the leaf fly … A bit
later: The leaf is dangling as if by a thin thread between her thumb and
forefinger and is waving back and forth in the wind. With her other hand,
Bisma guides a flower stem onto the leaf and tries to give it a gentle nudge
before she lets the leaf fall. The camera captures how Bisma picks up her
leaf again and lets it fall 31 times. Most of the time, she is holding it with
her left hand, but sometimes with her right as well. Most of the time, she
holds the leaf by its stem, but she also tries holding it by its blade. Mostly,
she holds the tip of the stem, but sometimes she tries holding the stem in
the middle. Most of the time, she uses her thumb and forefinger, but sometimes she introduces other fingers as well. Her little finger rolls the stem
against her thumb before she lets it go. Sometimes, Bisma only holds the
leaf for a short time, and then she pauses again, as if she wanted to let go of
her grip in slow motion. She is constantly observing how the wind is moving the leaf in her hand, sometimes gently, sometimes more forcefully.
Once, she holds the leaf for a longer time in the fingertips while the wind
makes it flutter horizontally. Bisma varies the height and the distance of
her grasp before her observing eyes. Most of the time, the leaf hangs down
and falls to the ground. One time, the wind seizes it from her grasp and
wafts it out of her hand, and she tries again to reposition the leaf. Then she
tries once more to place the leaf in a horizontal position. Once she puts the
25
stem of the leaf onto the flower in her other hand and lets it fall, followed
by the leaf. Twice, Bisma runs after the leaf when the wind has grabbed it
and runs along with it for a short distance. Bisma has her gaze directed on
the leaf all the time. But intermittently, she is also observing what is happening around her. For a while, she is in the midst of the other children, but
she does not make any contact with them. They have to let a car pass.
Later, the group is pulled ahead. Bisma lags behind, accompanied by the
teacher who is filming the event. At the end, it appears that she wants to
show the leaf and its actions in front of the camera. Later, Bisma painted
the leaf and took it home with her.
What is the child doing? Bisma picks up a leaf and lets it fall again. The
camera documents this action 31 times. All awareness is focused on the point
when she holds the leaf and then lets it go. Her attention is concentrated upon
this moment. By contrast, falling and picking up again appear to be peripheral events. Holding and letting go take place in multiple variations. Which
hand, which finger, their position, how long she holds the leaf and with how
much pressure, the position and the spot where she holds the leaf are constantly switched. There are interruptions, but these do not appear to have any
effect upon her play. At first, Bisma lets the leaf go more quickly, and later
her awareness and action are more specifically directed at holding the leaf for
longer, and thus playing with the wind and then gently letting it go.
How is the child acting? During the entire time, Bisma is simultaneously
patient and persistent, and indeed, she is tirelessly preoccupied with picking
up the leaf and letting it go again. Her awareness and her gaze are repeatedly
distracted by external events, but they immediately turn back to her activity.
Bisma does not demonstrate great excitement, no spontaneous joy, but also
no frustration (as the leaf keeps falling down). She does not say anything, and
does not reveal her feelings either verbally or through gestures. But the consistency of her actions and her concentration and dedication all suggest great
inner involvement. Twice, when the leaf does not simply fall to the ground,
but is grabbed by the wind and blown away, Bisma’s movements become
more urgent and she runs after the leaf to capture it again.
What meanings does the child assign to her actions? Bisma did not express
herself verbally either during or after her play with the leaf. Nevertheless, her
actions and her awareness were thematically concentrated upon a single nucleus, to which she returned repeatedly and with great consistency. At this
point, her play was calm and thoughtful, and indeed, deliberate. Certainly her
consciousness was directed at this nucleus of meaning, even if her language
might not have been capable of encompassing and formulating it. It would
26
appear that Bisma was searching to find that point between holding and letting go at which the leaf no longer would fall (as much), but would come
(closer) to floating and flying. Maybe she wished she could persuade the leaf
to relax in the wind. Certainly she is not merely a passive observer in this
process; instead, she enters into a relationship with the leaf. Indeed, maybe it
is the life and the liveliness that the wind brings to the leaf that especially
attract Bisma. As the leaf actually comes to life and wants to fly away, Bisma
also becomes livelier and rushes after it to capture it once more. The life
force of the leaf as it floats and flies in the wind is undoubtedly the plot line
of Bisma’s story. The relationship that emerges can be seen in the picture that
Bisma painted afterwards. And it is meant to continue afterwards. It is for
this reason that Bisma takes the leaf home with her.
What are the significant outside circumstances that enter the play? Bisma’s
quiet and measured play creates her own space within the movement of the
group on the walk. The sounds and movement of the other children keep
crossing Bisma’s path. She keeps briefly turning her attention toward them.
But they only create an external backdrop. Bisma has so consistently withdrawn from them that they present no significant disturbance to her play.
Even the fact that the group later moves ahead and Bisma lags behind does
not disturb her calm. Possibly, the attention from the teacher who is accompanying Bisma and filming her further supports this process. At the end,
Bisma shows the leaf to the camera. This is the first moment in which she
withdraws from her play experience and begins to interact.
What new experience does the child gain? Bisma feels how the wind sometimes enters the leaf and brings it to life. She can initiate this movement by
letting go with her fingers and she can limit it by strengthening her grip. For
her fingers to feel the wind’s effect requires contact. To maintain contact,
Bisma has to hold on to the leaf. At the same time, this sensation requires that
the leaf be free to move on its own. For this, she has to let go of the leaf. In
this way, Bisma experiences how holding on and letting go can be brought
into a finely interlaced balance so it can then seem as if the leaf is fidgeting in
her hand in its attempts to set itself free and fly away. She observes and plays
with how the wind then carries the leaf away and makes her worry that it
might escape altogether. At other moments, the wind is sleeping and the leaf
droops down quietly. Then, as she lets it go, it simply falls to the ground.
How does the child communicate her actions and experiences? As previously
mentioned, it is only at the very end that Bisma interacts with the camera and
with the teacher who is filming her play. Now, she shows up-close what, until
this time, she has been experimenting with at a distance. How important she
considers this communication to be is revealed by the fact that Bisma, who
27
has generally been moving quite deliberately, spontaneously breaks into a run
as she comes closer to the camera. Bisma doesn’t say anything. She only
shows. There is nothing hiding behind the phenomenon here, nothing that is
outside the situation that would be of significance. She shows the phenomenon. The leaf. She shows it up very close, how it sits between her fingers,
how she gently rolls the stem. She shows how it falls. Maybe she is also
showing us her new friend.
What do we learn about the child? When Bisma brings home the leaf, it is
not merely an interesting object from nature. Later, when she picks it up
again, she may feel its movements in her fingertips as if the wind were tugging at it again. Maybe she will re-experience her small moments of panic
when the leaf suddenly rushed away from her in the wind, as well as her
relief when she was able to grab hold of it again. She had watched it very
carefully so that she could paint it afterwards. It is quite possible that over
time, she has also found other leaves that she likes and that she appreciates
how the wind can set so many things in motion. Maybe, over time, she will
collect objects that are even more important to her. We have learned that
Bisma watches the world very carefully and persistently and that she keeps
inventing new actions and questions that engage with the phenomena as a
way of releasing ever new and fresh responses.
What do we learn about children’s play? What is it that actually gives the
child the inventiveness, curiosity, and persistence to keep going, through
renewed repetitions and variations of the play activity? Is it the hope of actually finding ever more wonderful ways of getting the leaf to float and fly? Is
it curiosity about the prospect of finding something that you can marvel at
and show to others? Or is it the relationship to the leaf that keeps becoming
more intimate, so that finally, it is no longer possible to just leave it behind
on the path, but instead, you have to bring it home with you? Bisma’s play
provides hints of all of these motivations. It demonstrates that the knowledge
of the world that children generate through play contains many layers of
meaning. One day, when Bisma develops a conception of flying and falling,
it will be full of associations with her experiences, encounters and stories, as
well as with the relationships and connections that she has lived through and
felt. It will also be associated with those things she considers of value and
importance that found expression in the time that Bisma spent living with the
leaf that she found outside. Her conception of flying and falling will also
include the innumerable actions that she has tried out with the leaf, the finetuned knowledge in her fingertips about the movements of the leaf in the
wind that arose as if from nowhere, and her disappointment when the leaf just
fell like a pancake to the ground. Such meanings form the living foundation
of our knowledge of the world. The richer they are, the more they are imbued
28
with intense interconnections, the deeper will be our experience of play and
of the world, our reflections, and ultimately our knowledge about the world.
It is worthwhile to pay attention to these dimensions of meaning in subsequent reflections, and to keep reflecting about them in new ways. Therefore,
we should also quietly contemplate and contextualize natural phenomena in
terms of their aesthetic and ethical dimensions. Restricting our attention to
only the natural scientific aspects would lead to what Wagenschein bemoaned as the “deracination” of thinking about the physical world. For this
reason, we should not think of children’s early concepts about the natural
world as merely “preconceptions,” which should be improved upon or overcome. Instead, early knowledge of the world should be seen as a foundation
that will hold everything that is to come.
Air pipes
Micha squats on the floor of the room, holding a plastic bottle with a
pointed spray nozzle in his left hand. In his right hand he holds two drinking straws that have been attached together and he has pushed them onto
the nozzle. He undoes the connection between the bottle and the straws and
keeps pressing the bottle against his leg: “But when I press down, air
comes out of it.” Later, Micha draws what he has done and talks about it:
“So, I had this kind of bottle, OK? On top there was this kind of nozzle.”
Micha draws the nozzle on the bottle. “And I took the little pipe out of it,”
and he uses two lines to draw a drinking straw that is emerging from the
cap, “and the other big nozzle, and then I put the other little pipe on top.”
He closes the straw at the top and draws a second straw that goes off at a
right angle and has another bend at the end. In response to the question of
how he had come up with the idea of making this, he answers after a pause,
“Because Moritz had a bottle like this and screwed this on top. Then I did
the same thing, and then, the part that Moritz took out of the bottle, in other
words, the pump tube, I screwed that off, because that gave me the idea
that I could stick it in the little nozzle. The little tube gave me the idea,”
Micha takes his pencil, showing the whole length of his sketch, “that I
could stick it on top of the big tube.” Micha is asked about how it can happen that when he pushes on the bottle, the air first comes out right at the
end of the little pipe and not somewhere in the middle. “Well, if there’s a
tube on top of it, then the air, it can’t get out there. Then, it comes out on
top.” To the question, how he noticed that air was coming out, he says,
“Yes, because it’s so draughty.” Actually, this is the way one can notice
that there is air present: “You aim it at your hair,” suggests another child.
“Yes, then it begins to flutter.”
What is the child doing? Micha assembles a long, angled air pipe using drinking straws and attaches it to a bottle, from which he can squeeze air into the
29
pipe. Then he releases the connection and squeezes air directly out of the
bottle.
He draws a diagram that shows the relationship of the bottle with the pipes
and makes his actions visible and he explains his diagram. The film documentation primarily shows Micha’s reflections.
How is the child acting? Both in his actions and what he says, Micha behaves
in a concentrated and determined manner that is clear and deliberate. His
drawing and his narrative record in fine detail what he did and why, and the
results that were associated with his actions. To a large degree, he is quite
conscious of his actions. Thus, the geometry of his drawing demonstrates an
extraordinary measure of detached concentration on what is important to him.
At the same time, his actions and his words carry an unmistakable tone of
insistence and certainty.
What meanings does the child assign to his actions?
Micha clearly enjoys building, putting the parts together, and exploring the
functions associated with the structure. These underlying motivations are
overlain with commentaries and reflections that make what he is doing explicit. Clearly, he is interpreting his behavior primarily as the assembly of
different pieces. This process is important in itself. It does not have an ulterior purpose or an overriding symbolic meaning. Building and constructing
have great importance in Micha’s life. He is able to recall the thoughts that
led him to discover the detailed options for assembling the parts. Micha is
above all a builder. Only as a secondary development does he encounter
experiences with air in his play, which he deliberately develops and tests out
and which he can subsequently explain.
What are the significant outside circumstances that enter the play? Micha is
acting in a prepared play environment in which a variety of vessels, pipes,
and pumps are designed to stimulate experimentation, especially with air. His
activity is accompanied by the activity of other children and by an adult who
casually communicates with him and later encourages him to make a drawing
of what he has done and to speak about it.
What new experience does the child gain? Micha assembles various plastic
parts and thereby learns that the plug-on connections only work with connecting pieces that are of different sizes. So he can slide a thicker pipe over a
thinner pipe and attach a pipe over a nib. These experiences only serve to
confirm what he already had clarified by means of his own observations and
what he was expecting. Beyond this, he learns that squeezing will make air
leak out of the spray bottle. Earlier, he had sent the air through the pipes and
30
determined that it was coming out from the end. He also clearly formulates
this experience in words, and, in addition, explains in terms of principles: air
can only escape where there is an opening. Certainly, Micha had certainly
learned long before that air is not “nothing,” but rather is something that
takes up space and also needs a space through which to escape.
How does the child communicate his actions and experiences? Micha explicitly verbalizes his activities, communicating with the adult tutor. Since he
thinks ahead about his actions and reflects upon them afterwards, he can also
communicate about them. In addition, he seizes upon the actions of the other
children, allowing them to provide him with stimulation. This all takes place
quite deliberately and can be presented in language. It is also possible that he
is infected by the activities of the others. The undertone of collective pleasure
in activity that the children are emitting does not leave Micha unaffected. At
the same time, he pursues felicitous ideas for activities that stimulate him. He
does not simply imitate, will not simply be carried along, but deliberately
takes up a subject in order to try it out.
What do we learn about the child? Micha is interested in complicated constructions. He enjoys building, derives stimulation from his environment, and
acts with great inner involvement. It is striking how deliberately Micha plans
and reflects upon his actions, such that he is able to provide precise information about what he is doing and why he is doing it. This precision and deliberateness is also present in his observations and perceptions. He organizes his
actions with detachment and takes on the challenge of interpreting generalized phenomena, justifying his interpretations, and presenting them discursively.
What do we learn about children’s play? Where play moves into construction, where it no longer merely discovers phenomena in the world but is engaged in autonomously building and designing new worlds, children are
especially challenged to be conscious of their activity, to plan it, to reflect
upon it later, and to communicate their planning and reflection. The boundaries between playing and constructive craftwork – activities that we have
chosen to differentiate in the Naturbild Project – are actually open ones. Like
play, craftwork also involves action and learning through activity. However,
it entails a larger dimension of detachment and abstract reflection. Bisma and
Micha are different play personalities. One of them remains motionless so as
to extract an answer from the phenomena. The other gets right down to it in a
lively manner, in order to imprint his response upon the world. One of them
seeks a happy relationship, while the other is striving to make something
function. In the process, the latter is prepared to describe those functions in
terms of objective rules. In the multiplicity of its potential, play contains both
31
kinds of opportunities for learning. For Bisma, it could also contain the possibility of constructing, and it also might invite Micha to extract responses
from the phenomena themselves. But without a doubt, play allows Bisma and
Micha to perceive quite different opportunities, and, in this way, to continue
to develop their own personalities.
How do children play with air and water? The results of our research
In what follows, we will summarize the significant insights we obtained from
the analysis of these key situations.
Besides the few examples that we have presented above, we have analyzed
numerous additional key situations. These analyses are published on the
home page of the Naturbild Project (http://www.projekt-naturbild.eu). The
collection will be amplified and expanded in the future with additional
examples. There are still too few well-documented and thoroughly analyzed case examples that can be used as key situations to form a foundation
for our theoretical understanding of the significance of children’s play for
education about the natural world.
What are the children doing? Air and water are ubiquitous. No great effort is
required to make them accessible to children. Additionally, no great incentives or persuasion are required to get children involved with air and water.
Wherever they encounter air and water, children begin to spontaneously play
out their natural desire for movement and action – whether it be the leaf at
the edge of the path, or the puddle that invites the child to place a stick in it,
throw stones in it, or to wade into it herself or himself. Children always find
new opportunities for play: when the wind comes, you can let pieces of cloth
flutter, balloons soar, and kites fly. The stream bank in winter that can be
dammed up with mud and snow. In the snow, children can roll around, make
snow angels, and sled. Opportunities for building in the snow also abound, be
it piling up mounds, digging holes, or shaping something. Mixing water and
snow, water and sand, putting down pipes, making pools and filling them,
putting objects inside, letting them float and sink – play that involves construction can take many forms. Even when adults take part in arranging the
materials, children will incorporate them right away into their own activities:
balloons, straws, feathers, pumps, or bellows.
Children’s play uses naturally occurring situations and simple everyday materials. Elaborate, pre-constructed toys only hold children’s attention briefly and are then set aside. The simpler the materials are and the more
elementary the resources, the richer are the possibilities for experimenting
with them and putting them together. Indeed, the fundamental significance of
32
children’s play would appear to be contained in the construction of relationships of meaning from elementary things in varied situations, in actions and
combinations and the continuous creation of new worlds from what is already
known.
Air and water invite children to escape or to seek contact, to immerse themselves, to move inside them, to try out every possible kind of
movement, to fly, to jump, to run, to slide, and to swim, and also to incorporate objects into their own movements or to transmit their own movements to
the objects. Air and water also may be gathered, placed in vessels, mixed,
transported, set in motion, guided, and poured out once again. These are the
fundamental activities that constitute children’s play with air and water.
Every one of these activities thus opens onto a universe of variety and specificity.
How are the children acting? Each child emerges from his/her own life. The
child plays within the spirit of that life. Children who are suffering from
anxiety and grief do not play boldly and joyfully. Yet play involves an impulse to be set in motion. The fundamental theme is always movement. There
are internal movements, emotions, and feelings that correspond with external
movement. Therefore, movement leads to joy, excitement, and curiosity; to
courage, energy, and power; to commitment and to keen and rich experience.
Children who are actively involved in play or even those who are simply
carried along into involvement are thus likely to experience these emotions.
The urge for movement and for intensity that we observe in children can
really be understood as a natural inheritance that prepares them inwardly and
outwardly to explore the world and become a part of it.
At the same time, in play there are always occasions for repose, for
leaving the world of movement: the movement can come to a conclusion,
grind to a halt, or come up against an obstacle. It can take this as an opportunity to come to rest and reflect. Movement may then seek a way out and find
alternative options for action. It finds reasons for pauses, for concentrating
itself, and for listening to the echo that comes from outside. Alertness,
awareness, directionality, concentration, and thoughtfulness are not opposites
to movement, but are its polar correspondences. Children enter into movement in play and at the same time, they find rest. Only in rest does movement
have a chance to orient itself. Naturally, children vary a great deal in how
they transition from being in motion to coming back to rest (this represents
an important aspect of perceiving and understanding this particular child in
his/her basic potentials for play). Where else if not in play, can children be
challenged to live out the interplay between movement and calm; tension and
relaxation; action and reflection; doing and perceiving?
33
What meanings do children assign to their actions?
Based on the analysis of our key examples, we can understand how diverse
the connections of meaning in children’s play are, as well as the diverse understandings of nature that develop through play. An exclusively cognitivist
reduction of natural-science learning to the inculcation of concepts – an approach that is promoted in contemporary natural-science pedagogy – cannot
do justice to the diverse aspects of the learning experience and its educational
importance. From the outset, it is fundamental that we understand the connections of meaning through which children organize their playful experiences with nature as it emerges from the resonance circle of children’s play.
The children’s passion for and fantasies of movement and feeling are elemental, as is the echo thrown back from every action in the outside world, which
continually yields new perceptions, feelings, movements, and actions. Each
new action reflects experiences that resulted from the one before. The
“knowledge of the world” that is organized in this way is also kinesthetic and
emotional knowledge, and is thus deeply rooted in the physical connections
between the child and his/her world. Thus, the meanings that children ascribe
to their actions are also grounded in physicality/corporeality. When reflection
play becomes more and more abstract, this corporeal dimension of meaning
nonethless remains an underlying touchpoint. Nature education continues to
be a question of learning perceptions, feelings, movements, and actions. It
remains an implicit form of learning. Learning consists first, fundamentally
and most importantly, of making the world implicit for oneself. The passion,
sensuality, and emotionality of play, even in older children (see Fischer
2009c) speaks volumes about this. Only upon these foundations are abstracting, explicative forms of reflection possible. Children bring explicit interpretations to their play quite early, as when they play out stories from everyday
life, thus gaining implicit knowledge about nature. The knowledge of the
world that is generated in this way is immersed in the moods, valences, and
relationships of the day-to-day lived world of children. This also implies that
children establish relationships to the objects of their play, which place them
into dialogue and bind them to each other. Aesthetic forms of reflection about
the experiences of play (music, dance, poetry, literature, performance play,
among others) take hold of these bodily and lived-world meanings and make
them conscious. Narration also has this aesthetic intimate quality that allows
for reliving and re-experiencing what has taken place. But it also entails the
challenge of abstracting and objectifying. Reifying, abstracting, and objectifying interpretations lead to analogies and explanations and provide a foundation for an understanding that is based upon objective relationships and circumstances. Only then can we speak about “concepts.” Yet these concepts
still enclose the fullness of prior corporeal, soulful, and social experiences
with the world. If we separate them from this context, we uproot them (see
Buck 1997). Conversely, the more the proximate experiences of the phenom-
34
ena to be interpreted are filled with rich, dense interconnections, the more
easily children can abstract from them. Thus, when phenomena are accessible
to children’s intentions and actions, they can develop quite realistic and rational interpretations. Thus it makes sense to challenge children to relate their
close experiences and reflections to their more abstract interpretations. It is
probably more efficacious for the process of abstracting subjective interpretations to ground them in the fullness of lived experiences and close reflections
“from the bottom up,” rather than communicating them “from the top down”
in the form of objective knowledge and objective benchmarks. It is quite
astounding in what a rich and differentiated way children, even at an early
age, can explain their world, if they are supported in their experiences and if
their subjective interpretations are responded to with encouragement and
respect. Of course, it is also possible to bestow scientific theories upon children’s lives as treasures from above. Then, it has been shown that children’s
thinking and language can be stimulated as they stretch upward to retrieve
these treasures. Even if science is still a distant prospect and not yet attainable, thinking can acquire impetus and direction.
What new experiences do the children gain? Knowledge has both an objective and a subjective side. Knowledge is objective to the extent that the phenomena to which it relates are real; however, it is illuminated in the light of
subjectivity. Without light, the phenomena would remain obscure. Therefore,
if we wish to understand children’s experiences, we must fathom the light –
namely, the context of sense and meaning that children bring to their play.
Since the context of sense and meaning is complex, we should distinguish
among several layers of meaning in children’s experience:
- A “movement” meaning: Which movement is the source of the experience? What traces of movement and movement knowledge does it contain? What “questions” does it contain and what “responses” did it receive? Does the movement succeed or does it simply run its course?
- A “sensation” meaning: What resonance does the experience evoke in
the child? What feelings, moods, images, motivations, associations, fantasies, and ideas does it touch?
- An “action” meaning: What is the child’s experience of his actions? Are
his aims and intentions confirmed? Is the path taken the right one?
- A “life-world biographical” meaning: What themes, relationships, stories, memories, and values are incorporated into the action, thereby putting the experience in a specific light?
- A “social” meaning: To what extent do experiences also involve messages, moods, and meanings from the social sphere? To what extent do
they communicate meaning in the social sphere?
35
-
A “conceptual” meaning: What expectations and ideas does the experience touch? What conscious questions and hypotheses does it respond
to? Does it confirm or contradict a concept or a theory?
What significance do external circumstances have for the play? Children’s
play creates its own space, which has its own structure and is separated from
the outside world. In this sense, we may speak of an “ecology” of children’s
play. The various “spaces” relevant to play communicate with each other.
There are influences and transitions. Thus, play takes place in a physical
space, in which it encounters natural phenomena, brings these to awareness
and actively affects them. This physical space opens up an action space for
the children. Children’s actions communicate in a physical space with the
phenomena that they have experienced and perceived. Children also cooperate in play; their actions seek and find responses, resonances, and echoes in
the actions of others. Even when children appear to simply be playing near
one another, they are absorbing the motivations, themes, and movements of
the other in a mimetic-imitative way and incorporating these in their own
play. In the social space, the actions, perceptions, and experiences of the
children meet other children’s actions, perceptions, and experiences. Occasionally, children create conceptual frames for their actions. They deliberate,
orient their play, contemplate their actions, design and plan new actions, and
speak about them. They reflect about their play and the experiences they have
had playing and reflect about them. In this sense, we may speak of an “interpretive space” in children’s play (see also Fischer 2009a).
All play is internally organized across these spaces. In this way,
children can organize different play worlds that are quite close to each other.
There may be contacts and exchanges among these play worlds. These contacts and exchanges can affect the physical, action-related, thematic, and
social conditions of play. Naturally, adults also set significant ecological
conditions as they structure play, define the play spaces, and intervene in the
play. When the children are eating supper in the snow, their play builds a
bridge to the everyday familiar world of home. But children’s play can also
incorporate other worlds that have meaning in their lives, including worlds
that they have access to through the media.
How do children communicate about their play? Children’s play may also
develop in the form of an interactive and communicative event (regarding the
fundamental concept of communication, see Watzlawick et al. 1990; Schulz
von Thun 1981. For the concept of interaction, see Schülein 1983). Children
communicate their perceptions and feelings, their movements and actions,
and their interpretations and reflections about natural phenomena. In this
way, their play becomes richer and more intense. It experiences impulses and
stimuli. Every perception, action, and reflection finds an echo not only in
36
natural phenomena, but also in social space. The social space can work like
scaffolding that provides support, a protective outer shell inside which an
action can be concentrated, and then focused as under a magnifying lens. It is
as if an action were still in the balance with everyone holding his or her
breath while a child performs an action. The social space also can tend towards making the children similar to each other, similar in their feelings,
actions, and interpretations. Play in the social space releases an attractive
force that also captures children who are situated outside it.
What children say in their play is a part, an expression, an outpouring, and an impetus for action. Children’s speech is itself movement, emotion, and feeling; it passes its movement along to others. It is background
music that supports, intensifies, and harmonically completes its own melodies of movement. The child’s movements can be announced, inspired, sometimes impatiently challenged, accompanied, hailed, and celebrated, or deplored, even insulted and slurred. Language reflects the happiness of successful movements, but it also reflects surprises at unexpected turns or even irritation if the movement towards the phenomenon fails. Like movement itself,
the language that communicates it also circles around the phenomenon.
Thus, language sometimes stops to take it all in, separating itself
from movement in order to take a look around or to look ahead. Then, language determines where the movement was, what it could find in the phenomenon and where it will go or should go, and what expectations to take
along. It is a narrative language that retraces the experiences or anticipates
them, that captures in words how the child’s movements and actions encountered the phenomena. Children’s stories, as well, keep coming back to their
own lives. Movements, actions, and language thus go hand in hand. Like the
movements and actions themselves, the stories exert a force that pulls others
along. In addition, through their narratives, children not only circle around
the phenomena but also around each other, and communicate movement,
feeling, expression, and meaning – a dynamic event, in which common
themes can be created out of individual motivations and further developed.
However, sometimes language detaches itself so strongly from
movement and feeling that it becomes “deprived” in its abstraction, and regards the phenomena and the movements as something distant, as things and
as objects. Knowledge of the world expressed in this way is no longer only
implicit knowledge bound to subjective movement and feeling. Now, such
knowledge can be expressed in an objectifying language, so that the facts are
conceptually expressed, deliberately presented, thought about, conceptualized, and modeled, and can be intersubjectively communicated as well as
discursively negotiated. However, precisely because this abstracting language
separated itself from phenomena, it requires proximity, presence, and the
accessibility of the phenomena to action. And it requires the mediation of
37
adults, who challenge and support the children to create and make use of the
islands of reflection in children’s play.
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39
Chapter 2: Learning about the Natural Sciences –
New Ways to Train Grade School Teachers
(Astrid Huber)
The need to increase competencies in the natural sciences has been the subject of increasing attention because of multiple economic and societal concerns. Not only have international comparison studies such as PISA and
TIMMS made it apparent that, to date, Austria’s grade school children have
only achieved average scores, but in addition, Austria’s position as a center
for technology appears to be increasingly jeopardized. Austria’s media regularly draws attention to the general shortfall in the number of graduates in
natural science and technical specialties from across the nation’s educational
institutions.
For this reason, there are increasing calls to offer basic education
targeted at the natural sciences and technology, beginning as early as kindergarten and grade school. Achieving this goal will require a fundamental
overhaul of educational plans and curricula. A basic prerequisite for a successful curriculum is to increase the professional status of kindergarten and
grade school educators. Both of these professional groups need major qualitative improvements in their training curricula.
In what follows, we will attempt to explore the NAWI Portfolio in
more depth as a component system for learning about the natural sciences as
part of Austrian grade school teacher training. This three-year training program has existed at the academic level since 2007 and it culminates in a
Bachelor of Education degree. The training of kindergarten educators still
takes place in specialized upper level gymnasia and leads to a specific Abitur
degree which simultaneously serves as a professional license. Beyond this,
there are no legally sanctioned educational programs for kindergarten educators in Austria at the present time.
In grade schools 1 children have their first encounter with the subjects of nature and technology in their general science (SU) classes. Brain
research has shown that grade school children are capable of understanding
and interpreting complex natural and technical phenomena. As a result, there
has been intensive research aimed at discovering methods to raise the quality
of teachers’ training in the natural sciences at teachers’ colleges, to thereby
facilitate an improvement in grade school teaching in the natural sciences and
technology. The NAWI Portfolio has been shown to be particularly useful in
1
For the sake of clarity: in Austria grade schools are known as “Volksschule.”
40
developing essential competencies for future grade school educators, and thus
it could replace traditional educational designs in teacher training programs.
A long and rocky road
“Science has been taught too much as an accumulation of ready-made facts
with which students are to be made familiar, not enough as a method of
thinking” (Dewey 1910).
Since John Dewey’s critical statements made over 100 years ago (!) about the
teaching of natural science subjects in natural science education, little has
actually changed. Essentially, natural science teaching for past and present
students at Austrian teachers’ colleges has relied upon the transmission of
facts. In the subject areas of physics, chemistry, and biology, the primary
focus is on describing and explaining specific phenomena, and typically, no
provision is made for independent engagement with questions derived from
the life worlds of the students. 2
In the PISA and TIMMS studies, Austrian students showed special
competence in describing and explaining those phenomena that they had
specifically learned about. However, Austria’s students ranked below the
international norm in their capacity for independent research and engagement
with scientific problems (interpreting data, drawing logical conclusions, applying natural laws, conducting scientific discussion, and justifying their
ideas).
It is also worth noting that the majority of students in degree programs that prepare them for teaching in grade schools have completed an
Abitur degree at a vocational secondary school. This 5-year school model
specific to Austria (grades 9–13) builds upon a four-year secondary school or
gymnasium (grades 5–8). The curriculum at these vocational school models
is primarily oriented to subjects that prepare students for subsequent entry
into business, social, and technical vocations. Subject areas such as physics,
chemistry, and biology, which are offered by upper grades in gymnasium, are
scarcely covered or left out altogether. This creates a special challenge for
educators at teachers’ colleges with respect to general science (SU) classes. 3
Over a time span consisting of only a few class periods, they must impart
basic knowledge about the natural sciences while also teaching the principles
of didactics in the natural sciences. National and international studies 4 have
2
Krainer, K./Benke, G. (2009): Mathematik – Naturwissenschaften – Informationstechnologie:
Neue Wege in Unterricht und Schule?! In: Specht, W. (ed.): Nationaler Bildungsbericht Österreich 2009. Volume 2.
3
Subject area of Nature & Technology.
4
Studies at the national level: Pokorny 2003, Schradt, 2005 and international level: OECD
2006, Osborne 1996, Harlen 1997.
41
pointed to this dilemma as a problem area. Grade school students show great
interest in subjects related to the natural sciences, but at best, they only find a
marginally stimulating learning environment in their classes. Most often, it is
impossible to have the kind of independent engagement with natural and
technical phenomena that is geared to the children’s own concerns. Instead,
the contents of the curriculum are dealt with on a theoretical level and the
students work on subjects from the general science textbooks. There is no
time left for research-based learning oriented to the interests and questions of
the children, and insufficient time to reflect about the knowledge they have
gained. Teaching in the natural sciences is reduced to rote recitation and
dominated by worksheets. Presumably, this form of teaching offers those
teachers with only a minimal basic knowledge in the natural sciences a relative sense of security.
In what follows, we will present a conception of teachers’ training
that fulfills the needs for well-founded basic knowledge about the natural
sciences and fundamental understanding about concepts and methods for
grade school teaching. The portfolio that accompanies students throughout
this learning process has also proven to be extremely helpful.
The portfolio for raising competency during teachers’ training
In the learning portfolio, future teachers have an opportunity to reflect upon
their training in the natural sciences as a whole and upon their prior knowledge. This allows them to take note of both “hobbyhorse” areas and “blind
spots,” and determine the areas where they need to deepen their understanding and pinpoint areas that have been completely left out of their education in
the past. A subsequent seminar discussion helps the students visualize the
initial process of reflection.
The survey of the students’ initial level of knowledge is tape recorded, transcribed, and saved in the student’s learning portfolio (Phase 1) as
a means of documenting the learning process. This can be illustrated by a few
responses from the students.
“… I took a few years of courses in chemistry in Gymnasium, but by now, I
can’t do anything with it!”… “I am familiar with all of the great laws of
physics, such as Ohm’s Law or the Bernoulli principle, but I have no idea
how to explain to a child how electrical current flows or how a paper airplane can glide in the air for such a long time!” “… I learned quite a bit of
physics and chemistry and understood some of it, but today I can no longer
apply anything I learned!”
During this phase, it is explained that in training grade school teachers, the goal is not to “rebuild” basic natural science knowledge from their
earlier education. Given the limited number of allotted class hours available,
42
this would be unrealistic. Instead, the focus is upon the broad development of
a range of competencies required for creating a research-based learning process in general teaching about the natural sciences and technology for children
in grade school.
The portfolio in the personal education of teachers
As part of the “Naturbild” project, we developed a plan for promoting research-based learning in the natural-science-oriented teaching of general
science classes. The plan, which was developed at the Upper Austrian Teachers’ College and the Private University College of the Diocese of Linz, will
be described in more detail in what follows. A learning portfolio accompanies each student throughout his/her studies. The program seeks to allow
students to become experts in a very limited (self-chosen) area of learning
selected from the basic grade school nature and technology curriculum. In
this very comfortably sized specialized area, it is possible to successfully
augment students’ basic knowledge.
The entire learning process is documented in a portfolio. All materials that are created during the individual learning phases are saved in the
portfolio. The project design is divided into nine phases:
Phase
Activity
1
2
3
4
Surveying one’s personal level of knowledge
Creating a knowledge base for the self-selected subject
Training in methods
Methodological-didactic preparation, including preparation of
the learning environment
Peer teaching in the seminar
Trying out the program with students in the classroom
Reflection and evaluation of the learning sequence (teaching
practicum)
Refinement of the learning sequence
Final reflections on the overall learning process
5
6
7
8
9
In phases 2, 3 and 4, the teachers’ college students develop the subjects they
have personally selected from the standard grade school curriculum 5 in
teams. In a NAWI training workshop, they should be able to find almost all
5
School curriculum, 2007.
43
the media and materials necessary for successfully developing their subject. 6
They should accomplish the following goals:
‐ Build up their understanding of science
‐ Learn basic principles of educational psychology for teaching pre-school
and grade school students
‐ Develop possible pathways for changing teaching concepts
‐ Learn methods for increasing competency in basic teaching about the
natural sciences.
It is hoped that as a result of independent work in developing their chosen
subject, the students will augment their sense of personal competency in
relation to basic teaching about the natural sciences and technology.
Figure 1: Developing basic knowledge and preparation for the practicum morning.
In the following phase (5), the students present the subject of their teaching
project to their colleagues. Here, the goal is not to present a fully finished
teaching sequence, but rather to provide a description of the overall process.
Sufficient time and space is included in the plan for trying out different options. Not only can the students try out tests and experiments, but they also
have a chance to discuss methods and didactic considerations together with
the group. Students also receive technical support for preparing their lessons
through their technique class, where they create apparatus, models, and experimental facilities. Exercises in estimation and measurement from their
mathematics class foster their ability to clarify their research questions.
6
NAWI training workshop: Training workshop in the natural sciences and technology.
44
Figure 2: Peer teaching –
students use their own project
work to demonstrate the power
of water
In Phase 5 (Peer Teaching), students present their own work and have a
chance to test out the experimental apparatus that they have largely designed
on their own. In addition, they can exchange their learning experiences with
their fellow students, and discuss the difficulties that occurred in this learning
phase. They can then save their new knowledge, ideas, strategies, reflections,
and analyses in their personal learning portfolios.
In the next step (Phase 6), they try out the learning sequence with
the grade school children.
Figures 3 and 4: Implementation in the classroom
In our experience, the students’ early skepticism about their own methodological and planning competency quickly vanishes. Furthermore, the children’s enthusiasm has a motivating impact upon the student teachers. The
preparatory phases are thus typically highly worthwhile. In this phase (6), the
students record all of the children’s activities to be discussed and reflected
upon in a subsequent seminar. They examine the learning goals they had
collectively determined, and if one or another of the goals was not suffi-
45
ciently achieved, the students search for possible reasons. The knowledge
gained from this process serves for refining the learning sequence.
Figure 5: Reflection about the experiences from the school practicum and
the student’s overall personal learning process.
The NAWI project (learning module) concludes with a seminar group discussion, a written questionnaire, and a reflection form.
Questionnaire
The majority of the students who were surveyed (N=68) during the 2010
summer semester reported that they could count on the support of the seminar
leader. Among this group, 91.2% (∑ 25.0; 66.2) of the students stated that
their individual questions and wishes were taken into account. One possible
reason for their positive response may be the manageable size of the seminar
groups. No group included more than 25 students.
Valid perFrequency Percentage centage
Valid does not apply
1
applies half the 5
time
mostly applies
17
totally applies
45
Total
68
Cumulative
percentage
1.5
7.4
1.5
7.4
1.5
8.8
25.0
66.2
100.0
25.0
66.2
100.0
33.8
100.0
Table 1: The facilitators are responsive to the questions/wishes of the participants.
Similar results were obtained when students were asked about the supervision
they received during the project. Here, 79.4% (∑ 27.9; 51.5) of those surveyed noted that “receiving very good supervision” totally applied or mostly
applied to them (Table 2; gray shaded area).
46
Valid per- Cumulative
Frequency Percentage centage
percentage
Valid
does not apply
1
mostly does not 1
apply
applies half the 11
time
mostly applies
19
fully applies
35
Total
67
Missing System
1
Total
68
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
3.0
16.2
16.4
19.4
27.9
51.5
98.5
1.5
100.0
28.4
52.2
100.0
47.8
100.0
Table 2: Supervision in the project is very good.
Regarding their development of teacher-specific competencies such as the
interpretation and understanding of children’s thinking processes, two-thirds
of the students felt secure or relatively secure, but an additional one-third of
the respondents (Table 3: gray shaded area) still felt some insecurity about
this area of competency.
Valid
Cumulative
Frequency Percentage percentage percentage
Valid does not apply
1
mostly does not 2
apply
applies half the time 21
mostly applies
25
completely applies 19
Total
68
1.5
2.9
1.5
2.9
1.5
4.4
30.9
36.8
27.9
100.0
30.9
36.8
27.9
100.0
35.3
72.1
100.0
Table 3: Survey statement – “I am better able to perceive and support children in their interpretation and understanding of natural phenomena.”
Very encouraging results were also obtained for the question concerning the
creation of a supportive learning environment in the classroom. In this area,
92.6% (∑ 38.2; 54.4) of the students considered that they were competent and
had received adequate preparation in the seminar (Table 4: gray shaded area).
47
Valid
Valid
Frequency Percentage percentage
not 2
2.9
2.9
does
apply
applies half 3
the time
mostly ap- 26
plies
completely 37
applies
Total
68
Cumulative
percentage
2.9
4.4
4.4
7.4
38.2
38.2
45.6
54.4
54.4
100.0
100.0
100.0
Table 4: Survey statement – “I have a better understanding now of how I can create a supportive
learning environment for children.”
With regard to their comfort level in guiding children’s conversations and
reflections, the results were similar to those about supporting children in their
interpretation and understanding of natural phenomena – 23.5% of the students still felt insecure in this area.
Valid
Valid
Frequency Percentage percentage
not 1
1.5
1.5
does
apply
applies half 16
of the time
mostly ap- 29
plies
completely 22
applies
Total
68
Cumulative
percentage
1.5
23.5
23.5
25.0
42.6
42.6
67.6
32.4
32.4
100.0
100.0
100.0
Table 5: Survey statement – “I am better able to guide children in their conversations and
reflections about phenomena.”
Presumably, this is an area in which it is not possible to fall back upon readymade concepts and even good planning may only be of limited help. Probably, students are in need of additional, more intensive exposure to principles
of educational psychology, and, above all, more adequate experience in actual teaching practice.
When students reflect about the learning processes
48
In the final phase (9) of the Naturbild project, the students reflected about
their own learning processes. This also gave them the opportunity to provide
feedback about the design of the learning module. The following key questions provided a foundation for giving anonymous written feedback to the
seminar leader:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Which seminar units were personally useful and stimulating for you?
If this seminar were given again, what parts would you advise me to
keep the same?
What would you advise me to change?
What would you tell other people about this seminar?
What other things would you like to communicate to me?
A very common response to the first question regarding the personal value of
the course pointed to the close linkage between theory and practice:
I found it especially meaningful that what we developed in the seminar was
immediately tried out in practice. In this way, the actual difficulties were also
immediately apparent, which we were then able to discuss afterwards [at the
practice mornings in the schools] (B-O., A.)
Many students began the Naturbild project with considerable skepticism
about the learning portfolio. At this point they suspected that there would be
a greater workload here than in other courses. Yet, many students were able
to cite the advantages quite early:
Already during the seminar about finding a subject, or in the practice preparation seminar, the portfolio was very helpful to me in finding my subject,
structuring the planning and overall, to be able to estimate the desired quantity of work. (H., J.)
In the Naturbild project, students were confronted with new subjects and
approaches that often were diametrically opposed to their own early school
experiences. They became aware that an engagement with subjects related to
the natural sciences was not the province of “high” science, but instead,
needed to be offered as part of early childhood education as a cornerstone for
learning ways of thinking and actively working in the natural sciences:
I recognized that involvement with this subject can and should be initiated as
early as grade school. (Sch., A.)
49
For me, it was very exciting to see the children’s reactions and their responses when we tried out the experiment with the children. (R-P., M.)
For the question, “If this seminar were given again, what parts would you
advise me to keep the same?” the students made the following comments:
Absolutely keep the option for practical implementation in a public school!!
(S.,H.)
It was also helpful to hold a seminar in the library, where we could get ideas
for our individual subject areas from a range of books (including textbooks).
(Sch., A-M.)
The field trip to the Voestalpine plant [a local steel factory] gave us an interesting look at the workings of the firm! The course is very practice oriented
and thus extremely useful for our future work as educators. (H., L.)
It was good that we could engage intensively with a single subject area in
small groups (2-3 students) and especially that during our practice mornings,
we could then see the possibilities for helping children experiment in other
subject areas. (K., M.)
Feedback from the students themselves was considered to be of particular
importance in the ongoing development of the Naturbild project concept. In
response to the question, “What other things would you like to communicate
to me [the seminar leader]?,” the students gave the following answers:
I was surprised that so many different subjects are appropriate for research,
my own subject was thought through and developed so well that it turned out
to be quite applicable for implementation in my own school practice. Even
the simplification for the 1st school grades was not a problem for me, and
could be worked on somewhat scientifically by students in the first grade of
public school. (A., B-O.)
Your commitment and readiness to provide help and to answer a wide range
of questions. (S.,H.)
The opportunity to work concretely in a technological subject area was very
instructive, as was the opportunity to perform experiments.
I find that the fundamental idea of the Naturbild project seems worth pursuing and should be further developed in order to strengthen our understanding
50
of natural science thinking and activity on the part of the children, and especially on the part of teachers in grade schools. (L., W.)
Conclusion
The changing landscape of childhood, Europe’s ever-more unified educational space, and, not least, the results of international comparison studies in
the natural sciences call for new models and structural changes in teachers’
education.
As part of the Naturbild project, a group of school teachers from
Linz and students from teachers’ colleges explored the effectiveness of training and continuing education concepts in the area of the natural sciences and
technology.
This has helped us to recognize the extraordinary importance of
increased cooperation with educational institutions, such as kindergartens,
grade schools, and also institutions that directly or indirectly work together
with these educational sites. Only in this way can we successfully achieve the
cross-linking of theory and practice. Scientific supervision guarantees that
new discoveries in the teaching and learning process will continue to be made
available and in this will be of equal benefit to both teachers and children.
Literature
AG Naturbild (2010): Nature and Technology in Early Educational Processes. Baltmannsweiler.
Bertsch, C. (2010): Forschendes Lernen im naturwissenschaftlich-technisch orientierten Sachunterricht - Kompetenzentwicklung angehender VolkschullehrerInnen im Rahmen der naturwissenschaftsdidaktischen Ausbildung an den Pädagogischen Hochschulen. Forschungsantrag an
das österreichische Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst & Kultur. Vienna.
Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur (2009): Lehrplan der Volksschule. Vienna,
Leykam.
Harlen, W. (1997): Primary teachers’ understanding in science and its impact in the classroom.
Research in Science Education, 27. pp. 323-337.
Krainer, K./Benke, G. (2009): Mathematik – Naturwissenschaften – Informationstechnologie:
Neue Wege in Unterricht und Schule?!. In: Specht, W. (ed.): Nationaler Bildungsbericht
Österreich 2009. Volume 2.
OECD (2006): Evolution of Student Interest in Science and Technology Studies Policy Report.
Available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/16/30/36645825.pdf, accessed: January 2007.
Osborne, J., Simon, S. (1996): Primary Science: past and future directions. Studies in Science
Education. 26. pp. 99–147.
Pokorny, B. (2003): Science for fun. IMST Project Report. Available at http://imst.uniklu.ac.
at/materialien/2003/s4_i_paedag_erzdioezese_wien_lang_151203.pdf.
Schradt, F. (2005): Neue Wege im naturwissenschaftlich orientierten Sachunterricht im Erfahrungs- und Lernbereich Technik an der Volksschule (Science4Kids). IMST Projektbericht.
Available at http://imst.uni-klu.ac.at/programme_prinzipien/fonds/projektberichte05-07/2004
6/s2/200405/endbericht_schradt.pdf.
51
52
Building and Testing Technical Craftwork with
Children
(Hegedűs Gábor)
Introduction
In the first volume of the “Naturbild” study companion, we focused on presenting the potential benefits of craftwork on personality development. In this
chapter, we would like to demonstrate the complex range of possibilities for
learning and experience potentiated by craftwork by using practical examples
– namely, modeling processes that are based on observation and experimentation. We continue to see craftwork not as an end in itself, but rather as an
activity-based instrument in the learning process. Such activity makes learning stimulating, interesting, and attractive for both highly gifted and less
gifted children, and also for students and adults who can use it to lay the
groundwork for a positive attitude toward learning about the natural sciences.
While there is a wide range of consensus between the different contributions
in both volumes of this study companion, at the same time, their differences
assure methodological diversity and thus give children and educators the
option to choose among many different approaches for conducting Naturbild
projects. Because of the intrinsic complexity of the projects, craftwork will
facilitate experimentation – for example, when experiments are conducted
with models that were put together beforehand. We recommend that no fixed
time limits be set for such projects. Depending on the complexity of the projects selected, it makes sense to offer daylong or multiple-day time blocks for
their accomplishment. In this way, you will see children explore a range of
subjects we could assign to the perspectives of many different fields.
Educational practice for constructive play with gasses
We offered kindergarten and grade school children and their teachers opportunities for an examination of air and carbon dioxide. Afterwards, we conducted group discussions (backed up with questionnaires for the older children) in order to ascertain how they evaluated these activities, whether they
conveyed new experiences and knowledge, which physical explanations they
had arrived at, and whether the methods and strategies employed proved to be
of long-term use. In this work, we selected the following topics:
− Measuring the force of your breath
− Constructing airplanes, playing and experimenting with them
− Making rotary models, playing and experimenting with them
53
Measuring the force of your breath
As part of what we offered to the children, we tried out a number of possible
ways to let children measure the power of their lungs. The variants presented
here only represent a selection. We also mention those instances where children were already examining the phenomenon of air, for example, as a means
of voice production. In their play, the children developed the following
measurement methods:
Drawing out your voice, straws, pipes made of straws
‐ Vocalizing the word, “door” in one extended breath. Who can say it
longer, the longest? While vocalizing, they hold their hands in the air.
When your breath is gone, your hand drops down.
‐ Singing the notes of the scale in one breath: do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do…
Who can go the farthest?
‐ Trying to make a sound with your nose and your mouth kept shut. How
long can you keep making a sound in this way? Questions come up: how
is it possible to make a sound at all like this? Why does it only last a
short time? What gets in the way of your voice? None of the children had
thought before about the fact that the sound and the voice only last for as
along as all the available spaces in the head still contained some air. But
even kindergarten children were able to develop an understanding of this
phenomenon. The fact that you need air to make your voice sound is a
part of children’s knowledge
of the world.
‐ How long can you hold your
breath with your nose and
mouth kept shut without inhaling? Meanwhile, the others are counting out loud
(thus setting the foundation
for counting and measuring
time in younger children)
(see Figure 1: All the chilFigure 1
dren are actively participating).
‐ At least five thin and five thicker plastic drinking straws are scotch taped
together lengthwise in a chain. The children try to breathe through the
pipes formed in this way. With which kind of straw can you breathe
54
longer? The children notice that the air that flows out is cooler than before, but they cannot find any explanation for this. It is beyond the
boundary of the children’s world knowledge. Analogies can be drawn to
the shortness of breath you might feel when you climb stairs. Maybe
breathing disorders and smoking may come up here as well. In playful
experimentation and in the conversation that accompanies it, further discoveries can be made and tested out. Here, children are also developing
their communication ability, to be active in general, and to inform others
about their experiences. Knowledge is acquired through a personal encounter with the phenomena.
Balloons to measure the air in your breath, blowing air, letting your voice
ring out
‐ How big can you blow up a balloon with a single breath? Comparison
between adults and children.
Preparation and laying the
foundation for measuring
volume.
‐ How big can you blow up a
balloon with 5 breaths (3 for
adults)? Comparison between the children and between the children and
adults (see Figure 2).
‐ Along the way, sounds are
produced by the blown-up balFigure 2
loons. These are compared to the
sounds and functions of the vocal cords. Often adults are also unaware that
people only have two vocal cords.
‐ The blown up balloon is released. This allows learning about the function of
jet propulsion.
‐ We blow up one or two balloons until they burst! This facilitates explanation
of sensitivity to sound: the sudden increase of the air pressure on the eardrum
is perceived as a blast.
Figure 3
‐
We attach wet cellophane (adhesive foil will not work for this experiment) to a preserving jar using a rubber band. We scatter sugar or salt
onto the dried-off cellophane. When there is a bang, the crystals jump. In
55
‐
‐
our conversation, we bring up the harmful effects of excessively loud
music.
Making noises with a pipe made from a drinking straw. One end of the
flexible drinking straw is pressed flat and sharpened on two sides. (Figure 3). We can alter the pitch of the sound it makes by varying the length of
the straw. This is an activity that is amusing for children and adults alike.
Some of the children expressed the opinion that now they could save the cost
of purchasing a flute for New Year’s Eve. They could make their own. The
length of the drinking straw can be extended by using scotch tape. This offers a chance to play with the force of their breath. Who can blow the longest
note with a single breath?
How much water can you blow out through a flexible straw in one breath
into the mouth of a bottle filled with water that is set into a filled water basin? This task gives children a chance to make a visible measurement of their
lung volume. The test is also fascinating for adults. The measurement begins
after you take a deep breath and fill your lungs (Figure 4). Question: Who is
able to hold more air in his
lungs? Is it possible to extend
this capacity further? Children
expect that the adults will also
participate in the measurements.
Since on average, adults have
twice the lung capacity as grade
school children, this may result
in some surprise.
Measuring lung capacity with a
table tennis ball
We make a table
tennis ball dance
using a flexible
drinking
straw
(Figure 5). How
long can you keep
the ball in the air?
Is it easier to accomplish the task
if the straw is cut
shorter?
What
Figure 4
Figures 5 and 6
56
happens if we scotch tape two or three drinking straws together? Children find
answers to these questions by trying things out. In this way, small children can
begin to anticipate elements of Bernoulli’s law through their play.
Constructing airplanes, playing and experimenting with them
There is an inexhaustible variety of airplanes and sail models that we can
construct with children and then let them play with. Here is a selection of
three models:
- Gliders
- Simple paper airplanes
- Rotary fliers made of polyethylene film.
Most models can be constructed using scrap paper (colored advertising mailers). They require no special expense. Once more, we should point out that
for us, the construction of models is never an end unto itself, but instead, an
educational method. Craftwork makes a child more skilled, smarter, and
provides new experiences. It helps to develop the motivation for building
things and for learning from the process, and opens the child to the phenomena of the world. This is epitomized by a statement made by a father who
participated in what is known as the crafts bungalow in Budapest: “Back
then, I never wanted to attend high school in Kecskemét because they taught
physics.” His statement reveals his tense relationship with the natural sciences. Yet, he cheerfully spent a half-day with his family at our stand and
busied himself with craftwork and experimentation.
Constructing a glider
In order to optimize the construction
process, facilitate comparative experiments, and challenge creativity, we
built three different varieties of paper
gliders – made from a right-angle
triangle, a square, and a rectangle. In
this way, we were able to bring different geometrical shapes into play,
Figure 7
and at the same time challenge children to search for optimal solutions (see Hegedűs 2005).1 Figure 7 shows how
it is possible to prepare the largest possible right-angle triangle or square from a
DIN A4 sheet (e.g. advertising flier, newspaper). If the sheet is folded in half
1
In our opinion, creativity is the search for the optimal technical solution, which is dependent
upon the place, the time, and the type and extent of use of the product.
57
along the short axis of symmetry, we can make a right-angle glider. The method
of construction is the same as for the triangular paper (Figure 8).
Construction of a triangular glider: The starting shape is a right-angle triangle, and the final shape is a trapezoid.
1. The isosceles triangle is folded together
along its axis of symmetry, and then folded
back again.2
2. The right angle is folded from the base perpendicular to the axis of symmetry2.
3. At the folded edge (the short side of the
isosceles trapezoid just created) we twice
fold a strip that is 5-7 mm wide (pancake
fold). In this way, we obtain what is known
as nose weight, that is, we locate the center
of gravity of the glider toward the front, in
order to stabilize its flight.
4. As shown in the sketch, we fold the two fins
(stabilizers) underneath. In this way, we
assure lateral stability. Later we also try out
Figure 8
the glider with the fins folded upwards.
5. A final fold once again in the middle – and it is finished. To fly (Figure
9), we release the glider holding the middle of its longer side.
Figures 9 and 10
2
When possible, we try to consistently use basic geometric terminology. In this way, we try to
make an early contribution to the development of language competency with respect to specific
terminology, which can be built upon in later grades.
58
Don’t throw it, just let it go! Our glider glides wonderfully. Of course, to
improve the quality of the glide, we can adjust the fins, make the pancake
folds broader or narrower, add additional folds, or select a different grade of
paper.
Once you let the children start experimenting, they will keep varying
the flight characteristics of their glider and keep testing it under they are
finally satisfied with their work. It especially surprises the children if they let
the airplane fall vertically and then watch it switch into a glide. We challenge
them to think about why the airplane glides and does not fall straight to the
ground. Here, even the adults may have large gaps in their knowledge. What
is critical is that in trying out the gliders, curiosity grows, and this may
gradually evolve into a lasting interest (see Hegedűs 2009, p. 48).
The airplane can easily be transformed into a bird. The triangle
folded towards the rear is turned to the front, and then the bird can be
sketched and brightly painted and then sent off to fly (see Figure 10). Drawing and painting help children develop fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination. In kindergarten children, this goes on to become the foundation for
writing, and in school children, for developing confidence in their handwriting.
Construction of a glider from a square: Older children can build this type of
airplane on their own, but younger children will still need adult assistance. In
either case, experimenting with the glider then becomes an opportunity for
movement and a chance for joyful activity.
1. A square-shaped sheet of
paper is folded diagonally. The
triangle created in this way is
then cut approximately twothirds of the way along the
thick line as shown in Figure
11.
2. We fold one of the triangles
Figure 11
from the now unfolded square
into 7 to 10 mm wide pancakelike strips from the apex up to the cut line. The folds much be angled
precisely!
3. On the other side of the cutting line, we fold along the top of the triangle.
Once again, follow the edges precisely!
59
4.
5.
6.
Parallel to the contour line, we fold back the side wing tips symmetrically (Höhenruder, see Figure. 12).
We hold the stealth airplane as illustrated in Figure 12, and simply let it fall.
You can alter and vary the quality of the glide by taking back some of the
pancake folds or by folding upwards the fins at the end of the wing. We
leave the experimentation with the models to the children. We also recommend that you try out different sizes and paper qualities. In this way, both
the children and the adults will have interesting experiences.
We have tried building such
sailplanes and gliders with children
of various age groups (ranging from
three year old children to adults). The
experience of success was meaningful for all of them. We found that for
three and four year olds, their
coordination of movement was still
too uncertain for them to simply let
the airplanes go without throwing
them. They took great pleasure in the
soaring planes and ran after them
even when their launch attempts
miscarried. One three year old turned
to her grandmother after every
launch
attempt
and
asked,
“Grandma, did it work?
Figure 12
Nature has fabricated its own gliders.
Figure 13 shows the fruit of a linden
tree, whose leaf-like shape serves as
a flying machine. The fruit is
released from the tree together with
the leaf after they dry out and it
glides along in the wind. This assures
Figure 13
that a portion of the fruit will reach
beyond the shadow of the tree, where
there is only a small amount of light. The tree thereby increases its chances of
propagation.
60
Construction of simple airplanes:
Edita Szabóová (2010, p. 83) shows us the remarkable degree of complexity in
the movement of the paper airplanes that she has constructed and in children’s
play with them. In the present context, we are focused on the construction of
models and the options for experimenting with them. Our goal is to use these
options to support the process of building children’s experiences, understanding
and knowledge. Younger children are mostly dependent upon imitation in their
construction of airplanes.
Older or gifted children may already know how to read and follow
instructions for their assembly. In this way, they can also acquire foundations for
competencies
in
process
description,
symbolic
representation, and the development of action sequences, which
the will need later for
experimentation in chemistry
and physics. In this way,
craftwork
contributes
to
knowledge acquisition in a
constructivist sense. Finally, this
activity
also
involves
coordination of movement and
fantasy, as when the children draw
Figure 14
pictures on their airplanes, provide
them with windows, or give their
airplane a name (Figure 14).
Paper airplane with a reinforced nose: The process of construction can be understood from Figure 15. Folds should be made at the edge lines in the sequence
given.
1. We fold a DIN A4 sheet along its longer axis of symmetry (1), creating
two congruent rectangles (Figure 16). The terms “axis of symmetry” and
“congruence” are only mentioned in passing.
2. The upper corners on the short side are folded down onto the axis of symmetry (2).
3. Parallel to the axis of symmetry, we fold the aileron (wing) at the same distance from the axis (3).
4. Free choice: As shown in (4), we next fold the fins (vertical stabilizers). In
this way, we can stabilize the movement of the paper airplane.
61
Unfortunately, the airplane produced in this way has one flaw: it is unable to
either fly or glide. However, this can be remedied by using two paper clips or
thicker cardboard pieces attached to its nose. This lets us shift the center of gravity forwards, which is critical for the ability to fly in this case. The quality of
flight can be improved by adjusting the width of the aileron (wing), the nose
weight or the fins (vertical stabilizers).
Figure 15
Figure 16
The quality of flight also depends on how the airplane is thrown or released.
Children learn how the airplane will fly best by trial and error: when the nose
points slightly downward and it is thrown with
a gentle thrust. Here, the children can become
conscious of principles and processes for
coordinating their movements.
A delta-wing airplane: This paper airplane
makes use of an elevation in the forward
half of the wing, similar to airplanes with
true delta wings. Here are the instructions
for folding (Figure 17):
1. We fold a DIN A4 sheet along its longer axis of symmetry (1) and obtain two
congruent rectangles.
2. We fold the upper corners on the shorter
side onto the axis of symmetry (2).
3. The newly created corners (x) are
62
Figure 17
likewise folded onto the axis of symmetry (3).
Parallel to the axis of symmetry, we fold the ailerons (wings) at the same
distance from the axis (4).
5. We fold the small fins (vertical stabilizers).
6. We fold a stabilizer (6).
In contrast to our previous models, this
delta wing airplane needs a stronger
thrust when it is launched. The children
may try out different weights of paper.
When we are building airplanes with
children, we are tolerant about their
wanting to go back to their familiar
models. In this way, they familiarize
themselves with a number of different
Figure 18
construction forms. The complicated
sequences of production steps help stimulate memory. The results of such
collective activity can include more complex creations, such as the “sparrow
plane” shown in Figure 18. This also provides a chance to make connections
to similarities in the flight of birds. During the building process, we speak
about the history of flight, which we can illustrate at the same time by means
of our models. In this way, our collective craftwork opens up awareness of
processes and developments that connect to broad areas of the world. The
activity of craftwork thus motivates a complex, continuing process of building knowledge.
We will not present a blueprint for constructing a sparrow plane here. It
is possible, however, that some children will know how to build this or other
special airplanes, and will communicate this
to others, if given the opportunity.
4.
Construction of kites
Paper kites can be constructed in the most
varied ways. Flying kites is a joyful activity
for everyone from young children to adults.
Flying kites offers the special advantage of
trying out something one has built oneself.
Our early experiences have left a lasting
impression. About ten years ago, we began
making kites with students in kindergarten
and grade school education programs in
Kecskemét. Getting started was difficult,
because there was a great deal of initial
Figure 19
63
resistance to the assignment. However, once they started
to have successes in their activities and their trials, the
students were totally reluctant to stop. Their work
provided them with feedback about the success of their
efforts. We have observed similar results during
continuing education programs for educators. Since
then, we have initiated a Bastelecke (crafts corner) in
Kecskemét.3 Students help children to make kites,
among other activities. The shared creative process and
joy of making things is an important experience for the
future educators as well as the children.
We offer children two paper kite models4 to choose
from. Their construction is quite simple. The following
materials are required: polyethylene film (refuse bags or
Figure 20
thin wrapping paper), wooden sticks (or plastic drinking
straws), scotch tape and twine. Naturally, there are no
restrictions if you want to make a kite using your own design plans. Building a
kite can also be regarded as an interdisciplinary project. These projects touch
upon almost every area of learning. Figure 19 shows an eight-year old child with
a kite model (more about this topic in Barabási 2010; Hegedűs 2002 and 2010).
A kite made of crossed wooden sticks: Figure 20 shows the process and the
results of the construction. Kites can be made in the small size illustrated or
in larger dimensions. Instead of wooden sticks,
you can use thin reeds or twigs. We usually
provide the kite with a tail made of crepe paper
for stabilization, but kites can fly beautifully
without having a tail. Children can launch the
kites in the air by running, especially if they are
moving in a larger space (a gymnasium, for
example). For younger children we have observed time and again that just running together
with another child who is flying a kite often
Figure 21
proves quite enjoyable. At this age, the sheer joy
of movement is motivation enough for being active (Claparede 1974).
3
Twice weekly, we organize what we call a “Bastelecke” (crafts corner) at the Faculty of Education of Kecskemét College, which offers free admission to all children.
4
Usually, we make the kites from polyethylene film.
64
For school-age children, the object itself is important and then, in addition,
the experience of trying it out and of movement. Modeling, experimenting
and comparing can be carried out in many ways: by trying out different materials, by varying the size of the kite, the length of the tail, and the construction design.
Kites with parallel wooden sticks: Figure 21 shows the process and results of
assembling the kite and gives a sense of its size. All sorts of modifications
are left up to the creativity of the individual child. Because of the simplicity
of their construction, even 4-5 year old children can assemble kites with this
design with only a little help. The tail can be made of scrap
paper pieces (cross-hatched part). One obtains better flight
results if one does not cut any holes to stabilize flight;
attach a tail instead. Figure 22 shows how enchanting it is
for children to fly kites. Every pair of eyes is focused
intently on the flying kite.
Assembling a kite imparts
knowledge
about
geometric
shapes,
material properties, the
methods of handling it, as
well as fundamental
aerodynamic principles.
The practical tasks take
the place of teaching
materials.
Figure 23
Creating kite models
Kite models can be built in the most varied
shapes. We previously presented one example,
Figure 22
the heat-coil snake, in the first volume of the
workbook (Hegedűs 2010, p. 54ff.). Here, we would like to present two additional models, the “rabbit with checkered ears” and a paper propeller. They work
in similar ways. We recommend building both of them to allow for comparison.
Making the “rabbit with checkered ears” About 20 years ago, there was a cartoon series on Hungarian television featuring a rabbit with checkered ears. He
was able to make his ears rotate like a helicopter rotor, and, in this way, he could
fly. The series was much loved by both children and adults. It provided the basic
idea for this craft design. Back in 1995, we developed it together with students,
65
and our initial focus was upon the building process. Later, we came up with the
idea that we could also use the rabbit to perform comparison experiments.
We cut out the rabbit shape from a piece of paper (Work steps: drawing, coloring.
Younger children work using a template, see Figure 23). We select at least three
different sizes for the model. The rabbit is drawn out in advance with simple
lines, so that even children with limited manual dexterity can copy the pattern.
The square grid of the ears (like a pearl necklace) anticipates the geometry of
graphs, coordinate systems and mathematical sequences. It is colored in. For
achieving necessary flight stability, we fix the rabbit’s feet underneath using
paper clips.5
Figures 24 and 25 show children trying out their rabbits. This also opens a window to the children’s interpretations. We encourage the children to perform the
following experiments.6
Figures 24 and 25
− First, we let rabbits of different sizes with tacked down ears fall simultaneously from a high place (e.g. tall stairs). Their landing times and “velocities”7 are
noted. Beforehand, we ask the children which rabbit would land first. Three quarters of the children expect victory for the large rabbit. Only a few children consider the possibility of a simultaneous landing. Of course, this is not about finding
the “right” answer. But we come back to their observations later on.
5
One time, when we didn’t have any paperclips, the children found that they could use short
drinking straws notched at the ends as a substitute, which had previously served as musical straw
pipes – an example of divergent thinking that is able to link different scenarios with each other.
6
We primarily conducted experiments and structured conversations with grade school students,
while younger children primarily got to experience the joy of building the kites and the animated
test flights.
7
Actually, we do not observe their velocity, but instead – since we are dealing with free fall –
their acceleration.
66
− We try again, but this time with unfolded ears. Now, the rabbits spin around
during their fall. We engage with the children in observing and forming opinions
about the relationship between rotational speed and acceleration. We discuss their
answers and the conclusions they have reached. We also discuss a possible connection between the size of the rabbits (the rabbit ears) and their speed of rotation
and descent. We come back to the speed at which the rabbits with tacked-down
ears fell in the earlier experiment. We let a rabbit with tacked-down ears and a
rabbit with unfolded ears fall at the same time. What will we find out? Finally,
we observe the direction of rotation of the ears. We test out how we might be able
to alter this.8 This always involves letting the children develop their own solutions.
Making a paper propeller: The process of assembly is presented in Figure 26 and
the results are shown in Figure 27. We attach the paper strips at the ends using
paper clips (or straws). We perform the same experiments on paper propellers of
different sizes as just described for the rabbits.
Figure 26
Figure 27
What might seem redundant and repetitious here actually leads to variation and
strengthens the experiential knowledge gained by the children.
8
In one kindergarten, the children put the rabbit onto an airplane with a reinforced nose. They
were thrilled when the rabbit sprang out of the airplane and then glided to the ground with its
rotating movements. However, they also wanted to find a way for him to stay in the plane. For
this, they came up with the successful idea not to launch the airplane by throwing it, but just to
let it glide. By contrast, the grade school children were more concerned with the experiments just
presented.
67
Of course, nature has invented its own models of rotational movements
(Figure 28). A lateral spinning motion carries dried mature maple seeds far from
the shade of the maple tree, where they can find sufficient light for new growth.
The children observe the movement of the seeds and then are given the task to
modify their rabbits and paper propellers in such a way that they do not fall
straight to the ground, but instead travel sideways. The children collaborate –
entirely in keeping with the concept of social constructivist thinking – and they
exchange their solutions. At the conclusion, what we acknowledge is not a preconceived result but the most successful solution developed by the children.
Finally, by modeling, experimenting and observing, the children acquire new
experiences and a new understanding of the phenomenon of air resistance.
Time devoted to craftwork is time well
spent. It makes sense to set aside entire days
for this activity. Craftwork creates
interdisciplinary links between technology,
mathematics,
environmental
science,
exercise, movement, communication, and
visual representation. However, what is
most important is that the children’s
experiences take place at a deeply personal
level. The teaching materials are taken from
their experiential world.
Figure 28
Making carbon dioxide – chemical experiments in the kitchen
As we described in the first volume, we understand craftwork in its broadest
sense. Setting up experiments is also a part of craftwork, together with kitchen
activities, such as cooking and baking.
Like the other projects we have presented,
here again, we are working with
materials, for example, with pasta dough,
a shapeable material. (Hegedűs 2010, p.
53).
Before we consider the various options
for generating carbon dioxide, we want to
use a candle to examine what is required
to get something to burn. For this
demonstration, we take a burning candle
Figure 29
68
and place it underneath a preserving jar (Figure 29). Why does the candle go out?
What else did you see? Such experiments are best suited for grade school children, who have had a chance to develop a greater measure of awareness for principles. Some of the children notice that one side of the preserving jar becomes
stained.
The experiment is then repeated. This time, we put the burning candle
into a dish that was half-filled with water. What can you observe? What did you
learn? Three phenomena can be perceived by the senses:
− The candle is extinguished
− The water level in the glass rises
− The sides of the glass fog up9
None of the children who participated in this experiment were able to identify all
three phenomena; 48% were unable to provide any possible explanation for the
question of why the glass becomes foggy. Eleven percent thought that water is
produced by the burning of candle wax, while 41% explained the phenomenon
by the vaporization of water in the plate.10
Figures 30 and 31
Figures 30 and 31 show inflatable balloons that have been attached on top of
bottles containing different substances:
− Sodium bicarbonate sprinkled in vinegar
− Baking powder sprinkled in water
− Sugar crystals sprinkled on yeast
The pictures show that generating and observing gasses is an enjoyable activity
for second-graders and adults (e.g. educators in continuing education classes)
alike. The force of the chemical reactions is proportional to the expansion of the
balloon. In the first study volume, we explained how baking powder and yeast
9
Whereas students and older children were likelier to perceive what they are expecting to perceive, it was the kindergarten children who noticed the moisture.
10
To explain, we connect this with the appearance of damp breath that condenses on a cold glass
and the steam in the exhaust gas of a car in the winter.
69
make cooking dough porous and soft (Hegedűs 2010, p. 53f.). Figure 32 shows
a property of the gas that has been generated in this way. We pour the invisible
gas from the bottle where the chemical reaction took place onto a burning candle
in a preserving jar. Our observations lead us to make the following conclusions:
1. The gas that has been generated is invisible, like air.
2. It must be “heavier” than air, because it can be poured out.11
3. It extinguishes the candle; more precisely, it does not sustain the flame.
As an additional experiment, we would
suggest putting pieces of fruit in a
bottle and sprinkling sugar on them. A
balloon is attached over the bottle and
fastened with rubber bands to prevent
any gas exchange. After two or three
days, a build-up of gas can be observed
in the balloon, and this can serve as an
example of a chemical reaction that
takes place quite slowly. Significantly
more spectacular (and thus only to be
Figure 32
performed with the help of adults) is the
formation of gas when we sprinkle
sugar crystals from a balloon into a half-glass of cola. Actually, this does not
involve formation of a gas, but rather, sudden release of a gas, namely carbon
dioxide. This takes place with such force that a significant portion of the cola in
the balloon overflows. Gas is also generated in our stomachs12 – and this provides
an opportunity to discuss the subject of healthy nutrition.13
Jet boat
Children already experienced a taste
of jet propulsion when they released
inflated balloons. Figure 33 shows
how to craft a jet-propelled boat from
a bath-gel or shampoo bottle. To
accomplish this, we remove the
upper part of the bottle, and pack two
Figure 33
All children and 95% of adults without training in physics use the term “heavy.” The guiding
teachers should instead speak about “volumes” as a way to promote the ongoing development of
a more appropriate terminology.
12
A large part of our vegetable diet is chemically related to sugar: starches, pulp, and cellulose.
13
After the experiment and the subsequent discussion, not a single child suggested the intention
of drinking less cola in the future. Thus, more work of persuasion still remains.
11
70
packages of baking power into paper tissues and insert them into the bottle.14
The tissues regulate and slow down the formation of gas. We stick a straw of the
right size into the small opening in the bottle. Using a knife or scissors, we bend
the straw just enough so its end just reaches the water when we put the plastic
boat in the water. This works best with a bendable straw. If necessary, we can
seal off the small opening in the bottle with a plastic material (for example, modeling clay). The completed boat is placed on the water, and the bottle is squeezed
a bit and then released. This allows some water to reach the inside of the boat,
which sets off the formation of gas. Our boat glides across the water. This project
is best suited for a small group that can craft the boat and try it out together.
Sodium bicarbonate and vinegar are also suitable
fuels for a jet boat. Just before we place the boat in
the water, we arrange for the vinegar to be sucked
into the boat’s interior. Because of the rapidity of
the chemical reaction, the children have to work
quickly. The results of a successful launch are joy,
shrieks of celebration, and the odor of vinegar. At
the end of the project, the room needs to be cleaned
up. Craftwork also has a socializing function –
including the challenge for children to maintain
order and restore it after their work is completed.
The Cartesian diver
As can be seen in Figure 34, we place a pipette
inside each of two plastic bottles (0.5 liter). We
Figure 34
have put a small amount of water in each of the
pipettes in advance. This makes it easier to observe the phenomenon. We only
need to apply slight pressure on the first bottle, which we have filled entirely with
water, to observe our diver (pipette) sink to the bottom. In the second bottle,
which we have only filled three-quarters full of water, it takes a greater amount of
pressure. The children assemble comparison observations and try to interpret
them. With grade school children we can deduce that liquids cannot be compressed. This is the reason the diver sinks more rapidly in the full bottle, because
the pressure is applied directly to the pipette. By contrast, in the second bottle, not
only the air in the pipette but also the air in the bottle is compressed, which makes
diving more difficult and demands more pressure.
14
We have been constructing jet boats since 1995 (Hegedűs 1995-96).
71
This experiment can also be performed with saltwater! There are a number of
differences to be observed, which can challenge the children to come up with
interpretations and explanations.
With supported observation, most of the children come to the conclusion that the
water level in the pipette is raised, and, as a consequence, the diver becomes
“heavier” (denser). This principle also can lead to an explanation about how a
submarine dives and surfaces.
A sailing ship made of aluminum foil
In the first study volume, we described
how to assemble a paper boat (Hegedűs
2010, p. 55). We considered the
importance of children’s experiences with
different paper qualities with respect to
children’s personality development. Here,
we would like to present an experiment
that is based upon the Archimedean
principle. This law stipulates that the
buoyant force of an object in water is
equivalent to the weight-force of the water
Figure 35
it displaces.
If possible, we fold a boat from thick
aluminum foil (using a DIN A4 sheet). A piece of aluminum foil of the same size
is folded multiple times in such a way that no air remains between the folded
leaves. Folding the boat and the compressed sheet proves challenging for the
children. When folding the boat, they have to be careful not to tear the aluminum
foil. This requires self-control. Folding the sheet takes strength to press the folded
leaves together firmly. Both objects, the boat and the sheet, are placed upon the
water (Figure 35). Clearly, the boat floats even if it is loaded with an additional
cargo of sugar or salt. However, the folded sheet sinks. Aluminum foil is “heavier” than water. The question now is why the boat that is also made of aluminum
does not sink.
From this point on, we can add on many supplementary experiments that are
based upon the Archimedean principle. The process is always the same. Children
and adults must seek grounded explanations for their observations together. We
place our laden boat into a vessel that is filled to the brim with water, which is
placed in a larger empty vessel that can catch the water that overflows. Using a
72
simple scale (balance) we compare the “weight” of the boat’s cargo (sugar, salt,
sand, wheat, stones, etc.) with the weight of the water that overflows. What do we
learn?
We also set up the comparison in such a way that we either place two larger
stones into the boat or next to the boat. The majority of the children believe that
the quantity of water that overflows will be the same in both conditions.15
When conducting this experiment with sand, wheat and sugar as well as stones,
we use this opportunity to explore a variety of issues from the field of physics.
With younger children (kindergarteners), we confine ourselves to folding boats
and letting them float. However, with grade school children, we can organize
group activities where they can perform experiments designed for comparing
weight and volume. Older children and, of course, students in teacher’s college,
are likelier to come closer to the Archimedean solution in their interpretations.
Modeling and trying out one’s ideas are time-consuming tasks, but this time is
well invested:
‐ Children enjoy such activities. A school that opportunities of this kind will
be a place they are happy to visit.
‐ For grade school children, this is an appropriate format for learning about the
natural sciences.
‐ By observing and interpreting natural phenomena, children will develop a
positive attitude toward questions related to the natural sciences.
‐ Divergent (creative) and convergent (problem-solving) thinking are supported to the same degree.
The world of plants
We have repeatedly made the case for a broader understanding of craftwork.
Along these lines, we incorporate elements form the culinary arts, horticulture,
and animal husbandry as part of craftwork. The last category includes formulating the requirements for growing plants and rearing animals.
According to our current state of our knowledge, the origin of life took place in
the water. Without water, there would be no life. Water, air, and light make up
the earth’s treasures. In the following section, we propose two long-term observation projects and experiments to help to demonstrate this fact.
Wheat on Saint Lucia day: In Hungary, on 13 December – the day of Saint Lucia
– the tradition is to place some wheat in a vessel without any soil and to keep it
moist until Christmas time (Figure 36). One uses cotton to retain the moisture.
The wheat grains swell up, germinate and begin to grow tall. The growth of the
15
With water, the units of measurement are easy to comprehend. The volume of a cubic
decimeter of water corresponds to one liter, which is the wieght of one kilopond.
73
plants is so vigorous that by Christmas time, you can cut back the seedlings several times over. After each cut, the wheat shoots become thicker. On Christmas,
people plant the wheat beside the graves of people who have passed away, as a
symbol of eternal life (the life cycle). In Hungarian, the word for “wheat” also
means “life.” The Hungarian poet Endre Ady uses this double meaning in his
poem, “On the Count’s threshing floor:”
The spikes of wheat glimmer and sing a song,
they ask wickedly and scornfully:
“O Hungarian peasant with growling innards,
what were we to you that you should complain so bitterly?
Why does the burning wheat grieve you so,16
after all, we never belonged to you?
Don’t weep; anyhow, your Count still has
his woman, his wealth, and his wine.”
…
But yet, when the pale morning approaches
and the flue ashes are spraying in the wind,
a host of beggars rise up from the Count’s threshing floor,
sobbing as if they were stupefied.
They wept for the nothing belonging to others
– the shrill horn calls out from the Count’s hunt –,
for they feel so deeply, that these are their own,
life, field and seed.
Germinating wheat seeds is a simple project. Of course, it becomes more interesting when it is linked to questions about
natural phenomena and a search for answers and explanations. One question that
relates directly to our example is that the
plants are able to grow without soil. But if
there is no soil and we do not provide the
plants with any additional nutrients, how
can they grow? Two answers come to
mind. First: the necessary nutrients are
Figure 36
In the Hungarian verse, Ady uses the word for “life” (élet) instead of the word for “wheat”
(búza).
16
74
already present in the seed. The second answer: the water contains sufficient
nutrients for growth. We can test these hypotheses by germinating the wheat
grains in a container of distilled water. This reveals to us that the wheat is able to
sprout here as well. So, it is not the water that is providing the necessary additional nutrients. This argues more in favor of the first hypothesis. But we run into
a problem here as well: if the wheat grains are gradually giving off nutrients, then
their volume should decrease over time. However, the opposite appears to be the
case. Figure 36 shows how the wheat grains swell up in a moist milieu. Even
though wheat stalks and roots sprout from the seed, the seed does not appear to
become smaller. Could it still be the water gas or even the air that contain the
necessary nutrients? One experiment to address this question would be to keep
the wheat seeds continuously under water. Of course, our observations would
only be applicable for wheat and not for other plants. Unlike wheat, marsh
grasses and reeds are able to thrive in water.
Such experiments touch the children emotionally as well, since they place a natural phenomenon into the cultural context of traditions and the remembrance of
those who have died.
A greenhouse in a preserving jar: In the first study volume, we showed how to
set up a “greenhouse” in a preserving jar. The focus there was on craftwork, on
the actual construction. Here, we would like to consider how the greenhouse may
be observed over time and its practical use. For this project, we put plants in a
preserving jar and seal it airtight (Figure 37). We add five or six worms and two
or three snails into the humus soil. For feeding them, we place some wilted, rotting plant parts on the soil. We can now observe the phenomenon of the water
cycle. The preserving jar stays constantly moist.
Water droplets form on the glass walls and trickle
onto the soil. We already learned from the wheat on
Saint Lucia day that the water enters the plant organisms. How long will the water reserve in the soil
last? If we are able to keep plants in this kind of
closed system, then why do greenhouses and plant
houses need extra ventilation? We can also observe
the behavior and development of the animals. If we
are careful not to add excessive water to the soil, the
animals will stay alive through the entire experiment.
Important! The jar should not be placed in a very
sunny spot, such a windowsill.
Figure 37
The children’s opinions
After we built models with the children and experi-
75
mented with them in the ways we have described, we gave the children a questionnaire containing simple questions they could answer using a scale. Here are a
few examples:
‐ How did you like the class/activity?
‐ Did the activity feel more like play or like a lesson (learning) to you?
‐ How quickly did time seem to pass during the class?
‐ Would you like to participate in this kind of activity again?
Here, we can only present two examples of children’s comments that illustrate
our findings: A second-grader said, “This was the best class in the whole world,”
and a third-grader wrote, “The time passed very quickly, we should always have
classes like this.”
Summary
Comparative studies and our own experience confirm the hypothesis that more
frequent use of constructive play, craftwork, and playful experimentation in the
area of early childhood education and grade school has a positive impact on children’s opinions about school and the classroom, about collecting new experiences, and, ultimately, about learning as a whole. It also improves the effectiveness of learning. As a result, we should allow more space for learning through
action and creative activity than we have done in the past. First of all, this requires a reconceptualization of the role of the educator. Instead of making regimented plans for fostering the learning process, we should instead pay more
attention to promoting individual learning pathways as part of an interactive
learning organization, entirely in keeping with the EU Memorandum on Lifelong
Learning (2000).
Literature
Claparede, E. (1974): A funkcionális nevelés. Tankönyvkiadó: Budapest.
Dewey, J. (1912): Az iskola és a társadalom. Lampel R.: Budapest (translated by Frigyes Dr.
Ozorai).
Dewey, J. (1931): How we think. New York 1909 (magyarul: Hogyan gondolkodunk, Kisdednevelés).
Hegedűs, G. (1995): Projektmódszer 5 (Játékos tapasztalatszerzés tömegről, súlypontról, tömegközéppontról) Tanító.
Hegedűs, G. (1995): Projektmódszer 6 (Játékos tapasztalatszerzés tömegről, súlypontról, tömegközéppontról) Tanító.
Hegedűs, G. (1995): Projektmódszer 7 (Játékos tapasztalatszerzés a lendületről) Tanító.
Hegedűs, G. (1995–96): A levegő megismerése. In: Eltérő igényű gyermek az óvodában és az
iskolában. (Szerk.: Szászné dr. Virányi Katalin) Óvodapedagógusok Konferenciája, Kecskemét,
S. 197-209.
Hegedűs, G. (2002): Projektpedagógia. Kecskeméti Főiskola, TFK.
76
Hegedűs, G. (2005): Erziehung zur Kreativität und Innovationsfähigkeit im Schulfach Technik
und Basteln der ungarischen Primarschule. In: SACHE-WORT-ZAHL. Lehren und Lernen in
der Grundschule, Heft: 70. pp. 51–57.
Hegedűs, G. (2010): Basteln und Konstruieren mit Luft und Wasser. In: Natur und Technik in
frühen Bildungsprozessen, NATURBILD 1. Schneider Verlag. pp. 45–62.
Maszlow A. (2003): A lét pszichológiája. Ursus Libris Bt.: Budapest.
Kilpatrick, W. H. (1965): Philosophie der Amerikanischen Erziehung. In: Röhrs, HermannLenhart, Volker (ed.): Die Reformpädagogik des Auslandes. Düsseldorf. pp. 136–144.
Memorandum on Lifelong Learning, Brussels, 30. 10. 2000.
SZABÓOVÁ E. (2010): Air and Water in Active Games and in Children’s Aesthetic Expressive
Movement. In: Nature and Technology in Early Educational Processes, NATURBILD 1.
Schneider Verlag. pp. 77–92.
77
Chapter 4: Discovering Air and Water in Daily
Life(Norberta Sági)
In the first study volume (AG Naturbild 2010), we outlined ways to help
children explore the natural phenomena of air and water in daily life and in
traditional customs. We demonstrated that even in the 21st century, working
with traditions is essential. We provided an overview of what aspects of
natural phenomena can be explored with children. We selected two working
methods taken from ethnography, and demonstrated that they are suited for
exploring the world with children. In this second study volume, we review
the results of our efforts, and by a number of examples show how the
children benefited from them.
The examples described in detail in this chapter include children of
various ages separated into age-homogenous groups. As a result, we always
indicate the age of the children participating. We do not detail the complete
contents of scenarios, units, or plans here. Instead our focus is on the general
topic of “water and air” – its cultural significance, its role in everyday life,
and the situations where children encounter it.
The chapters in this volume demonstrate how different approaches
integrated into the Naturbild project each contribute in individual ways to
improving children’s language and expression skills, as well as their mastery
of natural science and its concepts.
The goal of our investigations with the children was to challenge
them to consider, explain, and interpret interrelationships in everyday life.
They were designed to stimulate the children’s thinking processes and their
desire to understand phenomena in the world around them. In addition, the
intention was to build a bridge for the children between old and new, between
the past and the present. Our guiding principle was that children must
discover the world for themselves, and that teachers should act only as
partners or helpers. Special emphasis was placed on familiarizing teachers
with the so-called “science of the child” concept (Nahalka 2002).
According to this concept, children have their own system of selfdeveloped theories to explain natural phenomena, as outlined by Piaget
(1972). The theory of tempered constructivism posits that children develop
their own ideas about the world in a constructive, self-active process.
Countless interpretive variations result; thinking may be unusual and
sometimes confused, yet it still follows its own internal logic. The ideas held
by children may or may not resemble what adults believe, or even what could
be described as scientific knowledge. Nevertheless, Nahalka (2002) argues
that elements of the “science of the child” should be understood as ingenious
78
cognitive achievements. They should be praised and appreciated instead of
being disparaged as harmful misconceptions.
Example 1: Blue dyeing
Blue print fabrics are a traditional textile product. Tablecloths, window
decorations, and kitchen towels dyed using blue print techniques are still
found in homes today.
In the Middle Ages, blue dyers colored materials using dye plants
such as dyer’s woad (isatis tinctoria, German Indigo). Starting in the 16th
and 17th centuries, materials dyed blue from India were exported to Europe.
These fashions brought a new dyeing agent with them to Western Europe –
indigo. But they also brought new techniques for dyeing and new designs.
The new techniques then traveled from the West to Hungary with tradesmen
who migrated or fled religious persecution to the east. By the beginning of
the 19th century, blue print materials had spread to every village in Hungary.
Soon the first blue print workshops were established to meet the large
demand. These blue print materials and patterns were an important element
of traditional dress. The clothing made with these techniques was worn on a
daily basis and at festive occasions. Work clothing and aprons were made
from smooth linen (without patterns). Patterned materials were used to make
wide skirts with pleated waistlines, matching close-fitting tops or skirts with
wider waistlines. Women wore blue print head scarves with individualized
patterns. Men’s clothing such as shirts, long underwear, and overalls were
made from smooth or small-pattern blue print materials. Blue print clothing
was often also worn during Advent and Lent (see Domonkos 1987).
Because of the historical importance of these textiles and their
continued use today, we chose blue print for our work together with the
children. The following topics were explored in our work:
a) how dyes dissolve in water
b) the absorbency of various materials
c) the traditional blue print trade; blue print textiles for the home and for
clothing (in the past and now)
d) dyeing together with the group (the children already had previous
experience with batik and tying techniques)
79
Figure 1: Water is
absorbed at
different rates by
different textiles and
materials.
Group: 10 children, first and second graders (7 to 8 years old).
To excite the children’s enthusiasm for the topic, we showed them an
animated film of a Hungarian fairytale about the blue dyeing trade. A
discussion about the textiles and the dyeing techniques followed.
Discussion questions:
What dissolves in water (what doesn’t)? Why does the water turn a
different color? How can this process be stopped, accelerated, or reversed?
What materials absorb water/liquids? What materials are waterproof? How
can you prevent the cloth from being dyed? How can you make dye
patterns?
The children found very different answers to these questions. Many answers
resembled those you might expect from young children: (“…the linen isn’t
absorbing the water now because it’s not thirsty”), others were of a
completely scientific nature. The work and discussions with the children
were conducted in group situations so that the children could learn from each
other as well.
The original blue print technique and the wax batik technique are
very similar. With blue print, the cloth was boiled in salted water, bleached,
dried, and then lightly starched and ironed. Using blue print paste and a
pattern, the cloth was then patterned by hand on a wide, upholstered table.
The paste penetrates the material and prevents areas where it is placed from
taking the dye. The patterned material was then dyed in deep dyeing vats.
80
The material was hung on an iron rack above the vat and then dipped into the
indigo dye below using an iron chain. Every half an hour, the rack was
removed from the dye for 10 or 15 minutes to allow the color to oxidize. This
process was repeated until the color of the material was the right shade. After
drying, the dyeing paste was removed from the finished material. Then the
material was thoroughly rinsed.
Using a similar process, we drew patterns on the materials with wax
and then dipped them into the dye. Afterwards, the wax was removed from
the material using an iron. Another variation was the tying technique. The
children tied their materials together with a cord. Some children pulled the
cord tight, others left it loose; some used a lot of cord, some a little. The
children then saw the difference these decisions made in the results and drew
conclusions.
Figures 2 and 3: Material patterned with wax; a tied piece of material after being dipped in dye.
Dyeing was later again discussed in the children’s groups when we painted
Easter eggs. Here as well, we chose an old, traditional method: we used onion
skins to dye the eggs and stuck plant leaves on them to create patterns.
Results
During this project, the children developed their knowledge, experience, and
ideas about the following:
- what the blue dyeing trade is and what it produces.
- what dyeing techniques blue print uses.
- developments in blue print techniques up to the present day.
- today, color powders allow materials to be dyed more easily than in the
past.
81
The children learned about the absorbency and solubility of materials in
water. They also developed their language skills and their ability to exchange
ideas.
Example 2: Easter
In the last century, Easter customs have changed among many Hungarian
families. Splashing girls and women with water on Easter Monday was
common for many years. The boys drew water from wells into buckets. If the
girls didn’t come to the well on their own, the boys often used mild force to
drag them there. Like some other customs, splashing water on Easter is a
fertility rite. In recent times, boys have switched to splashing perfume from
little bottles onto the girls. They get colored or decorated eggs (also symbols
of fertility) as a reward. Part of the custom is that the boys recite a poem and
ask the girls for permission to splash them. The poems recited varied by time
and place. Here is an example from Transylvania:
Today is Easter Monday, see the girls on the street.
They’re happy to let us splash them.
We splash the girls and the parents.
Our reward is a few red eggs.
We’d be grateful to you for a pair.
But if you give us only one, we won’t get angry.
(Kézdimárkosfalva, formerly Háromszék County)
This custom still survives in Hungarian towns, but it has almost disappeared
in the cities. There are also new poems that are now no longer recited, but
simply sent by text message to the girls. More and more, text messages are
replacing personal visits. Non-religious families use Easter and the Easter
holidays to take family trips or go on vacation.
Group: 10 children, first and second graders.
The following research tasks were selected for the children:
- conduct an interview with their grandparents or neighbors about
“splashing on Easter Monday” and “coloring eggs.”
- while taking part, observe how Easter holidays are spent at home.
collect Easter poems (from family members or friends).
82
-
Figure 4:Splashing girls
on Easter with buckets of
water (www.mek.hiif.hu).
To prepare, the following topics were covered in the group:
a) Fertility rites and the cleansing power of water (as told by the
teacher).
b) Easter symbols. Independent research: the children bring napkins,
postcards and Easter decorations to class. The teacher also brings a
collection of old postcards and napkins. The class makes a
comparison (past versus present).
c) Easter customs: splashing women with water on Easter Monday
(group discussion, drawings).
d) Traditional coloring of eggs using onion skins (supervised activity).
e) Easter poems, old verses from various Hungarian-speaking regions
(independent research in the library).
List of questions for the interviews, developed in group discussion:
a) If a man is interviewed: On what day and at what time of day were the
girls splashed in the past? How did the boys dress? What were the girls
splashed with (water, perfume, other)? Did the boys splash girls alone or in
groups? What was the purpose of doing it? Did some boys not participate?
What did the boys say when they approached the girls (a greeting, poem,
rhyme, joke)? How long did they stay with them? Did the boys get
something from the girls (flowers, eggs, other)? What did they do with
what they got? Tell me about the best experience you ever had on Easter,
that you can still remember well.
b) If a woman is interviewed: On what day and at what time of day did the
boys come to splash the girls? How did the girls have to prepare
themselves for them (house decorations, clothing, baking cake, painting
eggs, other)? Did you keep a list of who came to splash you? Did the boys
83
splash girls alone or in groups? What did the boys say when they wanted to
come into the house and what did you have to answer? Did you pin flowers
on the boys’ jackets? What spring flowers did you use? How long did the
boys stay? Why do you think this custom of splashing girls existed? What
did it mean? Tell me about the best experience you ever had on Easter, that
you can still remember well.
Figure 5: A boy’s
drawing of going to
splash girls.
Figure 6: A girl’s
drawing of being
splashed. The colored
eggs are next to the
table. The boy has a
perfume bottle in his
hand and is reciting a
poem.
Figure 7: Splashing
girls in the class with
perfume (dripped on
the hair and clothing).
84
Coloring eggs
Figures 8 and 9: A parsley leaf is placed on the egg and tightly bound to it using a stocking.
Then the egg is put in a pot filled with onion skins. Water is poured over it and it is left to cook
for half an hour.
Here the children had an
excellent opportunity to apply
their previous experience with
dyeing. They compared this egg
coloring technique with blue
print. They recognized the
similarity between the two
methods of creating a pattern.
Illustration 10: the finished eggs with
leaf-print pattern.
Things to observe during the Easter holidays (developed in group
discussion):
- Easter decorations on and in the house (when were they put up, how
do they look, where do they come from: bought or homemade?).
- Preparations for Easter (tidying up and cleaning, shopping, cooking, or
travel planning, coloring eggs, cooking ham).
- Easter: the family celebrates the holiday (fasting on Good Friday,
going to church, splashing girls, Easter foods).
- Easter: the family does not celebrate the holiday (the activities: travel,
85
work, other, Easter foods).
Example 3: Bathing and drying
In addition to their role in daily life, bathing and water have a ritual
significance. Today as in the past, washing after birth and after death is
common. Here we can find traces of an old belief that we can only enter the
afterlife and heaven if we are clean. One of the most important Christian
holidays in Europe, the Easter holiday discussed above (marking the death
and resurrection of Christ), is also a time for both spiritual and physical
cleansing. During this holiday, people at one time cleaned their faces in a
magic ritual to bring beauty and health. The belief in water’s magical powers
is linked to the custom of splashing women with water on Easter Monday
(another explanation is that women who described the resurrection of Christ
were splashed with water by the Jews). Because the church could only be
entered by those who were purified (clean) on Easter, Holy Saturday was
traditionally a day of extensive bathing and cleaning.
Due to its cultural significance, we chose the everyday practice of
bathing as a topic. The topic is interesting from a cultural and historical point
of view, but it also has deep significance today. The children have had
experience with water and bathing in their daily lives, so they could help
independently guide the discussion of the topic. Bodily hygiene, body
cleaning products and cleaning methods are important in private life and a
topic of public interest known to children from television, billboards, and
many other sorts of advertisements. Kindergartens and schools also address
this issue.
We divided the topic of bathing into two parts:
- Bathing and showering today
- Bathing in the past
Group: 19 children (3 to 7 years old).
Bathing and showering today
Instead of approaching the topic chronologically from past to present, we
reversed the order: first the children gathered information about how people
bathe today, and what equipment and options are at home for bathing. Then
the topic was discussed from a historical point of view. Reversing the order
allowed the children to put their knowledge about the topic to use, express
their knowledge in words, listen to the thoughts of other children, as well as
organize and structure their experiences logically. The discussion was held
on the play mat in the play room so that all the children would be relaxed
while they talked about the topic. On that day, one boy happened to be
86
wearing a sweater with a picture of Dalmatians enjoying a bubble bath on it.
That gave the discussion an additional boost.
List of questions (developed by the teachers):
Who has a bathroom at home? What do you do in the bath? When do you
take a bath/take a shower? Do you bathe alone? Who helps you bathe, who
helps you wash your hair? What else can you do in the bathtub? What
games do you play in the bathtub? Do you have a favorite toy for the
bathtub? How much water is in the tub when you take a bath? Do you use
soap, bubble bath, or shower gel? Do you have soap that changes the color
of the water? Or maybe soap paints that you can paint the tiles with? Do
you know anyone who doesn’t have a bathtub? How do they bathe? Have
you ever gone somewhere on vacation where there was no bathroom (for
example, when camping)? How did you bathe there? Have you ever bathed
your dolls or stuffed animals? Have you ever tried to dry yourself without
using a towel? How does that feel? Why doesn’t your mother allow that?
After the discussion, we asked the children to make drawings illustrating how
they bathe at home or how it looks when they’re sitting in the bathtub. On the
following day, we invited an older woman (62 years old, retired kindergarten
teacher) who grew up in a large family to join the group. She didn’t have a
bathroom when she was a child, so the experiences she related to the children
were completely different.
Bathing in the past
The discussion was again held on the play mat in the play room. Our guest,
the older woman, brought an enlarged photo of her family showing her as a
little girl. The woman began to speak about her life at that time, and then
turned to the topic of bodily hygiene and bathing. The woman invited the
children to interrupt her with questions and let their curiosity guide them. The
discussion was extremely exciting and stimulating for the children. This
experience proved the usefulness of discussing the topic first beforehand,
because that way the children already had the language skills required to
participate.
To add to the discussion, old objects relating to the topic were also
brought in: an old stand with a wash basin, old (rough) towels, and old soaps.
List of questions (children’s questions):
Did you also use to bathe every day? Why not every day? If you didn’t
have a bathroom, where did you bathe? Was there no bubble bath too? And
no sponges? And no bath tub? And no bath toys? Did you bathe in the
87
kitchen? Where did you get the water from? Why did you all bathe in the
same water?
Figure 11:
Kindergarten
discussion. Figure 12:
Experimenting with an
old wash basin and
towel.
Example 4: Washing and drying
For children today, washing clothing is associated with a mechanical helper:
the washing machine. Dirty laundry goes in and clean laundry comes out.
There are washing machines with and without windows. The machines
lacking windows are common in Hungary, meaning children can no longer
see what happens to the articles of clothing. They can only hear a quiet noise.
Electric clothing dryers also save people the effort of hanging out the wash
on a line or on a drying rack. Washing machines were invented a long time
ago, but children should be aware that they weren’t always there. The
polymath Leonardo da Vinci studied the idea of a washing machine and even
produced a design for one. The first washing machines (for the textile
industry) were developed during the 17th century in England. The first
washing machine for the home was invented somewhat later (in England as
well) in the middle of the 18th century. Nevertheless, until the middle of the
88
20th century washing at home was done exclusively by hand – a method we
still use from time to time today.
This topic is very well suited to working with kindergarten children. We tried
the topic with 3 to 7 year old children. We played, talked and discussed with
the children, observing how the children dealt with this topic.
The following topics were studied in detail with the children:
- the solubility of detergent in water.
- the significance of water temperature when washing.
- washing.
- wringing, spinning.
- drying (various methods).
To prepare for Easter, the teacher asked the children to tidy up their group
room and wash the tablecloths and doll clothing. For this purpose, several
wash basins containing different quantities of water at different temperatures
were provided. We put great emphasis on basing our approach on the
children’s actual living conditions, incorporating their personal experiences,
and offering them the opportunity to actively experience water in a new way
while doing the washing. This approach laid the groundwork for building
their interest in the history of washing. At the end of the afternoon the
children spent washing and hanging clothing up to dry, they went to the
bookshelf and looked in the encyclopedia for more information about the
topic of “washing.” With the help of the teacher they found information
about old washing boards and wringers. That provided us with an opportunity
for announcing the next day’s guest (see remarks on this in the first study
volume, Sági 2010). Here we would like to report the hypotheses developed
by the children to explain the phenomena.
Figure 13: Children researching
washing implements. They were
fascinated by the encyclopedia.
89
Why does the laundry dry? What happens to the water?
“The laundry sucks the water into itself. It sucks it in until at the end it’s
dry.” – Jázmin (4 and a half years old)
“The water drips down.” – András (7 years old)
“The water goes away into the water, to the other water. In the wash
basin.” – Bori (3 and a half years old)
“It evaporated.” – Lili (7 years old)
“The washing machine presses the water out of the laundry.” – Krisztián (6
years old)
“The water flows out.” Barnabás (4 years old)
Sándor Peres, a leader in kindergarten education in Hungary, said that being
able to ask the right questions is a teacher’s most valuable skill (Dankó
Ervinné, no date, page 141). The teachers who participated in our project
found the same. The special challenge here was to ask the children the kind
of questions that would get them to think and reflect. But it was difficult for
some teachers to restrain themselves and not correct the children. They had a
feeling of doing something wrong or not doing their job correctly if they did
not correctly explain to the children the way things truly are.
Certainly providing explanations is an important method and
obligation when responding to children and their questions, but we have to
learn to distinguish when that is required and when not. We must first allow
the children to gain basic experience with natural phenomena so that they can
then develop their own interpretations and theories. If the children’s thinking
process takes a long time, it is sometimes difficult to be patient. But by no
means should adults attempt to guess what the children are thinking or
suggest answers to them. By doing so they would perhaps prevent the
children from pursuing thought processes and building childish hypotheses
that lay the groundwork for understanding and describing the world and its
phenomena. Instead, they should patiently wait for the results of the
children’s thinking, while perhaps cautiously helping them to express their
thoughts in words and sentences. The goal here is not to “teach” children
90
another person’s theory or explain things to them, but instead to encourage
them to come up with their own explanations. Using this approach, children
learn how to integrate their existing experiences and knowledge with new
experiences by creating connections and relationships.
Research indicates (see Nahalka 2002, page 92) that the picture of
the world formed by the child – in other words, their cognitive structures – is
extraordinarily stable and almost impervious to alternate theories. So
explanations offer little guarantee that children will actually change their
ideas in any case.
Jázmin had observed that when she put her tablecloth in water, it
absorbed the water, in other words sucked the water into itself. The tablecloth
dripped a little when she took it out of the wash basin, but most of the water
stayed in the tablecloth and was no longer in the basin. She organized her
observations and experiences, coming up with an explanation (see above)
that created a relationship between the two phenomena. The process of
discovering similarities, associations, and relationships of cause and effect
lays the groundwork for the kind of thinking required in the natural sciences.
So the “child’s science” is actually prior knowledge that provides a basis for
later success in the learning acquisition process.
Conclusion
Exploring everyday life with children is an enjoyable and exciting task.
Guiding children as they consider phenomena and try to express their
hypotheses in words (perhaps for the first time) is uniquely fascinating. These
hypotheses may be acceptable for the time being or require correction and
improvement.
The importance of play and play activities for early learning about
nature does not have to be restated here.
But I would like to mention – following
Bruno Bettelheim – an essential feature of
children’s play regarding its relation to
traditions. Play has two Janus-like faces:
one faces the past, the other the future.
Children at play are symbolically
grappling with unresolved problems from
the past and the present. At the same time,
the function of play is to prepare children
for the future and the challenges it holds.
This idea is also behind the scenarios we have described that confront
children with everyday phenomena. On the one hand they challenged the
91
children to understand the past, on the other they laid the groundwork for
success in the future.
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Technology in Early Educational Processes. Study Companion Volume 1: Pedagogical Support.
Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren. pp. 13–28.
Bettelheim, Bruno (1994): Az elég jó szülő (English: A Good Enough Parent: A Book on ChildRearing). Budapest.
Dankó, Ervinné (no date): Nyelvi-kommunikációs nevelés az óvodában. Okker Kiadó.
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Juhász, Katalin (2006): Meg is mosakodjál. Magyar népi tisztálkodás a 20. században. Budapest.
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Sági, Norberta (2010): Exploring Air and Water in People’s Everyday Lives. In: Nature and
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Chapter 5: Children’s Aesthetic Movement as a
Way to Express Experiences of Nature: Applications, Findings, and Educational Benefits
(Edita Szabóová)
In the fifth chapter of the first study volume, which examined aesthetic
movement, movement games, and aesthetic movement expression
(Fischer/Hegedűs 2009), we developed suitable scenarios for projects about
air and water to help children aged 4 to 8 become familiar with natural phenomena. They were helped to re-experience, test out, confirm, construct, and
reconstruct the experiences, learning, events, and ideas they had gathered
over the course of their various activities. After a brief theoretical introduction, we would now like to present a few interesting examples.
We followed two lines of thought: First, we had observed how children express natural phenomena in their movement. In our conversations
with them, we had learned how they first characterize and interpret these
phenomena. This was not an attempt to test their understanding. Instead, we
were interesting in learning how they came to formulate their concepts.
At the same time, we developed and presented improvisations and
playful dance choreographies as products of this exchange. We based them
on the children’s own ideas. Together with the children, we also selected
music to accompany them. The productions we developed together were
suitable for public presentation. They were thematically oriented to the project subjects of “air” and “water.” The CD that accompanies this volume
contains illustrative video examples of these productions. They are well
suited for stimulating both kindergarten and grade school teachers to engage
in their own experiments. However, it is important to note that we are not
focusing here on verbal engagement with natural phenomena. Instead, the
children are using their movements to communicate nonverbally with themselves and with other children, and – in the case of the performances – with
the audience as well.
Reggio Emilia’s universally acknowledged educational philosophy
vividly reminds us that a child can speak in a hundred languages – and
among these is the language of movement. Movement is thus an event that
resembles a language we are all capable of interpreting and understanding,
since we also dwell within its space. Movements and animated activities
follow largely unconscious cognitive maps. Spontaneous aesthetic movements simultaneously mean recognition and reformulation. Moreover, nonverbal signs are inevitable elements in every interaction (see Forgách 1985).
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They effectively communicate preferences, feelings, and sympathy – messages that are sometimes difficult to express in words.
According to Wirkerné (2008), by the time children are 4 to 5 years
old, they can listen to these messages. Furthermore, 5 to 8 year olds are mature enough to have a controlling influence upon each other. Our experiences
demonstrate that kindergarten children are only able to express part of the
knowledge they have acquired in words. Movement offers an additional way
to grasp and express knowledge, thoughts, and feelings nonverbally. Such
expression does not always present a true image of reality. Mérei-Binét
(2001) explains this by pointing out that in 5 to 6 year olds, imagination is
still very vivid and permeates everyday experience. Children enrich the ordinary events they encounter in their surroundings with extraordinary imagination. This experience determines children’s movement expressions, where
imagination may play a larger or a smaller part in modifying reality, thereby
creating something remarkable and sparking excitement. The authors cited
follow Piaget in suggesting that this function of imagination is based upon
the fact that children think in syncretic schemata. Syncretic thinking is unstructured, oriented to the leitmotifs of experience, and focused upon the
characteristics (and not the causes) of things. The child’s experiences are thus
sustained by an intrinsic tension, but they are always somewhat distorted by
syncretic condensation. Syncretic schemata are woven from the threads of
children’s imagination, but they are connected to real events. Even the extraordinary, fantastic elements emerge from reality. Feelings may appear in
images, and shifting emotions have a narrative structure. Syncretic schemata
often conceal surprisingly intense emotional content. Wishes, anxieties, and
conflicts flow directly into them. They have an impact upon the child’s actions, problem-solving activities, and expressive behavior. This phase of
children’s thinking only lasts for two or three years. At around seven or eight
years of age, children begin to think more analytically. During this period,
almost all children enjoy moving to music. According to Tarjánné (2010), it
is thus essential for children to be provided with a venue where they can
express themselves. In what follows, we will examine how such selfexpression can take place in aesthetic movement.
Expressing experiences of nature through aesthetic movements in 5 to 6
year olds (findings of a study)
The study was conducted at a partner institution, the Szenczi-Molnár-Albert
Kindergarten in Senec, Slovakia. The observed group consisted of 19 five to
six year old children, nine girls and ten boys. The children’s movement expression and their theories about natural phenomena were documented as part
of a participatory observation process. We began from the hypothesis that we
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could document qualitative changes in the children’s movements and their
formulation of concepts over the course of a pedagogical intervention (conducting movement improvisation and choreography following the Naturbild
program). The study had three phases: (1) Planning topics and projects for
aesthetic movement expression and specifying categories for analysis; (2)
Implementing the movement projects (creating verbal protocols, photos, and
film images); (3) Analyzing the results.
First Phase: Planning topics for aesthetic movement expression in project form, and specifying categories
We planned our projects in August 2009, for implementation during the
2009-2010 school year. We took a few ideas from our first study volume
(Fischer/Hegedűs 2009). We planned the topical areas, subject matter, performance standards, educational goals, strategies, methods, and competency
development. Our project plans remained open. The children had the opportunity to add their own ideas or make changes.
We established the specific project topics and aesthetic movement
ideas they contained in June 2009 through an exchange of ideas in which
teachers, parents, and kindergarten educators all took part. Before this meeting, we had a chance to familiarize the kindergarten educators and the parents
about the aims and the educational significance of the Naturbild project for
the children.
In what follows, we will only present an exemplary selection of the
projects that we actually implemented. These examples should suffice, since
the processes that we observed tended to be quite similar. The analysis was
meant to focus on the outcomes that emerged at the end of each project. Below is a list of the project subjects and themes for aesthetic movement expression:
Water makes waves
• Vacation by the seaside
o Sailors
o Butterfly
o Dance of the butterflies
Dance of the wind
• The wind rose turns
• A ball – balloon
• The wind and the trees
What do the clouds bring us?
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•
•
It’s raining
In the rain
Since there are different requirements for educational planning in each of the
partner nations participating in the Naturbild project, we will not present the
detailed time plans for the projects here (in Slovakia, educational planning is
an important continuing education subject).
In the first phase, we also established the categories we would use to
evaluate the children’s performance at the beginning and at the end of the
project. We developed four general categories for this purpose:
•
•
•
•
Category A: Natural phenomena are expressed through movements and
characterized in words
Category B: Natural phenomena are expressed through movements, but
not taken up in verbal conversation
Category C: Natural phenomena are taken up in movement, but only
described in words
Category D: Natural phenomena are neither taken up in movement nor in
verbal presentation
Second Phase: Implementing aesthetic movement expression in projects
In conducting and presenting individual projects, the focus was on aesthetic
movement expression.
“Water makes waves”
Time frame: 3 weeks
Execution: The subject was taken up at the end of summer vacation (alternatively, it could also be implemented in June, just before the vacation period).
The goal was to give children a chance to observe and experience water
waves. In addition, we wanted to encourage the children to express their
experience of the phenomena through movement and in conversation.
The kindergarten children came with various summer experiences.
During their vacation, they had all spent several days on the water, and a
majority of the children had even been to the sea. Since there are a number of
lakes in Senec, all of the children had some opportunity to experience the
water.
After a conversation about their vacations, we gave the children the assignment to perform the waves and the wind and to think about these phenomena.
The following findings emerged:
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Categories
A
B
C
D
Total
Number of children and percentage
2 (10.5%)
9 (47.5%)
3 (15.7%)
5 (26.3%)
19 (100%)
Category A: 2 children
Movement expression:
• Water waves with arm movements (bobbing movements). (1x)
• Expressing the wind by running and blowing. (1x)
Verbal expression:
• “The waves…when the water is moving.” (1x)
• “The waves…when the water towers up, because we are hitting it with
our hands, as if it were windy… I was the wind, and that’s why I was
running.” (1x)
Category B: 9 children
Movement expression:
• Water waves with arm movements (bobbing movements). (3x)
• Making bobbing movements with their body while lying down – imitating waves. (2x)
• Holding their arms at an angle and moving them – expressing the
movement of the branches in the wind. (3x)
• Running around the water, blowing air – imitation of the wind. (1x)
Category C: 3 children
Verbal expression:
• “A wave is when the water is flowing very fast.” (1x)
• “Waves happen when we jump around in the water…that’s what we
always did with my brother.” (1x)
• “The wind is what blows the water so there will be waves.” (1x)
Category D: 5 children
Table 1: Observations at the onset of the project
Next, we conducted the project activities we had planned: we went to the
ocean, where the children could observe the waves, and afterwards, we talked
about it with the children. A few children brought along video footage from
their seaside vacation. We prepared the equipment for movement expression,
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such as a blue tarp that resembled the ocean. Responding to an idea presented
by the children, we crafted a number of different fish, other water creatures,
and plants. We provided a fishing net. We put together a magnetic fishing rod
so the children could catch the fish. We also found a fabric sun. One mother
brought in a sailor’s uniform that her child had worn for Carnival. The children recalled seeing butterflies at the sea (this had not been anticipated in
advance, but was included in the movement theme upon the children’s initiative). Together with the parents (as part of a father-mother-child meeting) we
made wings for the butterflies. We selected rhymes, poems, fairy tales about
the subject, and opened the dictionary to show related entries.
Figure 1 illustrates the movement improvisation “Vacation at the seashore,”
featuring a sailor, a fisherman, children playing and the sun.
Figure. 1:
Sailor, fisherman, children
playing and the
sun.
In Figure 2 you can see water waves (children are hiding under the blue tarp,
making the waves, Figure 3). Sailors and children who are on vacation meet
again while they are swimming. Now the butterflies arrive, who fly around
above the water. Figure 4 shows a towering wave. The fluttering butterflies,
the sailor, and the vacationers are also there.
Which movements did the children associate with this subject? The children
expressed the water waves with hand movements (back and forth wrist and
arm movements) (11 children). There were also children who moved their
entire bodies (7 children). One child hid under the blue tarp and began moving back and forth. This idea had a huge impact on the children. It was new to
them, and they returned to it again and again over the next few days. Several
children came back to this pattern of movement 10 to 15 times every day.
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Figure 2: Look!
the ocean is making waves...
Figure. 3: Children’s feet are
peeking out from
under the tarp.
What could the children learn from their movement expression? They were
able to insert themselves into the situation in their imagination, becoming
waves themselves, and to express this according to their own ideas. What was
clearly apparent was that the children were interested in this subject and discussed with each other why waves occur. It was not our specific goal to get
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children to the point that they could explain the occurrence of waves. But as
participants in the project, they might obtain answers to their questions.
Figure 4: Oh my!
The wave is so
big...
Besides the movement of the waves, the children found a number of other
movements that they transformed into expression:
The movement of the sailors was mostly presented in the form of a
dance, and performed with the help of music. Here, the children fashioned
many different dance movements.
One boy showed how a sailor dives into the water, since the sailor
also wanted to go swimming.
The children expressed the movements of children splashing by
placing their hands on the tarp as if they were playing with the water.
Children swimming was interpreted in actions of jumping in the water, doing
the breast stroke and fast swimming.
The children imitated butterflies, by moving their arms back and
forth. Then the children would crouch back down (“the butterflies are taking
a rest on the water”).
The sunshine was often portrayed with a tilted arm position. Five
children additionally spread out their fingers. They also used a fabric sun.
One girl hung the sun on a button on another girl’s clothing: “Stay right
there, ‘cause the sun doesn’t move around, and we’ll dance around you.”
Once the children had a chance to try out all of the roles, they got to
choose the one they liked the best. One boy selected the role of a sailor, and a
girl held the sun. She was not moving and pretended that the sun was shining
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directly upon the surface of the water. She only turned back and forth. Apparently, she was trying to meet the expectations of her friend who had assigned her this role. One girl began to splash. Two boys imitated swimming
movements and three jumped into the water. Seven of the 5 to 6 year old girls
were butterflies. They took great pleasure in dressing up and tied wings on
their backs. However, none of the boys wanted to be a butterfly.
Making waves was an especially popular activity. The children
competed for the few spots available. Hiding under the tarp held great appeal
for the children. So many of them wanted to be under the tarp that they could
not all fit at once. Four boys that were the quickest to grab their places were
the first to get there. Then, it was amicably agreed upon that the children
would trade roles among themselves. The improvisations were repeated
through many rounds, during which the children kept forming different
groups.
Next, the children were encouraged to create aesthetic movements
forms to music.
Playful dance choreography, “The Sailor” (Aesthetic movement, Scene 1):
In this instance, a 6 year old girl took on the role of the sailor. She used
movement elements she had learned previously. She danced around the sea
and her movements imitated the story described by the lyrics of the song.
First type of movement: “Na-na-na…” Loose dance steps around the water
(the sea), various hand movements.
Second type of movement: Following the text, she imitated a shower, her
knees swaying, her arms alternately raised and lowered.
Third type of movement: Swimming is imitated with arm movements, and
then movement Type 2 is resumed.
Forth type of movement: Circling with the arms and pointing with the index
finger (in accordance with the text, which states that anyone who doesn’t
believe it should give it a try. Half of the children that cannot be seen in the
film clip also pointed with their index finger).
When the text had no explicit meaning, and you could only hear “na,
na, na” the girl danced around the sea (movement type 1) or swayed on her
knees and rotated sideward.
When the rhythm was suggestive of marching, the children marched.
At the end, the sailor leapt into the sea. (The video clip shows that he first
sprang up in the air, then changed his mind and acted as if he were lying on
the beach putting his head in the water. The child’s movement is uncertain
here, and it is obvious to see that she introduces a new element to her movement and has a hard time deciding exactly how she should conclude.)
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The children imitated the sea by moving up and down under the tarp
(and thus making use of their earlier experience). The video clip shows the
following situations:
The sea makes waves: Under the tarp, the children move actively so that
waves are generated by the strong wind.
It is windless: The children are quiet under the tarp, but you can still see
minimal movements, just like in reality. Naturally, children are not expressing their knowledge of nature, but they simply can’t remain completely still.
In the video clip, you can also see how the camera disturbed the
expressive movement of the child who was playing the sailor. By contrast,
the camera did not affect the children who were playing “the sea.” In fact,
they couldn’t see the camera and just pursued their own movement ideas.
However, they did on occasion receive some encouragement from their
teacher.
As a result of the children’s own ideas (the butterflies were still
participating) an unplanned playful dance movement improvisation and choreography then materialized.
“Butterfly, Butterfly:” Movements adapted to lyrics and music (Aesthetic
movements, Scene 2):
This movement improvisation was performed to the lyrics and melody of a
children’s song, which the children sang, accompanied by one of the teachers
on the piano. In the video clip, we can see a 6 year old girl who has taken on
the principal role. In the first part of the improvisation, which followed the
lyrics of the song, the children concentrated on interpreting the text in expressive movement. Next, their movement became directed more by the
rhythm of the music. In what follows, we will show how the children designed different movements for different passages in the lyrics.
“Butterfly, Butterfly, land on my hand:” The children expressed the flight of
the butterfly with gentle arm movements, and then they held their hands in
front of them in order to attract the butterfly. This represented an assumption
of dual roles: the role of the butterfly (flying) and the children’s own role
(expecting the butterfly).
“I won’t fly over there, because I’m afraid:” The children made a gesture of
refusal with their hands, and then they put their hands on their upper body to
express fear.
The text segment, “I’m happy to be alive” and the joy it expresses were accompanied by rhythmical clapping.
As the music went faster and slower, the children accelerated and
slowed down their movements. In this phase, they were totally concentrated
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on the flight of the butterfly. The song lyrics no longer mattered. The constant alternations of the tempo and its translation into movement occupied
their undivided attention. After the music faded away, the children brought
their movement improvisation to an end as they all squatted down (the butterflies take a rest).
Playful dance choreography “Dance of the Butterflies” (Aesthetic movement, Scene 3):
In this video clip, we see the same children that we saw in the previous scene.
They are also still wearing the same clothing. Their movement begins in a
squatting position, and the children slowly stand up as the music starts and
they imitate the movements of the butterflies (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: The
Dance of the
Butterflies.
The documentation (photos, film) show how spontaneously active the girls
are and the full commitment they bring to the flying movement of the butterfly. In the scene depicted here, the girls are seeking a partner so they can be a
couple. Their hands touch and the girls bend to the right and the left as they
run. This movement, which resembles the dance of the butterflies, was also
adopted by other children and mimetically recreated. The youngest girl observed the movements of the others and oriented herself, at first quite hesitantly, to what they had done before. It should be noted at this point how
important imitative learning is during childhood. We cannot expect children
to always come up with their own new ideas and transform them into movement. Not every child is capable of doing so. The children can imitate each
other at moments when they feel insecure and find support and reassurance
from the movements of the others. This way they are not left feeling frus-
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trated or hopeless about continuing. These children obtain imitative experiences that they may introduce at a later point into their own independent
movement forms to create their own variations. We also saw recurrent examples of children developing independent creative ideas. The children experimented with turns, squatted down, and shifted the weight of their bodies.
At the initiative of one of the girls, they formed a circle (Figure 6), in which
they repeated the partner-movements described previously. The dance of the
butterflies was expressed through shifts in their body weight while standing.
All that was required was for one child to begin and the others followed her
example.
Figure 6: The
butterflies dance
together.
We observed the same sequence pattern as the circle broke up: one girl
stepped outside the circle and stood alone. Afterwards, the children resumed
the movements portrayed in the first part. The dance ended when the children
gathered very close to each other, thus presenting one of the themes in the
song lyric (i.e. protection from the wind) (Figure 7).
Before the performance, the entire presentation was developed and rehearsed
together with the children. Since the children had come up with the idea that
butterflies could also fly around the water, we had to find appropriate music
for this. We listened together to several musical compositions, and the children selected the one that seemed most appropriate to them. They listened to
this composition many times over, and this gave them a chance to begin trying out some movements. As more and more butterflies and movement elements came together, the children selected one of the movement forms that
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had evolved to present to the parents. However, there were still passages
where the children could freely improvise to the music.
Figure 7: Let’s get
very close together!
The “Dance of the Butterflies” was evaluated together with the following
project theme, since both of them involved the movement of the wind.
“Dance of the Wind”
Time period: 2 weeks
Figure 8: The wind
wheel is turning.
Our goal was
to let children observe and feel the movement of the air, so they could incorporate the movement of air into their own movements. Therefore, we encouraged the children to observe the movement of the trees and the leaves in the
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wind. Next, we crafted wind wheels and took them outside to try them out
(Figure 8). Finally, we played a movement game, “The wind wheel is turning.” On the call, “Wind wheels turn!” the children danced with their wind
wheel in a designated area. When the call was, “Wind wheels don’t turn!”
they all stood still on one leg. This well-known and well-liked game was
played at the suggestion of the children. Along the way, the children made up
and tried out different variations, such as “the wind wheel is swinging,” “the
wind wheel is spinning over our heads,” etc. At the beginning, it was the
teacher who gave the calls, but later, the children took over this job. Then, the
movement was performed to music without the wind wheels. This primarily
involved the children moving in circular patterns.
At the children’s suggestion, we also crafted heat snakes and kites,
blew up balloons, and made soap bubbles so we could try out different
movements. A student gave the group a home-made “parachute,” which the
children put to a number of different uses: at one point they balanced a ball
on the tarp, at another, a balloon and observed what happened. Figure 9
shows the movement of the balloon, and the corresponding video clip (Aesthetic movements, Scene 4) shows the children’s joy along with their observations. When they move slowly, the balloon flies higher than the ball, since
it is full of air and lighter. This game also helps to develop social skills, since
it requires interaction and coordinated movements in the group.
Figure 9: The
balloon is light.
Connected with the various games and experiments, we also provided children’s verses, rhymes, songs, fairy tales, and stories that had to do with the
wind and the air.
At the end, the children had a chance to perform different kinds of
movement: the blowing wind, the movement of the trees in the wind, leaves
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falling in autumn – each of these with appropriate musical accompaniment.
Naturally, this project could also be organized during springtime. In Figure
10, the tree-child is adorned with autumn leaves. In the spring, the leaves
would be young and bright green and the selection of children’s rhymes and
songs would be topically related to springtime.
“The wind and the trees” was a movement improvisation (Figure 10), in
which the children imitated the movement of the wind, while a little boy who
had dressed up as a tree depicted the movements of the branches. Here, it was
very clear how the boy was observing the movements of the others in order to
coordinate his own movement with them (lighter wind, stronger wind). When
the wind was quiet, the wind-children constrained their movements. When a
“breeze” rose up, they started to make gentle movements, which increased in
intensity as the wind became stronger. The children imitated the “whirlwind”
(the children provided this term) by spinning. You could observe various arm
positions during this time.
Figure 10: It’s
windy, and the
wind is moving the
branches.
After the children had a chance to try out their roles, they could trade roles
with each other. We set up the following selection scheme: five boys and
three girls were trees and continuously imitated the movements of the
branches (arm movements). Five boys played the wind (two of them also
played the whirlwind), and this involved running around the flowers and trees
and blowing like the wind. Two wind presenters held their hands behind
them on their backs, and one of them took fabric out of our “treasure chest”
to wave around the trees. Both of the whirlwind children spun as they walked
along.
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Four girls played flowers. To do this, they crouched down and imitated the
movement of the flowers in the wind with their arms. While holding on
tightly to the arm (branch) of a boy, one of the girls said, “I am a balloon and
I was left hanging on a tree.” Another girl imitated a broken branch by lying
on the ground, “The wind was so strong that the branch broke off and now
it’s lying on the ground.” In this way, the children adapted forms of movement that they had encountered in nature into their own movement. New
elements that came up were the use of fabric, the balloon in the tree, and the
broken branch. Here the children were depicting their own observations in
their movement play.
At the conclusion of the second project, the children were encouraged once
again to imitate water and waves as well as the wind, and to tell what they
had learned about them. The following findings emerged:
Categories
A
B
C
D
Total
Number of children and percentage
12 (63.2%)
7 (36.8%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
19 (100%)
Category A: 12 children
At the outset of the project, two children could already be classified in this
category and they remained there at the conclusion of the project. However,
ten additional children (5 from Category B, 3 from Category C and 2 from
Category D) were added to Category A – a significant qualitative change.
In their movement expression and their conversation, there were a number
of repetitions, but this did not detract from the children’s creativity and
originality in any way.
Movement expression:
• Waves as an up and down movement of the arms (1x)
• Waves: movement under the tarp (7x)
• Whirlwind: spinning while standing (1x)
• Wind: running (2x)
• Movement of the trees near the water: slanting arm position and swaying motions with the whole body (1x)
Verbal expression:
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“A wave is when the water moves because of the wind.” (1x)
“There are waves because the wind blows.” (5x)
“Wind is when the air moves the trees, sometimes harder, sometimes
more gently.” (2x)
“When it’s very windy, there are big waves, when it’s only a little
windy, then there are hardly any waves.” (1x)
“When we blow on the water, we can make waves, too … because then
it’s like the wind.” (1x)
“If I want there to be waves on the water, then I smack the water with
my hands. It’s the same as if I was making wind and it causes waves
on the water.” (1x)
“Once I almost drowned. When we were swimming, a wave came over
my head and I was very frightened. But my brother told me not to be
afraid and just to close my eyes, let the air out through my nose, and
then nothing bad will happen. I did try it out, but I was really afraid.”
(1x)
Category B: 7 children
Nine children were classified in this category at the outset of the project,
and of these, four remained. Three children were added from Category D.
Movement expression:
• Waves as an up and down movement of the arms (2x)
• Water waves in a prone position with total body movement (up and
down) (3x)
• Movement of the wind: running (2x)
No children were classified in Categories C or D.
Table 2: Observations at the conclusion of the project.
The results show that the children had developed more self-confidence about
their movements and their verbal expression as a result of the challenges
presented by the project. All of the children participated in the movement
play at the end of the project and a large proportion of the children also participated in the discussion.
The first child’s comment comes very close to the truth. Waves are movement phenomena at the water’s surface that are caused by the wind. The
apparent forward movement of the water that you see is only an illusion. If
you follow the actual movement of the water molecules, it turns out they are
mostly moving back and forth and from side to side.
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In the fourth and sixth statement noted above, the children introduce the term,
“air.” The wind is air movement relative to the ground surface, caused by a
drop in atmospheric pressure. Warm air rises, since it is less dense than the
air around it. This all goes beyond the learning and thinking capacities of
kindergarten children. Yet they need to be challenged to think about these
phenomena and to speak about them (for example, while observing a heat
snake) (see Fischer/Hegedűs 2009, Chapter 3), the movements of the water
and the wind (Chapter 5), while playing and experimenting with air (Chapters
1 and 2), or while engaging with water and air through children’s literature
(Chapter 7).
“What do we get from the clouds?”
Time period: 3 weeks
The children were encouraged to tell a story that took place in the rain. They
expressed the rain through their movements. In addition, they spoke about
ways to interpret this phenomenon. Our analysis of the children’s movement
expression and their comments showed the following results:
Categories
A
B
C
D
Total
Number of children and percentage
5 (26.3%)
14 (73.7%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
19 (100%)
Category A: 5 children
Movement expression:
• Raindrops with downward hand movements from above (3x)
• Raindrops by tapping on the ground with their fingers (while stooping)
(2x)
Verbal expression:
• “It rains when the clouds burst open.” (2x)
• “It rains because there is a lot of water in the clouds and the clouds
burst open.” (1x)
• “The rain is water that falls to the ground.” (2x)
Category B: 14 children
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Movement expression:
• Raindrops: with finger movements, walking on tiptoe (4x)
• Running around the room, holding their hands over their heads (2x)
• Holding their hands as if they were holding up an umbrella while taking small steps forwards (5x)
• Holding their arms tilted while standing, with palms up (2x)
• Running around the water, blowing air (imitating the wind) (1x)
No children were classified in Categories C and D.
Table 3: Observation at the onset of the project.
At the onset of the project, we could already establish that as a result of the
previous project, all of the children were participating actively.
Execution: The project was implemented in a similar fashion as the projects
we have already described. The children were given a chance to have multiple encounters with the phenomenon of rain so they could gather ideas for
expressing it in movement. To accomplish this, we told them stories, observed phenomena together with them (such as the build-up of steam in a
kettle), taught them poems and songs, and played out fairy tales and stories.
We prepared objects that would be useful for the movement improvisation:
rainbows, raindrops, clouds, umbrellas, etc.
The subject of “rain” is topical in every season, but it is essential that children be given a chance to encounter the phenomenon in nature (for this purpose, rain gear is required; see Fischer/Hegedűs 2009, Chapter 5).
One of the children learned from his grandparents that sometimes
when it rains a great deal, there could be floods. This story gave us a chance
to interpret this unfamiliar phenomenon and express it through movements.
They put a blue tarp right next to them, under which some other children had
hidden themselves. The water tried to sweep away the dam. The same blue
tarp was also used to represent clouds. One child suggested that somebody
should be a flower, which he wanted to water with a watering can. But another child pointed out that it was going to rain very soon. The children then
took up this situation and interpreted it dramatically (see Figure 11). The
cloud-children used the tarp so they could stand beneath it.
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Figure 11: Children watering the flower and waiting for rain from the cloud.
Figure 12: The
cloud overhead.
When the children decided to let it rain, they let go of the tarp and moved
freely about the room. They imitated the sound of the rain in this way. A few
children also used an umbrella to represent the rain.
“It’s raining”: Movement expression to the melody and text of a children’s song (Aesthetic movement, Scene 5)
The video clip shows the movement forms that interpret the lyrics and the
music of the song. We prepared the scene with seven 6 year old girls, and this
resulted in a performance piece. All of them participated, and in the beginning, we left the treatment of the subject entirely up to the children. Then,
they collectively selected appropriate movement forms and, after multiple
trials, incorporated them into a movement presentation. Figure 13 shows
children who are imitating water droplets with finger movements (and
meanwhile, they let their arms slowly fall).
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Figure 13: It’s raining.
“In the rain”: playful dance choreography
Figure 14 shows a dance with umbrellas. The video clip that goes with this
activity (Aesthetic movement, Scene 6) shows how the umbrellas were used
in space.
Figure 14: Let’s hide under the umbrella!
The children dance around the umbrellas, and then hold them in their hands
or place them on their shoulders and spin them. Afterwards, they form a
circle and leap for joy. They hold the umbrellas high and form a tighter circle, and then a broader one. Meanwhile, they are spinning the umbrellas.
After a repetition, the choreography of this movement form concludes when
the girls place the umbrellas on the ground and hide behind them.
The production was put together in such a way that the children could select
the music themselves and try out their ideas. From the movement forms proposed by the children we selected the ones seen in the video example. The
children were challenged to orient themselves in space, to pay attention to
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individual movement forms, to respond to changes in rhythm and to incorporate the movement of other children. In this way, a production was ultimately
created that could be presented to the public or to their parents. Finally, the
children were given the assignment once again to portray the rain through
their movement and to interpret the phenomenon verbally. Our analysis led to
the following results:
Categories
A
B
C
D
Total
Number of children and percentage
10 (52.5%)
9 (47.5%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
19 (100%)
Category A: 10 children
At the onset of the project, only 5 children were classified in this category.
The five additional children switched from Category B.
Movement expression:
• Raindrops: with downward hand movements from above (3x)
• Rain: squatting, with their fingers tapping on the ground (2x)
• Rain: staying under the umbrella (3x)
• Protection from the rain: hopping, hands held over their heads (2x)
Verbal expression:
• Rain: “When the sun dries the water in the puddles and the water goes
up into the clouds so we can’t see it any more at all, and when the
cloud gets really fat and can’t take it any more, then it bursts and it
rains.” (1x)
• “The rain drips out of the clouds onto the ground.” (5x)
• “When it’s warm, the sun drinks the water from the ground and invites
the cloud to come, and the cloud feels sorry for the flowers and waters
them, just like we do with a watering can.” (1x)
• “It is raining because the flowers are thirsty and have to drink.” (1x)
• “When it’s raining, we take along an umbrella, or we hide, or we put
on a raincoat, so we won’t get wet.” (1x)
• “When there are a lot of puddles, then I can even put on my boots and
I’m allowed to run through the water, which splashes all over. The
teacher lets me do it, but not my Mama. She’s always yelling that I
shouldn’t go in the water.” (1x)
Note: Meanwhile, the other children were calling out to each other:
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“My Mama won’t let me go in the water either! Me neither!”
Category B: 9 children
There were 14 children in Category B at the outset, and 5 of them switched
to Category A. Nine children still interpreted the phenomenon only in their
movements.
Movement expression:
• Raindrops: finger movements, running on tiptoes (4x)
• Rain: running in the room, hands covering their heads (2x)
• Hands held in front of their upper bodies as if they were holding an
umbrella, small steps forwards (1x)
• Hands held up at an angle, palms upward (2x)
Categories C and D were unoccupied at the onset of the project, and remained so at the end.
Table 4: Observation at the conclusion of the project.
Every child has previously experienced rain. Thus, the goal here is not to
communicate conceptual knowledge or terminology to the children, i.e. that
rain is “precipitation” falling from the clouds to the ground, and that atmospheric conditions may lead some of the falling rain to evaporate, etc. Instead,
the goal is to have children encounter the phenomenon directly and thus expand upon their experiences.
The first statement in Table 4 corresponds to reality. The fourth
statement, by contrast, follows teleological thinking, referring to purposes
rather than causes to explain natural phenomena. We continuously encounter
this type of thinking in kindergarten.
Third Phase: Processing and making use of the findings
We analyzed the protocols and transcribed video images. The results of the
analysis were summarized in tabular form. We were extremely happy to be
able to demonstrate qualitative changes within the individual competency
groups. As a result of their participation in the projects, the children were
able to
•
•
define the conditions for movement expression together with adults and
other children (cognitive, social, and individual competencies)
understand waves as movement phenomena caused by the effects of
wind on the water’s surface, the wind as movement of the air, and rain as
115
•
•
a form of liquid precipitation falling to the ground (cognitive competency)
gather information from different sources (learning competency)
express waves, wind, and rain in movements (learning competency,
psychomotor and cognitive competency)
communicate through movements and gestures (communication competency)
perform in a group and move together with others (social and individual
competency)
express their ideas, suggestions, and thoughts verbally, converse with the
other children and the adults and ask questions (communication competency)
•
•
•
Making use of the findings: The findings of our study were especially useful
for our pedagogical work. Recently, they have led us to set new pedagogic
goals in the area of natural science education for children.
Using our findings as a foundation, we prepared materials for their
methodical application in continuing education programs. We organized
project networks, photographs, video recordings, and musical compositions.
and the results of the study were compiled and evaluated in a PowerPoint
presentation. We made contact with practicing educators and we offered and
implemented continuing education programs.
We are working on this subject together with students at Selyeho
University in Komárno, Slovakia, as part of their studies in educational
methodology and pedagogical practica. With the assistance of the associated
partner institutions, twenty-two students in the department of “Kindergarten
Pedagogy” tried the Naturbild approach as part of practicum work (at two
partner institutions in Komárno: 12 students at a kindergarten, 10 students at
a grade school). Children’s activities were observed, documented, and recorded videographically. These documents were then jointly analyzed and
comparatively evaluated.
In addition to the 22 students mentioned above who were including
this project as part of their regular studies, an additional 136 outside students
had a chance to become familiar with the Naturbild project and to try out
selected project themes at a total of 84 kindergartens in Slovakia. Processes
and results were evaluated on the basis of established criteria and the evaluations were documented in reports.
In addition, the results of our research were introduced in continuing
education programs (January to June 2010, target groups: kindergarten and
grade school educators). A total of 242 educators (156 kindergarten educators, and 86 grade school teachers) attended these programs. We presented
116
general options for implementing the program to the participants, primarily
concentrating on aesthetic movement expression. We showed videotapes,
explained processes and techniques for implementation, and presented our
findings. To supplement the examples documented in the film images, we
have also collected a number of additional ideas for implementing these
themes during different seasons of the year. Here, we used the learning organizational strategy of project pedagogy, in which the participants work
together in groups.
The movement games presented in this chapter should be seen as
models. Naturally, educators are free to select other solutions and pick other
methods. From the feedback we have received, we can say that educators will
greatly benefit from having professional discussions in which they have a
chance to exchange their experiences with each other.
We are hoping we will have an opportunity to organize similar continuing education programs in the future. We consider it a worthy goal to
persuade increasing numbers of educators that the foundations for later interest in the natural sciences should be established as part of early childhood
education.
Literature
Fischer, H-J./Hegedűs, G. (eds.) (2009): Nature and Technology in Early Educational Processes.
Komárno: UJS – SJE a Kecskeméti Főiskola TKFK által kiadvány utánnyomtatása. 95 o. ISBN
978-80-89234-92-9.
Forgách (1985): In Czinóber, K. – Wirkerné, V.É. (2008): Játék – mozdulat – tánc. Budapest:
Hagyományok Háza, 144 o. ISBN 978-963-7363-30-6.
Mérei, F. – BINET, Á. (2001): Gyermeklélektan. Budapest: Medicína Könyvkiadó rt., 309 o.
ISBN 963 242 746 7.
Tarjánné, T.K. (2010): Művészetekkel nevelés és a népi kultúra és hagyományátadás szerepe az
óvodáskorú gyermekek nevelésében. In Benedek, K. – Sándor, I. (ed.) (2010): ÚTRAVALÓ. A
néphagyomány közvetítésének módszerei az óvodában. Budapest: Hagyományok Háza, 136 o.
ISBN 978-963-7363-43-6.
Wirkerné, V. É. (2008): Az óvodáskorú gyermekek mozgásfejlesztése magyar népi játékokkal.
In Czinóber, K. – Wirkerné, V.É (2008): Játék – mozdulat – tánc. Budapest: Hagyományok
Háza, 144 o. ISBN 978-963-7363-30-6.
117
Chapter 6: An Analysis of Child Interpretation:
The Line between Reality and Imagination
(Iliana Mirtschewa, Anna Georgieva 1 )
In this chapter, we analyze the results of tests conducted on learning techniques in the natural sciences that are based on the use of picture books. The
chapter is divided into two parts: The first part describes how preschool and
elementary school age children interpret natural phenomena. The second part
tracks the development of verbal ability during various activities associated
with the exploration of natural phenomena.
1. How do children interpret natural phenomena?
Methodology
In the first study volume (AG Naturbild 2010), concepts were described for
using picture books as a means for better understanding phenomena in the
natural world as well as for the development of speech and imagination
(Mirtschewa/Georgieva, 2010). Trials with these methods were carried out in
Bulgaria in two phases:
1. In the first phase, selected scenarios were tested using picture books by
well-known authors.
2. In the second phase, activities using picture books were combined with
concepts from other activity packets (AG Naturbild 2010) and ideas offered by teachers.
The tests were conducted at different institutions during both phases: in kindergartens, primary schools, and at a children’s center. 2 Children ages 3 to 11
took part in the test which lasted from January 2009 to October 2010. 3 Several scenarios were developed by the authors.
The learning techniques were filmed, transcribed, and analyzed.
The following research methods were employed: observation, group discussion, case analysis, and experimentation. The purpose of analyzing the data
was to obtain insights into child interpretation, to discern the link between
realistic and imaginative elements in these interpretations, and to determine
what influence children’s literature has on childhood conceptualization.
The analysis was carried out at various consecutively successive phases during which the children interacted with picture books.
1
Authors: Part 1, Iliana Mirtschewa; Part 2, Anna Georgieva
149 “Zornica” kindergarten (Sofia), 20 “Todor Minkov” primary school (Sofia), “Palavnizi”
Children’s Center (Burgas), “St. George” private school (Sofia), “Wonder World” private kindergarten (Sofia).
3
Due to intense interest on the part of the participants, the test will continue beyond the project
time frame.
2
119
1. Plot of the
Story
2. Discussing
the Story
5. Comprehension
4. Reflection
3. Gathering
Impressions
Figure 1: Stages of interaction with picture books
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The plot of the story: reading the story, viewing the pictures.
Discussing the story: directing attention to natural phenomena.
Gathering impressions: children describe their own experiences and
impressions (encouraged through various methodologies).
Reflection – perhaps the most important phase of interaction: The plot
and pictures should not simply be reproduced verbally. The point is not
to merely recall stored information correctly but rather to search for explanations for phenomena, to discuss, to establish causes, and to justify
positions though argument.
Summarizing – also of considerable importance: the phenomenon is
depicted at a new cognitive level. Opinions and conclusions are drawn
that in turn suggest the need for additional investigation.
The evaluation gives rise to the following questions:
120
Research Question
Criteria
1. What concepts do children present in
•
stories they have developed themselves using
•
picture books?
describe natural objects/phenomena
develop associations with natural phenomena
•
•
explain natural phenomena
depict realistic or imaginative figures,
objects, phenomena
2. How do children describe natural phenom-
•
through associations
ena in the stories they developed themselves?
•
through descriptions of characteristics
•
through comparisons (similarities and
differences with other phenomena)
•
through poetic descriptions
•
through pantomime
•
through anthropomorphism
3. What are the children’s associations linked
•
to characteristics of the phenomena
to?
•
to the effects of the phenomena or to
reactions to the phenomena
4. What elements are contained in the stories
•
to actions on the phenomenon
•
to its differing manifestations
•
to the plot of the book
•
the children created themselves?
convey own experiences with the phenomenon
•
repeat information from parents
•
repeat book plot
•
supplement book plot
•
use additional information from nonfiction books and children’s films
5. What methods are appropriate to distin-
•
discussion of children’s drawings
guish the differences between realistic and
•
descriptive game playing
imaginative interpretations?
•
imaginary travel
•
mind mapping, etc.
6. Which competencies were communicated
•
through discussions of picture books?
ability to convey thoughts about natural
phenomena
•
listening
•
explain own ideas
•
substantiate own opinion
As a result of the composition of the groups it was possible to compare the
conceptions preschool/kindergarten children had about natural phenomena
with those of elementary school children.
121
A variety of methodological scenarios (cf. Fig. 2) were employed in the applied tests. Activities with picture books were most often combined with
painting and experimentation. Work at the computer was also employed (cf.
Fig. 3).
METHODS
Activities with
picture books
Discussion of
children’s
pictures
Experimenting
Activities with
non-fiction
books
Creating puzzles, models
Mind mapping
Descriptive
games
Imaginary
travel
Forming word
combinations
Exploration
Showing and
discussing
pictures
Narrative,
Discussion,
Demonstration,
Presentation
Figure 2: Methods employed
During testing of the “Naturbild” concepts, 30% of the Bulgarian primary
and kindergarten teachers made use of a computer as a means of diversifying learning techniques. All teachers were employed in private educational
122
institutions, demonstrating the aspiration of private educational institutions
to provide quality, up-to-date educational services.
The computer can be used separately in the computer room or – as in our
case – in the classroom/group-activity room. In this instance, it can be used
as a teaching tool, a work center, or by the teacher as a facilitating device
(cf. Reiter 2000, p 48f.). One preschool teacher employed it as a work
center during group activities (assignment: describe and identify sounds of
aquatic animals). Two elementary school teachers used the computer to
prepare instructional materials (worksheets and certificates of achievement).
Most of the teachers (77.78%) made use of the computer as a learning tool
(to display subject matter). They developed presentations to accompany
introductory discussions/narratives in order to enrich the children’s sensory
experiences. The presentations often incorporated images that illustrated
natural objects or phenomena. Most of the pictures were of good quality
(73.51%). Forty-two slides offered a combination of photographs and text.
In 44.86% of these, the tests were appropriately formatted (cf. Apel/Wolf
2005). The remaining slides contained excessive information, which overtaxed the children. In some instances, the visual presentation of texts was
also unsatisfactory. Only four of the slides used animated images. None of
the presentations contained video materials.
The results showed that Bulgarian primary and preschool teachers are
increasingly eager to modernize learning methods. But there remain limits
to the effective didactic use of computers in classrooms and group-activity
rooms.
Figure 3: Computer use 4
Which concepts do children present in stories they create themselves
based on readings from picture books?
It is striking that children most often (overall: 50% – in kindergartens 59.21%
and in primary school 40.35%) use descriptions of objects and phenomena in
order to depict natural phenomena (cf. column A in Fig. 4, 5, 6). These descriptions are given for both animate natural phenomena (e.g. behavior of
aquatic animals; phenomena showing adaptation to the environment) and
inanimate natural phenomena (e.g. elements of the water cycle, rain etc.) that
the children observe directly. 86.67% of the presentations relating to the topic
“water” take the form of description (90.12% in kindergarten and 79.49% in
primary school) (cf. Fig. 5).
60
4
Analysis in Fig. 3 50
supplied by Nina Dalgacheva-Koleva.
40
Kindergarten
30
Primary
20
All
10
0
А
B
C
123
Figure 4: Which concepts do children present in their own stories, based on picture books?
By contrast, description decreases with respect to phenomena (e.g. “wind”)
when children find the causes of the phenomenon to be obscure or incomprehensible. In this case, associations with natural phenomena predominate
instead (cf. column B in Fig. 6) (84.38%, of this number: 90.57% in kindergarten and 80% in elementary school).
At both the kindergarten and primary school level, phenomena are
very seldom accounted for through explanation (3.23%) (cf. column C in Fig.
4, 5, 6). In particular, the percentage of preschool children who can explain
natural phenomena is especially small (0.75% as compared to 6.14% of children in elementary school).
100
80
60
Kindergarten
Primary
40
All
20
0
А
B
C
Figure 5: Which concepts do children present in their own stories, based on picture books?
Topic: “water”
100
80
Kindergarten
60
124
Primary
40
20
0
All
А
B
C
Figure 6: Which concepts do children present in their own stories, based on picture books?
Topic: “air”
The assumption that children would tend to be prompted by readings from
picture books to invent imaginary images and unrealistic concepts in their
own stories was not corroborated. Children employ realism in their own stories as well (86.84%) – albeit drawn primarily from everyday experiences
(kindergaten age: 83.33%, and primary school age: 90%). When inventing
stories relating to natural phenomena, they employ mainly what is familiar to
them, that which does not give rise to questions or doubt. Only seldom will
imaginary figures creep into their stories, such as, for example, “wind fairies.” Since children’s stories contain a preponderance of description and
association, we have examined those elements more closely: How do children describe natural phenomena and how often do they refer to picture
books in the process?
60
50
40
Kindergarten
30
Primary
20
All
10
0
А
B
C
D
E
F
Figure 7: How do children describe natural phenomena?
It is notable in this context that characterizations of elements in natural phenomena (column B in Fig. 7, 8, 9) occur only slightly more often than associations (column А). In fact, children provide descriptions only when the
phenomena are visible and accessible and related to their own range of experience. We find associations more often in relation to less accessible phenomena (e.g. wind) (cf. Fig. 8 and 9).
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
125
Kindergarten
Primary
All
А
B
C
D
E
F
Figure 8:How do children describe natural phenomena – Topic “water”?
70
60
50
40
Kindergarten
30
Primary
20
All
10
0
А
B
C
D
E
F
Figure 9:How do children describe natural phenomena?
Topic: “air”
Rather infrequently (1.45%) and not until they reach primary school age do
children begin to draw comparisons with other natural phenomena (cf. column C in Fig. 7, 9), tending mostly to notice differences. Noting similarities
occurs only as an exception.
•
126
“The biggest difference (between oceans and lakes) is that oceans are
bigger and lakes are smaller. And in the oceans there are bigger crea-
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
tures: whales, sharks and other things like that, and in the lakes there
are such little….” (3rd grade)
“The wind is air, but it blows and the air just floats ...” (2nd grade)
“The wind is cold air.” “Air is something like wind, but it’s cold.”
(2nd grade)
“Wind and air move, but the wind is really cold when it moves.” (2nd
grade)
“Wind is cold – when it blows, it gets cold. Air can’t get that cold,
because we breathe it and wind can be warm or cool … and it moves
too. But he wind is really cold when it moves.” (2nd grade)
“The air gets cold in the winter, because when you’re in the car and
when you breathe, you can see the air. That means it’s cold. But in the
summer, when you breathe, you can’t see it…” (2nd grade)
“Wind is air that moves – just a lot faster than people realize.” (2nd
grade)
“The wind is colder air. They’re connected some way, because both
are invisible. Wind moves faster and gets colder. Air is something like
wind, it’s just not cold … wind is colder air.” (2nd grade)
“...both (air and wind) are invisible...” (2nd grade)
Fig. 10: Comparisons
When we examine the comparisons the children make (Fig. 10), we can see
the difficulties they have in interpreting natural phenomena. They apply their
own child-logic in order to try to find explanations for complex phenomena
in nature. These explanations incorporate flawed concepts, judged from a
purely scientific point-of-view. This points to the pedagogical rationale for
providing the children the kinds of experiences that can help them to improve
their own conceptual frameworks.
By the same token, reflection and interaction generally promote a
child’s capacity to form arguments, even if this at first leads to “incorrect”
arguments and concepts. And therein lies an important contribution to a
child’s development that can be derived from early use of nature education: it
challenges children to interpret and explain phenomena through comparison.
Children only rarely (3.64%) use poetic phrases in their descriptions of natural phenomena (cf. column D in Fig. 7, 8, 9 and in Fig. 11). Kindergarten
children sometimes begin their stories with the familiar, “Once upon a
time….” Elementary school children are somewhat more likely to use poetic
phrases, in particular those in higher grades (cf. Fig. 11).
•
“Then (the drop) flows into the river or is burned up by the sun.” (1st
127
•
•
•
grade)
“Some leaves float in the air.” (2nd grade)
“ ... snowflakes ... fall on the ground and lie there like a white blanket
...” (1st grade)
“ ...the wind fairy can carry the wind wherever she wants... her hair
never stays put, it blows in the wind. I think she’s blue colored and
shows up wherever and whenever she wants to.” (2nd grade)
Figure 11: Poetic phrases
Owing to their more limited experiences, kindergarten-aged children prefer to
convey their stories through pantomime (cf. column E in Fig. 7, 8, 9), presenting their thoughts without having to use words.
The proportion of children (4.73%) who use anthropomorphisms in
their stories is exceptionally small (cf. column F in Fig. 7, 8, 9). Surprisingly,
this tends to occur mostly with older children (6.67% of primary school children as compared to 2.86% of kindergarten children). Through discussion,
however, it was determined that these were not always true anthropomorphisms. Instead, the children were seeking to “animate“ their stories or make
them more entertaining (Fig. 12).
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“A drop of water can fall in a lake and see what lives under the water –
fish, mackerel, eel….” (1st grade)
“The little cloud turned into a puddle and looked around the woods.”
(1st grade)
“... the cloud didn’t want to go to them, because it was so interesting to
them.” (1st grade)
“The snowman turned into a person.” (1st grade)
“The wolf lives in a castle … and these are his stairs…” (3rd grade)
“I made a model of a tree – those are his eyes, his hands but this one
doesn’t have any feet.” (age 4)
“And they (the sea creatures) got together and played hide-and-seek.”
(age 6)
“Hello, black fish! Do you wanna come with us and play with octopussy (little squid)?” (age 5)
“The squirrel said that if the drop wasn’t good, he’d give him to the
bear.” (1st grade)
Figure 12: Anthropomorphisms
128
Children’s associations
If we examine the associations children make, we find that they primarily
(47.48%, cf. column B in Fig. 13) involve the effect one phenomena has on
another (e.g. wind blowing leaves on a tree, bending branches, breaking up
nests, blowing through our hair, etc.) or with reactions to a phenomenon (e.g.
children protecting themselves from a strong wind).
“I didn’t draw the wind. I made it so you can ‘see’ it. I showed how it
blows the branches and leaves around.” (Nikolaj, age 7)
60
50
40
Kindergarten
30
Primary
20
All
10
0
А
B
C
D
E
Figure 13: Children’s associations
Often (25.99%) children’s associations relate to phenomenological events
(“the wind blows”, “the rain falls”) (cf. column C in Fig. 13). This sort of
association is found particularly among preschool children. They find it especially difficult to formulate explanations and often merely repeat what they
have heard from adults (e.g. “the wind blows”).
Only rarely (15.12%) do children name traits of natural phenomena
(cf. column А in Fig. 13). Associations by primary school children are also
based on differing manifestations of natural phenomena (cf. column D in Fig.
13). Because they are more knowledgeable, they refer, for example, to different types of wind (hurricane, tornado). The percentage of children (0.8%)
who derive their associations from picture book stories is minimal (cf. column E in Fig. 14). This shows that the children already possess a degree of
knowledge about the world and are not dependent on what is available
through stories in picture books. It is worthwhile, therefore, to incorporate
children’s experiences into their interaction with picture books.
Elements of Children’s Stories
An analysis of children’s stories reveals that children repeatedly make use of
their own experiences (cf. column А in Fig. 14). This applies to children in
129
both age groups. The percentage of those (cf. column B) who simply repeat
information heard or obtained from adults is significantly lower. Some children (this applies especially to primary school children) incorporate into their
stories additional information from non-fiction books or children’s films (cf.
column E). The number of children who simply retell (cf. column C) or repeat to others (cf. column D) the story from a picture book is minimal. These
results show once again the great significance that a child’s experiences have
on the learning process.
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Kindergarten
Primary
All
А
B
C
D
E
Figure 14: Elements of children’s stories
Children’s conceptions
During numerous discussions with children of both preschool and primary
school age, we noticed how the phenomena “wind” and “water” were not
always accessible and comprehensible to them. It was particularly difficult
for them to explain the wind. From a purely scientific point-of-view, there
were certain flawed concepts evident here as well, including among children
of late primary school age (cf. Fig. 15, 17).
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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“Clouds blow the wind.” “The wind comes from the clouds.” (an often
heard explanation among children of both preschool and primary
school age)
“When there’s wind … the birds fly off to the south.” (age 5)
“Whenever there’s wind, the leaves fall from the trees.” (1st grade)
“It’s only windy when it’s cold.” (age 5, 2nd grade)
“The wind always comes from the north, because it’s cold.” “The wind
comes from the north and in the north it’s cold which is why there’s
more wind. The sun comes up in the south, it’s warmer there than in
the north.” (2nd grade)
“The wind evaporates in the sun.” (age 5)
“Air can’t be cold, because we breathe and the air can only be warm or
cool.” (2nd grade)
Figure 15: Incorrect concepts about the wind
The lack of clarity about the nature of a phenomenon explains why children
formulate coherent but incorrect interpretations of the phenomenon. Difficulties also arise with respect to natural phenomena that have only been superficially clarified. Take for example the topic, “water cycle”. Children were able
to name and list phases and elements in the water cycle. During discussions,
however, probing questions cropped up, indicating that what was learned
about those interrelationships merely papered over an inadequate understanding (cf Fig. 16). This was true even of children in the 3rd grade who had dealt
with this topic in their school curriculum. Lack of clarity and flawed concepts
were therefore evident (cf. Fig. 17).
•
•
•
•
•
•
“I just don’t know how water changes into a cloud ...” (1st grade)
“But how do clouds form?” (2nd grade)
“How does (water) evaporate and disappear?” (1st grade)
“He says that the snowman turns into a cloud when he melts and then it
rains ... I don’t know. I don’t believe that.” (1st grade)
“How does a ship stay on the ocean?” (2nd grade)
“How does water get to us if we use it every day?” (2nd grade)
Figure 16: Confusion about the topic “water / water cycle“
•
•
•
“When a drop falls on the ground … its dried up by the sun. Then it
turns into mud and changes to rock.” (age 5)
“When water evaporates, it goes into the clouds ... It starts to rain …
when they get full of water ...” (age 5)
“The mist … makes a hole in the sky.” (1st grade)
Figure 17: Confusion about the topic “water cycle“
The life experiences of preschool children are relatively limited, so their
interpretations are confined to immediate perceptions (e.g. the wind blows
the leaves) and concrete phenomena. Elementary school children, by contrast,
have already begun looking for reasons to explain phenomena. Therefore it
follows that discussions should be initiated with preschool children aimed at
encouraging the search for explanations. The question “Why?” should be
used early and often in conversations with preschool-aged children.
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The expanding range of experience during the transition from preschool to primary school is accompanied by increasing precision in childhood
conceptualization. What at first glance appears to be a positive conclusion is,
however, subject to a caveat. School instruction that lacks a proper conceptual framework often results in an understanding of the world that may be
logical and comprehensible to children but which does not measure up to the
standards of a proper scientific education.
This demonstrates the need for interactive instruction that encourages children to be active participants and explorers who take pleasure in
independent, method-oriented learning about natural phenomena. Unfortunately, the often superficial design and implementation of traditional frontal
instruction techniques produces unsatisfactory results, as one discovers in
conversations with children about natural phenomena. Telling, showing, and
repeating will, by themselves, in no way guarantee effective learning. Effectiveness comes instead from providing well-planned activities for the children. Thus, our conversations about picture books also happened to reveal the
weakness and lack of clarity evident in traditional instructional planning,
which ultimately can reinforce children’s flawed conceptions. This insight
allows for improved and more appropriate planning of how to structure the
childhood learning process.
Skills
The results of our analyses show that valuable skills can be developed using
the various methods employed based on group activity. A high percentage of
kindergarten children (59.72%) began to learn how to communicate their
thoughts about natural phenomena. Children who at the beginning of our tests
still tended to repeat memorized phrases were, by the end, demonstrating
considerably more active participation and were expressing their own interpretations of natural phenomena. There was also an increase in the proportion
of children who listened closely to others in order to then participate in discussion themselves.
Preschool children continued to have difficulty explaining their own
ideas, and thus attained a low score in this area (5.56%). Primary school
children are, by contrast, further along in the development of their communication skills. They are able to communicate their own ideas about natural
phenomena, listen to other children, and are also able to explain their ideas.
The percentage of primary school children (25.85%) who are able to present
their own arguments and support their own opinions through argument also
rose during the course of the trials. One notes in this respect a more decided
development among primary school children than among kindergarten/preschool children.
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Advantages of the methods employed
Our analysis also incorporated the methods employed during the trials in
order to gauge which is most effective at determining the difference between
realistic and imaginative interpretations provided by the children. Conversations carried out using the children’s drawings proved the most suitable by a
wide margin (41.47%). We expected that the children would reproduce in
their own drawings whatever figures they had seen in the picture books (e.g.
blowing wind represented by puffed cheeks). Aside from a few exceptions,
however, almost all the children (both preschool and primary school) portrayed real objects or figures in their drawings. Each of the drawings reproduced their own real world. This suggests conducting conversations about
picture books with an eye to reality and using those conversations as an opportunity for a discussion of natural phenomena. Conversations like this
provide an opportunity to contrast fantasy with reality, e.g. “... the wind fairy
carries the wind from one place to the other. She moves real fast and I think
she’s the one who made the air and the wind ... I think she’s part of our
imagination” (2nd grade).
Of considerable significance as well is the inclusion of mind maps. With
preschool children, one can use symbols and illustrations as well. Mind maps
make it possible to order and group together the children’s associations.
Descriptive games and imaginary travel also have a positive effect
on ordering and interpreting experiences, particularly in those instances in
which one makes use not only of picture books but of non-fiction books as
well (read in small groups or in the form of “station-breaks“ during regular
class time). This meshes surprisingly well with the children’s desire for new
structural approaches to learning and their urge to make use of information
they obtain from a variety of sources. Moreover, it can be observed that the
children apply the knowledge they have acquired to other activities, including
activities outside of school – in children’s play, for example. This applies
equally to primary as well as to preschool children.
Summary
The results of our analysis can be summarized as follows:
• For a variety of reasons, the natural phenomena “air” and “water” are
difficult for preschool and primary school children to comprehend and
interpret. This is evidenced in the imprecise and inaccurate concepts
children have about these phenomena. In order to make learning more effective it is necessary to first find out something about the difficulties
children have. To this end, discussions centering on picture books and
incorporating a variety of interactive methods have proven to be particu-
133
•
larly applicable. If one selects picture books that are age appropriate
(books with stories that are short, that describe a limited number of situations and which have a limited number of characters – cf.
Mirtschewa/Georgieva 2010, p. 96), children have no trouble shifting
from ideas and arguments associated with fantasy stories to the realistic
dimension of natural phenomena. The stories should be “neutral” and
provide the starting point for a discussion that eventually breaks away
from the literary world of pure imagination, prompting a leap from poetic discourse to interpretation of real world phenomena. Any negative
influence that the imaginary worlds in children’s books can have on the
perception of the real world is thereby eliminated. Children can move
back and forth between the two worlds in their thoughts and their stories.
This cultivates not only their powers of imagination but also their verbal
abilities.
Children’s interpretations are closely linked to their everyday experiences. They understand natural phenomena from what they see, through
sensory perception of phenomena and the effects they produce. The best
approach to educating children about nature lies in direct experience. Associations (mind maps) and conversations draw on children’s own experiences. The children are encouraged to communicate their experiences through their own drawings and texts. They communicate and
swap impressions gained from experiments or home-made models. This
all depends on providing the richest learning experience possible. Elementary schools and kindergartens should provide children access to experience, both singly and in groups, permitting and even empowering
them to explore.
2. Developing language skills through interaction with natural phenomena
Optimal interaction between play, the perception of natural phenomena and
the development of children’s language skills is the object of the conceptual
trials conducted in several countries in cooperation with our collaborators in
the NATURBILD project.
Language is an element in all the activities described in the various
chapters of the first manual (AG Naturbild 2010) – e.g. in explanations, illustrations of products, interviews, and in cooperative activities. Therefore, the
criteria formulated here for the evaluation of language ability can be used in
the application of all work packets.
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“Conversations are ‘islands’ of reflection, of verbalization, of growing awareness, of surveying and ordering in the midst of an ‘ocean’ of implicit children’s play” (Fischer/Knörzer 2010, p. 18). Natural science concepts are present in the passive language of children; but through experimentation they are “put to conscious use, paid attention to, and reflected upon”
(Huber 2010, p. 36). D. Slobin (Pehlivanova 2008, p. 81) references research
by Bruner, which shows that, as children grow older, a transition from visual
to verbal means of thinking occurs. This is why children at first comprehend
and analyze only that which is visible. Adults then make the abstract and
figurative meaning of language accessible to children, including the language
of imagination and fantasy. L.W. Saharni summarizes by saying that children
between the ages of 5 and 6 are not able to think verbally without expressing
themselves orally. From the ages of 5 to 6, internal language takes shape so
that the child can actively think without having to speak (Pehlivanova 2008,
p. 81). It is for this reason that the various forms of interaction with natural
phenomena used within the framework of NATURBILD encourage children
to express their interpretations and explanations verbally.
Children’s conceptual development as it relates to natural phenomena is influenced by descriptions contained in children’s literature, especially
fairy tales. These conceptions do not always correspond to the objective,
science-based properties of the phenomena or objects. In order to determine
the degree of this influence, the trials also used subjects from picture books.
Methods
The trials in Bulgaria were based primarily on activities with picture books.
After completing various tasks, the children, working alone or in groups,
drew pictures and showed the results to the other children. The verbal development of the children who took part in the project was evaluated through
observation on the basis of an analysis of their work product using the criteria
listed in the following table.
No.
Criterion
1
Lexis
1.1.
Correctly names the object (or, as illustrated, uses it
yes
partially
no
correctly in game-play)
1.2.
Understands the meaning of scientific concepts
1.3.
Detects and finds differences between concepts that
name differing intensities of a natural phenomenon
(e.g. wind, storm, hurricane, tornado)
135
2
Syntax
2.1.
Uses composite sentences to make a connection between facts (e.g. “leaves fall because the wind blew
them.”)
2.2.
Uses word combinations with more than one adjective
2.3.
Employs syntactic constructions and word combinations from literature – comparison, epithet, metaphor –
to describe natural phenomena
3
Socio-cultural skills for oral communication
3.1.
Voluntarily asks questions about the topic
3.2.
Can respond to questions posed
3.3.
Successfully communicates with others (requests,
answers, provides explanations and instructions, understands what is said and what applies to the child)
3.4.
Pays attention to other children’s explanations during
group activities – adapts own interpretation, names
keywords in the story
3.5.
Orally relates own experiences to others (describes
what was difficult and what has since changed)
4
Reflectiveness of natural phenomena concepts
4.1.
Limits conceptions to events obtained through the
perception of children’s literature and scientific facts
(e.g. “the wind fairy … wind comes from the movement of the wind.”)
4.2.
Is able to describe fantasies/concepts in own words
4.3.
Formulates conclusions based on own experiences (e.g.
“The dough stays soft in water. It gets hard when it’s
baked.” (Hegedüs 2010, p. 53)
Figure 18: Criteria used to evaluate language skills
While observing the children’s activities, the researcher should make a
checkmark in the table to register which specific form of verbal expression
was observed.
The criteria for evaluating the children’s language development are
organized hierarchically in succession. Level one establishes the child’s ability to name a specific object using a concrete term (e.g. the intensity of the
wind: storm, hurricane, tornado).
136
The second criterion notes the specificity of the syntactical level of
language development. This concerns the ability to properly construct, understand, and to employ sentences – sentences of differing configurations and
serving different communication objectives.
The third criterion measures substantive properties of socio-cultural
skill in oral communication. This relates to the child’s ability to fully participate in verbal communication with others: to ask, to answer, to understand, to
explain, and to engage in persuasive dispute.
The fourth criterion concerns the child’s ability to reflect upon and
to make use of experiences with and scientific information about natural
phenomena, and to differentiate those from metaphorical depictions in children’s literature. The subject of some children’s books has to do with descriptions of natural phenomena. This is why there are often metaphorical
conceptions about natural phenomena in children’s imaginations and in their
active use of language (the wind sings, the wind rants and whispers) that do
not always reflect the true nature of the phenomenon. This underscores the
importance of this particular criterion.
Results
The results can be summarized as follows:
Lan-
Bulgarian
Slovakian
Hungarian
Rumanian
English
wasduh
vzduch
levegö
si vazduch, aer
air
woda
voda
viz
apă
water
guage 5
•
•
•
5
The texts in the books used contain repetitive syntactical constructions
which the children make note of and then use in creating their own productions: illustrations, dramatizations, and commentaries. This indicates
that the books they use influence and expand their active vocabulary.
The texts of the picture books provided to the children contain many
metaphors, comparisons (e.g. terms such as “shovel excavator,” “a forest
of seaweed growing on candy-colored cliffs”), and phrases that leave an
impression on the children. This motivates them to delve into their active
vocabulary and apply it innovatively in their descriptions.
The applied activities were characterized by curiosity and surprise, together with a desire to try a thing repeatedly in order to compare the outcomes. The 4 and 5 year olds often used short sentences to accurately
The words „water“ and „air“ display similarities in the various languages used in the project.
137
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
name the natural phenomena or objects used. Their articulations were often lacking adjectives, complex sentence structures, and the ability to
formulate coherent monological statements (as compared to the primary
school children).
During group activity or while describing illustrations, older children are
able to supplement and relate the narratives of younger children so as to
produce a sensible story with elements that relate logically to one another (introduction, description, summary).
While showing their pictures, some of the children used the sounds and
noises produced by the objects depicted. This produces multi-sensory effects (through color, form, sound, text) so that the picture is transformed
into a component of a specialized genre of literature, the comic.
In the process of independently carrying out their assignments, the children communicate in a way that employs emotive and performative turns
of phrase by means of which they are able to express their wishes and
feelings and bring them to bear.
The older children understand scientific concepts through their own
practical experience and name differences in lexicological meaning by
drawing on visual associations from practical experimentation (e.g. “In a
glass of water, sand changes to sediment, a rock sinks”).
In order to describe their experiences, primary school children draw
conclusions in which they employ complex but correctly formulated sentences.
Both preschool as well as primary school children exhibit rich and colorful thought processes. When they “collect words about water“ (compound nouns), they are able to list several (waterfall, etc.), including
those which they associate with the word water. This exercise serves to
motivate the children and enriches their vocabulary.
“Water“ and “air,“ the keywords of the NATURBILD project, are also
used in adages and proverbs common to several different languages.
Water
¾ runs like water
¾ water under the bridge
¾ muddy the water
¾ still water runs deep
Air
¾ get some fresh air
¾ there’s something in the air
¾ air a problem
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¾
¾
•
•
•
disappear into thin air
like the air I breathe
Through sayings used in multiple languages we can trace certain parallels in expression and the metaphorical illustration of worldly wisdom.
This expands knowledge about foreign languages.
It was noted that older children link together scientifically based knowledge with metaphorical paraphrasing. (e.g. the wind fairy).
During knowledgeable consideration of the nature of scientific concepts
(e.g. “saturated” and “unsaturated solution”), the children spontaneously
resort to metaphorical expressions (unsaturated solution: “it’s hungry”
or “still eating” (with respect to the dissolving material); saturated solution: “it’s full” (the dissolving material) or “doesn’t want any more to
eat”). Associations such as these help children grasp the meaning of scientific concepts so that they are able to understand and use them correctly.
Summary
Active participation in various activities dealing with natural phenomena
challenges children to express themselves verbally. On the one hand, this is
bound up with multisensory perceptions and varied impressions and effects
obtained from exploring the phenomena. On the other hand, cooperating with
other children in pursuit of objectives (to try out, create, or explain something, to cooperate, to play) demands a rich repertoire of expression and the
situationally adaptive use of various verbal constructions. This produces a
consistent incentive for the children to expand their language abilities. From
a pedagogical perspective, the application of constructivist teaching and
learning techniques requires more time as well as more personnel and material resources than do frontal-instruction techniques, but it produces greater
enthusiasm, involvement and effort on the part of the children. The knowledge and abilities thereby obtained are more lasting and better thought
through. This helps to overcome verbalism and excessive didacticism.
All of the activities and learning techniques provided and tested in
the Naturbild project are based on verbal interaction between the children
themselves, on the one hand, and between adults and children, on the other.
This unleashes an enormous potential for stimulation, perception, control,
and adjustment in children’s language development by creating constant
opportunity for verbal expression, for questions, for drawing conclusions, and
for describing the results of autonomous exploration and group activities.
139
Literature
AG Naturbild (2010): Nature and Technology in Early Educational Processes. Study Companion
Volume 1: Pedagogical Support. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren.
Apel, H./Wolf, G. (2005): Multimedia in der Umweltbildung. Wiesbaden.
Fischer, H.-J., M. Knörzer (2010): Playing with Air and Water. In: Nature and Technology in
Early Educational Processes. Study Companion Volume 1: Pedagogical Support. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, pp. 13–28.
Hegedüs, G. (2010): Craftwork and Construction with Air and Water. In: Nature and Technology
in Early Educational Processes. Study Companion Volume 1: Pedagogical Support. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, pp. 45–61.
Huber, A. (2010): Air and Water in Pedagogically Guided Experiments . In: Nature and Technology in Early Educational Processes. Study Companion Volume 1: Pedagogical Support.
Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, pp. 29–44.
Mirtschewa, Il., An. Georgieva (2010): Picture Books, Language and Fantasy as Children’s
Gateways to Natural Phenomena. In: Nature and Technology in Early Educational Processes.
Study Companion Volume 1: Pedagogical Support. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag
Hohengehren, pp. 93–105.
Pehlivanova, P. (2008): Zasto ranno chujdoesikovo obuchenie? Predpostavkite na detskata
vasrast. In: Universitetski kurs po ranno chujdoesikovo obuchenie. Sofia.
Reiter, A., M. Grimus, G. Scheidl (2000): Neue Medien in der Grundschule: Unterrichtserfahrungen und didaktische Beispiele. Vienna.
The team members of the Naturbild Project wish to thank all the preschool and elementary
school teachers who participated in their research: partnering kindergarten N 149 “Sornitza”,
Sofia (Atanaska Deliyska, Emiliya Yordanova, Lidiya Dimitrova, Rumyana Georgieva, Valentina Aleksandrova, Zvetana Todorova); N 20 “Todor Minkov“ elementary school, Sofia (Diana
Fortunova, Liliya V. Mitkova, Petya M. Stankova, Violeta P. Petkova); the “Palavnizi” Children’s Center, Burgas (Nikolina Gavrilova); “Wonder World” private kindergarten, Sofia (Petya
Ilieva, Desislava Nikolova); the “St. George” private school, Sofia (Boryana Yonkova, Stella
Kisselova, Bonka Dimova, Diana Georgieva, Emiliya Popova, Tsvetelina Metodieva, Greta
Ivanova, Ivona Stoilova, Anna Petrova, Zoya Kakalasheva, Ilka Yordanova); and in Germany:
Silvie Schatz, Karla Ulbrich, Petra Haas, Sabine Meyer, Brunhilde Rathfelder, and Birgit Luz.
140
Chapter 7: Project Design and Children’s SelfOrganization in Projects with Air and Water
(Tünde Barabási & Sándor Antal)
Children encounter natural phenomena and processes in many ways. Generally, such encounters take place in explorative children’s play, yet they can
also occur in pedagogically encouraged and supported activities, such as
those assembled in the Naturbild project: craftwork, experimentation, research as part of everyday life, creative movement activities, as well as engagement with picture books. In the preceding chapters, we examined all of
these methods for generating knowledge about the world and concepts about
natural phenomena. We have examined what children do and how they
achieve educationally productive encounters.
Our considerations and research are based upon the fundamental
principles of tempered constructivist learning theory. According to this theory, previously acquired knowledge is a critical element in the acquisition of
new knowledge. New information is analyzed and incorporated through selfactive learning in light of previously established cognitive structures. The
learning scenarios in Naturbild projects are based upon these constructivist
principles. In Naturbild, projects emerge from the children’s prior experiences and knowledge; this allows goals to be set that correspond to the children’s interests. The interdisciplinary and multi-perspectival nature of projects also make it possible to bring together different thematic points of access to nature and diverse activities as part of an enquiring engagement with
natural phenomena. The learning theory background and the methods of project-based engagement with natural phenomena, including principles for providing educational support, were presented in the first study volume. We also
discussed the appropriate time frame for projects, how they may be adapted
to the needs of different age groups, how they can be reconciled with different educational curricula, what demands they place upon the guiding adults,
what kinds of opportunities for integration projects present, and how projects
can be adapted to prevailing conditions.
In this second volume, we concentrate on the practical implementation of projects and the experiences we have accumulated in this regard. Our
aim is to find answers for the following questions:
With regard to educators: What is the context for projects about natural
phenomena? To what extent should the children’s own initiative and ideas
about defining and developing problems and proposing solutions be taken
into account? Are the children’s theories and interpretations of importance
to adults and do adults support reflection about the children’s activities?
How do they understand the themes of “air and water”? What significance
141
do they assign to these themes in the development of children’s concepts
about nature and technology and, more generally, in the development of
children’s thinking?
With regard to the children: What does project learning mean for the children, what have they learned? Have the children found answers for their
own questions related to the theme? Were they interested in the problems
brought up by others, etc.?
To this end, we will analyze the projects related to water and air that teachers
and educators completed with children. The participating educators gave
permission for us to observe the course of their projects and evaluate their
project concepts. Our investigations will be presented in three stages.
I. In the first stage, we will examine projects conducted and documented by
the educators. We have selected document and content analysis as our
method of examination. Altogether there were 38 projects implemented by
educators in the Hargita district in Romania that were selected for inclusion
in the study. The educators’ documentation included information about the
planning and conception as well as the implementation of the projects. These
documents also serve as official proof of training and activity for educational
institutions, and provide an account of project planning, organization, execution, and evaluation (Falus 1993). Most of the projects (29) were conducted
in kindergartens, but a few grade school projects (9) were analyzed as well in
order to allow for a comparison between these institutional settings. To be
able to perform a comparative content analysis, we limited ourselves to projects related to the theme of “water.”
II. The results of our study relate to project documents created by educators
who were unaware of the Naturbild pedagogical approach. In the second
stage of our study, we went on to analyze projects carried out educators following their participation in a training program about the implementation and
dissemination of the Naturbild approach. In this step, the method of document and content analysis was expanded to include participatory observation
by means of semi-structured interviews and surveys using questionnaires.
III. The impact of a comprehensive pedagogical method such as that of the
Naturbild project is determined by a number of different factors. It was beyond the scope of our resources to conduct a long-term outcome study. Nevertheless, in order to study the effects of the project on the target group most
affected, the children, we undertook structured conversations with the children and asked them to think about their experiences over the course of the
142
project and to analyze and evaluate them. We also sent questionnaires inviting the educators to evaluate the children’s activity and their own acquisition
of information over the course of the project’s implementation.
Projects with water planned and implemented outside the Naturbild
framework
Our study (for a more detailed summary, see Barabási 2010) confirmed that
educators are interested in projects as complex strategies for personality development. However, the level of interest is greater in kindergarten teachers
(76.3%) than in grade school teachers. Thus, projects receive more attention
and are conducted more often in kindergarten pedagogy.
The analysis of project documentation will be presented under the
following categories: a) initiative with regard to the project theme, b) the
quality of the project goals, c) the significance of experiences and learning as
well as the self-activity of the child, and d) attention to diverse perspectives
and their integration.
Initiating the project theme: The projects we examined typically came into
being (89% of the time) on the sole initiative of the educator. However, we
did find instances in which projects were only partly initiated by the educator,
despite theme selection being pedagogically supervised and mediated by the
teacher’s professional knowledge. In such cases, the educator was oriented by
experiences the children had together – for example, a field trip. As a consequence, the children’s interest was awakened and they concentrated on a
problem which was then developed into a project theme. Without any additional effort or assistance, the educator’s project turned into the children’s
project.
The quality of the project goal: An answer to the question, “Whose project is
this?” can be found by examining the project goals. The goals of the projects
we studied can be divided into two groups. In the first group, the educators
(teachers directing their attention to the children’s experiences and valuations)
assemble project elements that the children can use to expand their knowledge base. For the second group, the response to the question, “What will I
experience?” carries more weight. It points to the children’s goals. The educator’s goals then become identical in content – admittedly, on a broader
scale – to those of the children (for further information, see Barabási 2010).
The significance of experiences and learning and the self-activity of the child:
The inclusion of children’s personal and learning experiences and their way
of processing them is closely linked to the question of who initiates the pro-
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jects and how the project goals are set. Of the projects conducted by educators in kindergarten, 86.2% gave consideration to children’s thematically
relevant personal and practical experiences and knowledge. This is closely
connected with question, “What do we want to experience?” – a question that
addresses the project goals. The re-awakening of children’s earlier experiences was a primary departure point for projects conceived of by the teachers.
The relevance of projects to past experiences was thus considered to be more
essential than the significance of project initiation and problem suggestions
on the part of the children.
Attention to diverse perspectives and their integration: The projects provide a
framework for multiple levels of engagement and thus bring together different elements of understanding. In this way, they avoid the danger of transmitting only isolated pieces of knowledge and skills – a danger that is always
present in systematically structured learning. The danger is that children fail
to have the opportunity to create connections between elements, thus preventing them from applying their knowledge and building the kinds of knowledge
structures are a foundation for real understanding. The integration of project
themes also plays an important role for project presentation. For educators,
the realization of theme integration is among the most important issues, especially since pedagogy is asked to consistently treat nature subjects from a
cultural perspective. In the projects we analyzed, we could identify two
modes of integration:
• In one mode (34%) the educator achieved the goal of a multiperspectival engagement with a theme, but this did not (necessarily)
serve the goal of more thorough engagement with the theme, i.e. of obtaining diverse points of view. Instead, the aim was to arrive at a unified
result. This mode ultimately ended up creating “phantom projects.”
• In the other mode (66%) we can speak of truly successful integration.
We learn from such project plans that the educators supported taking diverse viewpoints and perspectives over the course of the project, and
then brought these together in the presentation. The phenomenon was
thoroughly examined from different points of view. The theme was not
merely a point of departure and an external reason for engagement, but
an internal motivation for expanding knowledge.
Pedagogical work in kindergarten is looser and more fluid. The openness of
the curriculum provides educators with the opportunity to coordinate a search
for thematic interfaces. In general, this does not raise any difficulties. By
contrast, in grade schools it proves to be much more difficult to develop in-
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dependent curricula and coordinate them with the learning plan – even
though the documented projects demonstrate that this is not impossible.
The projects reveal that educators take the theoretical principles underlying project work into consideration. However, there are areas and requirements in which recurrent orientation difficulties result. For example,
educators find it difficult to expand project contents based upon the children’s specific life experiences and understandings; to take children’s initiative adequately into account; to negotiate project goals jointly; to bring wider
social contexts into the project; to incorporate the children’s interpretations
and theories and promote reflection about them; to integrate different cultural
aspects and areas of activities into the project; and to investigate potentials
for integration with the children.
Projects within the Naturbild framework
As part of the Naturbild project, educators participated in continuing education courses based upon the Naturbild project approach. Our evaluation of
project plans and reports along with participatory observations from the implementation of projects related to air and water led to the finding that the
difficulties in project implementation described above were largely remediable. In the following section, we would like to indicate the elements upon
which the continuing education program was based, elements which were
primarily focused on promoting the children’s concepts and ways of thinking
in their independent encounters with natural phenomena. In this regard, the
following elements will be considered separately: proposal of the project
theme; development and application of ideas by the children; theory building;
interpretation and reflection by the children; integration of areas of activity;
and coordination with the curriculum.
The success of the continuing education program conducted by the
Naturbild project is also apparent from the fact that the educators who participated in the program felt that they had acquired an increased level of assurance about (1) their theoretical knowledge (concerning foundations in
learning, project methods, and their significance for natural science learning),
as well as (2) their understanding of the practical implementation of projects
(with regard to the core features of project work). Both variables showed
highly significant correlations (r = 0.500063, p = 0.01)
The search for a project theme must pay serious attention to the
problems and suggestions proposed by the children and challenge them to
think about the project. Since the theme was established in advance (water
and/or air), most of the projects were developed from the recommendations
of the educators. However, we found that precisely because they understood
how important a suitably adapted theme was for furthering the children’s
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level of motivation and learning, the adults were able to deliberately pull
back and include the children in the decision-making process. In this connection, common experiences came to represent the primary basis for generating
project themes.
Examples:
(1) Abel in the salting room:
“The water comes from the mines, right?”
(2) The children enter the classroom.
“The floor is covered with water. Where did the water come from? We
brought it in with our boots.”
Another child tries to explain: “It started out as snow, and then it melted.”
(3) Taking a walk on the banks of the Küküllő river. The question comes
up: where does the water come from? This question was asked often during
our joint excursions and was used as an opening for further exploration.
These examples make clear that it often takes only a small “spark” to stimulate thematic inquiry and investigation. The key for obtaining project themes
is for adults to be open and attentive to the children’s questions. The next
step involves supporting and challenging ongoing thought on the part of the
children, thereby bringing other children into the conversation. The adult can
also make information accessible to the children and link it to cultural and
scientific knowledge. The criterion for this is that it should foster the children’s ongoing learning.
Figure 1: “The water is coming from there!” Figure 2: The stream
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Figure 3: Discovering the little bay
Figure 4: In the falling snow
The themes that could be theoretically analyzed stemmed from the children’s
engagement with real-world phenomena – especially when the theme was
suggested by the children or arose from their common experiences. We see
that the water flowing between the rocks (Figure 1) has attracted the attention
of the young boy, who is trying to peek under the rocks before he realizes
that this spot is the source of the stream. The sight and the experience of the
ice-cold but not always clear stream water (Figure 2) has the same motivating
effect. Questions are raised about the purity of the water and how to study it.
The discovery of a little bay (Figure 3) gives rise to an examination of the
shaping power of water. Why do the snowflakes that cover the landscape
melt in our hands and on our faces (Figure 4)? Educators who understand and
promote learning behavior in terms of constructivist theories can judge to
what extent children can independently transform experience into questions
and keep coming up with new questions. They can decide whether the support provided by a pedagogically structured learning environment is required
for giving the children answers and solutions.
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When selecting themes it is important that educators ensure that the
project truly becomes a matter of personal concern for the child. This can
only be accomplished if the child is given the opportunity to engage in personal inquiry, examination, thinking and experimentation, to try out solutions,
to consider processes several times over, and/or to analyze them, etc. The
kinds of activities children develop in this way are determined by their own
experiences. It is important that the activities emerge from the children’s own
drives and lead to new knowledge and understanding. The projects that were
undertaken show how the adults were committed to encouraging the emergence of the children’s own ideas and interpretations. The children’s activities demonstrate that every idea and every question includes multiple component issues.
Figure 5: Mind map for the theme Figure 6: Children’s questions about
“water.”
the phenomenon “water.”
Figure 6 illustrates questions the children asked about the phenomenon of
water. Figure 5 presents an array of questions children asked in one class. As
part of organizing children’s learning activities, we can establish which
themes are truly of interest to the children and will hold their attention.
Social processes of co-constructing knowledge about the world
Educators confirm that when they begin to present their suggested themes,
children are sometimes quite contentious with each other. However, later in
the course of their joint activities, they also become more open to the phenomena and questions that other children have been working on. It is worth
noting how willing children are to work together on themes proposed by
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other children, especially in the case of age-heterogeneous kindergarten
groups (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: The soil swallows the
water?
The younger children admire the quality of the work done by the older children and the adults. Being linked to an older partner and to his/her activity is
not only attractive but also an honor for the little ones. It stimulates their motivation and their efforts to follow in the footsteps of older counterparts. This
exemplifies the significance of the social co-construction of behavior. Here is
an example taken from reflections on a past project:
(4) “We conceived of project preparation as a personal challenge, since we
are such a heterogeneous group. The characteristics of different age groups
determine the success of the project. The adults gave reassuring and definite answers to the children’s naïve questions. But there were also times
when the children’s questions led to discussions among the adults.”
(5) “The children talked a lot and exchanged opinions. And they worked
together. When one of the other students brought in a lexicon, a picture, or
some other material, the children continued to talk about them with each
other as objects of interest, even during their breaks. They participated with
enthusiasm in the craftwork and in creating products as part of group work.
They were able to work freely, help and support each other. Also, they
even took up some of the activities again back at home…”
Children’s level of interest determines whether they continue to think about a
theme or pursue an activity. In the case of kindergarten children, we can observe this during their periods of free play. Children who sense the deeper
implications of phenomena take this understanding home and incorporate it
into their activities and actions. In their play, children fall back on the themes
and discoveries they have made in the projects and they find new questions
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and answers, new theories and interpretations that put their earlier experiences in a new light.
Figure 8: Connections to
everyday life at home
Figure 8 shows kindergarten children who are involved in a water project.
The same day, they had tried out which substances dissolve in water and
which do not. In cooking, they noticed that some of the ingredients are
blended with each other while other ingredients are supposed to stay solid.
They were happy to take up this theme again in their play when they were
home for the afternoon and made further observations along the way.
For an individual child it is very motivating when a partner or an
adult is included in the experiential and reflective process. This helps to encourage them to try out and examine hypotheses. In our projects we found
time and again that parents also found a way to become learning guides and
co-constructors of children’s knowledge of the world.
Children’s theories and reflections
Adults play an important part in challenging children to interpret phenomena,
to reflect about their experiences, and to form theories. Here are several examples:
(6) Betti: “Ouch, the salty water is burning my cut.”
Ati: “Lick it up, and then it won’t burn any more.”
(7) “After the water dissolves and the salt is left behind, I pour in a green
dye and then I can make green crystals.”
(8) The children poured some red dye into a glass. Then they went on to
pour some dye into a bucket.
“Why was the larger quantity of water (in the bucket) paler?”
“Because the dye evaporated…”
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Figure 9: Adding
coloring to the water
As part of a “salty water” project, children observed what happened to flowers when they were sprayed with saltwater. They also learned where we could
find saltwater in our surroundings. While they were reflecting on the salt content of water, some of the salty water got onto a little girl’s cut. Her partner’s
theory promised relief: “Lick it up, and then it won’t burn any more!” The
girl followed his advice, and found relief from her discomfort along with
confirmation of the theory. Situations of this kind stimulate children to think
sensibly and logically. This is another example of the social construction of
knowledge of the world. The children provide stimulation and support for
each other to help expand their understanding.
Example (7) is similar: children are learning that salt can crystallize
out of saltwater. Another experience has shown that water can be colored
green. This led one child to develop the question whether salt crystals might
also be colored green. The child’s statement contained both skepticism and
hope: “I want to have green crystals.” He was strongly motivated to test out
his hypothesis; the child was challenged to reflect and to form theories.
Example (8) and Figure 9 show how children pour the same quantity
of red dye, first into a cup of water and then into a water bucket. The question
comes up as to why the water in the bucket is only pale red. One child suggests that in the larger container, water has mixed with the dye. Because the
water evaporates, some of the dye has evaporated as well. However, this specific situation did not lead to a deeper examination of the phenomenon. Both
partner and the adult intervened correctively to reject the explanation. The
social environment is not always helpful for the formation and testing of
theories. Children often change their mind spontaneously, not only based
upon their partner’s reaction. Here, the kind of feedback provided by the
adult is quite significant. Erroneous theories require testing, which permits
children to make their own corrections.
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Integrating areas of activity
When we analyzed the projects, we looked at the question of how projects
could be set up in a multi-perspectival, integrated way from different vantage
points. We considered the perspective of integrating goals, integrating content (in different types of projects), and making connections to follow-up
projects. We paid attention to connections within the projects and in the project presentations. All projects are clearly set up with integration in mind. As
a result, they span a methodological space that allows for the joint acquisition
and presentation of knowledge through diverse perspectives and approaches.
Beginning with the selection of project goals, we emphasized efforts
to mediate between the children’s preferences and pedagogical perspectives.
In addition, attempts were made to coordinate different levels of thematic
work and different directions and forms of activity. All of the knowledge
acquired by the children, all of their interpretations and theoretical constructions were jointly classified and evaluated. These opportunities were applied
both to the methods of project work and to content elements in the projects.
Here, we brought together playing and experimentation, craftwork, digging
and building, aesthetic creative movement, social processes of coconstruction, and researching phenomena in every day life and in children’s
literature. This made it possible for the children to have and to organize diverse experiences from different areas. According to the results of our analysis, these points of access were used to a similar extent in all of the projects.
Figure 10: Draining the water
Figure 11: Sand and water
As part of their projects, educators paid attention not only to integrating different cultural con-
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tents and areas of knowledge,
but also to integrating the different forms of activity that were
represented.
Figure 12: Craftwork about the theme of “water.”
While the integration of content-related
elements and areas of knowledge took
priority in the projects that were not
based upon the Naturbild approach, in the
NATUBILD projects, attention was also
given to different forms of activity, and
they were used for developing a multiperspectival approach to natural phenomena.
Figure 13: Building a boat
Figure 14: Trying out airplanes
Figure 15: Representing the
movement of water
The different ways the approaches we presented could be used by different
age groups also turned out to be of significance. Whereas activities related to
children’s daily lives take precedence at the kindergarten age, older children
tend to be more interested in novel and unfamiliar phenomena. The younger
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children tended to prefer questions that referred back to their own theories
and helped confirm them.
Figure 16: Deeper experimentation
Figure 17: Water in daily life
Figures 16 and 17 show how children of different ages use various activities
to explore the phenomena of water and air: playing, craftwork, experimentation, researching everyday experiences, movement, reading picture books, etc.
In carrying out projects and in our conversations with children, we determined that children develop definite preferences for particular activities.
However, since they were stimulated by curiosity and the love of discovery,
they were also attracted to other activities and applied the experiences they
acquired in other areas. This allows an informal integration of activities and a
networking of contents and problem elements to take place in project work.
Figure 18: Can we make the water Figure 19: Additional research
rise up?
about water in the library.
The activity areas correspond to a number of different cultural areas. How
they are brought together and related to each other depends upon the initiative and the creativity of the educator. As a result of our continuing education
activities, we noted that the educators changed their approach in that they
integrated cultural elements less from a content perspective and more from a
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methodological perspective when choosing activities for the children. Now,
active engagement was more critical than a systematic correlation with cultural issues. This point of view has the advantage that it helps children have a
multi-perspectival engagement with natural phenomena.
Coordination with the curriculum
The project method is receiving greater attention in Romania as a result of the
flexible framework of the country’s new kindergarten program as well as the
new expectations placed on child development and the methods for promoting it. As a consequence, kindergarten educators see no problems in implementing the project method. However, because they require time and resources, projects are seen as a threat to curriculum requirements in the context of grade school education. Nevertheless, in the project documentation
that we analyzed, we could find examples where teachers invested many
hours and weeks in implementing project goals that were not directly related
to the school curriculum. In addition, there were other examples where the
goals of the project could be successfully reconciled with classroom teaching
expectations.
Figure 20 and 21: The general theme of “water” in different school subject
classes (Selections from student notebooks)
The teachers emphasized that an important aspect of coordination with the
curriculum plan was the selection of themes that were of particular interest to
the children early in the planning phase. They also found it helpful to pursue
thematic planning in such a way as to establish some concordance with the
tasks outlined in the curriculum plan. Our experiences additionally suggest
that educators who work harder to bring together the children’s ideas and to
coordinate them with cultural areas ultimately have fewer problems with curriculum coordination.
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However, for some educators, achieving coordination with the
school curriculum posed the greatest difficulty in implementing the Naturbild
approach. They particularly emphasized this fact. They also stated that the
Romanian curriculum affords no additional space for project work beyond
two to three projects per school year. Other educators presented the situation
in a less critical light. In any case, both groups of teachers generally agreed
that the traditional lesson plan needed to be supplanted by an effective implementation of novel forms of learning.
Figure 22: Does everything dissolve in water? Figure 23: Holes in the water
Figure 24: Individual opinions about the water solubility of substances
Establishing the study of natural phenomena as an elective subject (in a onehour course, for example) represents another possible option for coordination
with the existing curriculum. This elective course could offer the various
forms of activity covered in the Naturbild project. Experimentation and
craftwork would in particular generate interest in such an approach. Classroom education directed by traditional lesson plans would also benefit from
the effective promotion of the children’s attitudes toward active engagement.
Ideally, elective subjects would not be placed under any time constraints. The
children’s activity, reflection, and theory creation would occupy the center of
attention.
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What do educators and children think about the project?
Alongside documentation about the projects that were undertaken, other important sources for our analysis included the educators’ reflections, their reports about project activities, and feedback from the children. We examined
the educators’ reflections from two perspectives: a) the feasibility of the
“Naturbild” approach, and b) difficulties in its implementation. We used two
procedures for data collection: questionnaires and group discussions in which
the project was evaluated.
The findings from the questionnaire survey and the group discussions clearly and unequivocally reveal that the educators came to recognize
the definite advantages of project work as a result of implementing the
Naturbild approach. They especially stressed the following elements: the importance and the value of a project initiative coming from the children; opportunities for observation (64.5%); fostering theory formation by the children (48.3%); the importance of children’s reflections (41.9%); and the combination of personal and joint experiences (38.7%). The responses also show
quite clearly that educators who relied exclusively on their prior ideas about
projects and their application paid primary attention to the following elements: preparing a theme; involving parents; preparing products; getting materials ready; and integrating all cultural elements. In the face of this concentration on the teacher’s own activities and perspectives, statements about the
self-activity of the children retreated to the background.
The implementation of the Naturbild approach and its continuing
education program resulted in a positive change in teachers’ attitudes. Following their participation in the continuing education program, teachers paid
more attention to the processes of knowledge formation in children. They
became more open to taking children’s initiatives, theory building, interpretations, and reflections into account in studying natural phenomena. The educators now grasped the importance of promoting the development of children’s
knowledge of the world as a self-active process, sustained by the child’s own
activity, curiosity, intrinsic motivation, and the self-organization of their own
learning; educators now understood the need to foster children’s personality
development in joint activities for co-constructive learning and knowledge
acquisition.
In connection with all of these factors, we asked the educators for
their opinion about which frameworks and in what areas the children’s own
learning activities would be possible using the project method. Of the individuals surveyed, 87.5% confirmed that children will engage in those themes
and activities that offer them an opportunity for self-response. They were
asked to rate the importance of connecting learning with, on the one hand, the
formulation of questions and, on the other hand, the principle of children’s
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self-organization of learning on a rating scale from 1 to 5. Their responses
yielded values of 4.12 (formulation of questions) and 4.7 (self-organization).
This indicates that the educators did not identify with the principle of selforganization in every case. In these cases, they motivate the children to participate in various activities that speak to the children (5.0). This high number
demonstrates, among other things, that the children are encouraged to go beyond formulating problems, to engage in theory building and an active pursuit of discovery.
All of the kindergarten educators were of the opinion that projects
can be implemented with kindergarten children and are well adapted for the
educational mission of the kindergarten. They showed readiness to undertake
projects and emphasized that projects would also be an appropriate format for
exploring other themes. The projects they proposed included: the seasons,
animals, automobiles, the city, holidays, and plants and animals in the forest
or the garden, among others.
Feedback from the grade school teachers and students was also quite positive
with regard to the effectiveness of thematic work and the applicability of
elements of the Naturbild approach in schools. They considered these ways
of working and developing new knowledge as interesting “adventures.”
However, they did not endorse the applicability of project work for other
situations and the generalization of the project approach to the same degree
as the kindergarten teachers. As previously indicated, this resistance was
primarily related to the difficulties in coordinating project work with the formal requirements of the existing curriculum.
The participating educators not only conceptualized Naturbild’s
multi-perspectival approach as an effective form of learning, but also as an
opportunity to place activities at the center of learning. It is worth noting that
in their projects reports, even though these dealt with a specific theme (water
and air), the educators wrote primarily about possibilities for applying the
methods and about the general approach. This suggests there are possibilities
for translating and expanding the Naturbild approach. In addition, the fact
that all participants saw the “air and water” project as a positive and powerful
experience also contributed to making the approach well-received. “It was
very good … especially for the children … but, of course, for us as well.” In
addition to the involvement of the children and the educators, we should also
give credit to the parents’ contributions. All of these elements contributed to
the children’s excitement and the fulfillment of their expectations (excursions,
visits, etc.). “The parents helped a lot. They went out to the waterfall in
Varság and welcomed us with tables set with food; one parent helped us to
visit the water purification facility…”
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Among the educators, 29% cited no particular difficulties in implementing
the Naturbild approach. However, based upon the group discussions and the
project implementation, it is possible to identify two difficulties. One difficulty related to material support (22.5%). The educators reported that more
materials are required for promoting children’s independent activities than for
more traditional kinds of work. However, the expenses for purchasing materials may be minimized by skillful project organization. One interlocutor put
it this way, “… it was clear to me that preparation of materials is not (just)
my job. I learned that this task has to be divided. The children cheerfully volunteer for these tasks. So, who has which jobs? Who can contribute and in
what way?”
The second difficulty was the difficulty in overcoming traditional
perspectives about learning. It wasn’t easy and required considerable effort to
become comfortable with the concept of project-type learning. Everyday routines and habits had to be left behind. Yet the children provided early affirmation, and this was also noted in the reflections. Engaging with the children’s initiatives and theories, basing the acquisition of new learning on children’s independent reflections – these activities required conceptual shifts
that could not be accomplished from one day to the next. The teachers need
time to develop the necessary positive attitude toward the project approach.
Educators are accustomed to simply answer children’s questions. Giving ageappropriate answers and explanations is a fundamental element of their selfconcept as educators and also an evaluation standard for the professionalism
of their training. Traditionally, good and bad teachers could be distinguished
based upon their ability to answer children’s questions in an age-appropriate
fashion. This background expectation may well underlie the problems we
cited earlier about coordination with the learning plan (16.1%). The traditional method seems to require less time. Increasing children’s fund of
knowledge through targeted questions and answers promotes the illusion of
being able to accelerate their learning. But such learning success is shortlived and superficial. Children need time. True, lasting knowledge and understanding can only develop where children are able to travel along their own
paths and detours, and are permitted to construct their learning in a self-active
and subjective way. Many educators find it difficult to break with traditional
educational methods and are filled with anxiety. Challenging the child to be a
subject in his/her own learning process still seems strange to them. Yet experiences of success help confirm the value of the transformation: “I was a
bit fearful, and I thought I would regret it. Fortunately, everything went well.
For the children … and naturally, for me as well, it was a great experience.
Now, I am glad and thankful that I was able to participate.”
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Only a few educators brought up the problem of paying attention to
all the children and constantly adjusting the process with them (9.6%). However, they did acknowledge that this takes great effort, especially with larger
groups of children (more than 27–28 children per group). The ability to encourage and validate the child’s individual initiative is affected by group size.
In addition, involvement of (mostly passive) parents in project work is not
without its own problems for the educators, even if they are grateful for the
help and support. Finally, for some of the educators (6.4%), the two-week
time frames set for projects posed a problem. However, none of the conditions for project organization were set in a mandatory way, and if circumstances demanded, they could be modified. This also applied to the time
frame. The problems that were presented would appear to be far less substantial than the possibilities opened up by project work. The positive opinions
about projects presented in the group discussions and in responses to the
questionnaires point consistently to the idea that all of the problems raised
about implementing the Naturbild approach are surmountable.
In our conversations with almost one-hundred children we concentrated on
hearing their own assessment of their learning activity. With regard to evaluating the pedagogic strategy in the Naturbild project, we were primarily interested in the question of favorable learning conditions and the motivation
for learning. We asked children questions such as, “Why is project work
more interesting for you than your ordinary classroom learning?” The goal
of the conversations was to stimulate the children’s reflections about their
experiences in the “water and air” projects. Some of the children’s statements
coincided with the educators’ perspectives. However, they also said things
that articulated a divergent opinion. Such statements turned out to be especially meaningful for our ongoing development of the approach, since they
provided clues as to how successful the children’s involvement in the process
had been. The children’s responses validated the multi-perspectival activities
and points of access as structural elements of the projects. Indeed, it was
these very elements that created a basis for reflection.
Children were surveyed at more than ten institutions (kindergartens
and grade schools). We asked about the children’s understanding of the project method, the content of the water and air projects, and strategies for
knowledge acquisition in similar ways. What did you learn about this in the
project? How did you learn about it? Did you learn something new? Both
with respect to contents and the project method, we were particularly interested in their reflections about their own learning process. The children’s
metacognition about their own learning process turned into a critical criterion
for evaluating the Naturbild approach. However, only a few children were
truly capable of providing such metacognitions. Still, we were able to collect
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a sufficient database from their emotional assessments and their reflections
about the knowledge they had gained.
From these reflections, we have selected some examples to present
that contain the children’s emotional opinions about the project. Here are the
examples:
(9) “It was different for me, because the rest of the time, we just sit there
and watch, but this time, we could get up and walk around.”
(10) “It was better than classroom work, because we got to learn more
about the sciences.”
(11) “…because we didn’t have to write or read and because we got to
study about different subjects.”
(12) “I really liked it, because we made paper frogs, and saw movies, and
got to go swimming.”
(13) “The best thing was that we didn’t have to do any homework.”
(14) “ I liked it because we didn’t have to sit for so long, and instead got to
go on excursions.”
With the exception of examples
12 and 14, we selected evaluations that were typical of the
evaluations we received from
more than 100 children. The
children referred to the project
activities (craftwork, aesthetic
Figure 25: Playing with a toy we
education, everyday activities),
made ourselves.
listed them and compared them.
However, example (10) refers back to a content aspect by mentioning the
sciences.
Especially with regard to the kindergarten children, it was important
to live out their need for movement (9; 14). Since the project gave preference
to open forms of work over customary classroom teaching, it was particularly
effective at meeting these children’s expectations. Instead of sitting still, listening, and working passive-receptively, the children could wander around
and seek first-hand experiences. Their joy about the absence of homework
(13) contradicts the experience that the children were interested in reporting
about their active participation in the learning process. Homework belongs to
a traditional learning culture based upon obligations and coercion. By con-
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trast, the Naturbild approach encourages self-activity, including individual
initiative and self-organization.
Figure 26: Getting acquainted with water is a wonderful experience.
Statement (12) relates to the principle of multifaceted consideration and the
integration of these perspectives. Instead of reading and writing and “other
things like that,” activities are emphasized that seek direct access to realities,
and, by so doing, they can offer more than the sum of the parts of traditional
disciplines.
A second major theme in the conversations with the children related
specifically to the ways in which children were able to understand natural
phenomena and the mental constructs and interpretations they used to organize their experiences. Here are a few examples:
(15) “The needle didn’t fall into the glass filled with water, because the
water was covered by a protective layer.”
(16) “The radius of the water is larger in the lower part of the bottle, because there is more water in the lower part.”
(17) “I would like to find out how cold the water is under the ice.”
(18) “If we drink less water, we dry out and die sooner.”
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Figure 27 and 28: Joint learning through experimentation
The surface tension of the water is identified as a protective layer holding the
needle on the surface (15). Statement (16) is related, and links space and time
to each other; the child believes that the reason there is more water in the
lower part of the bottle is because this volume of water “flows later” than the
water in the upper part of the bottle: “The strength is in the volume.” Statement (18) is also telling the case story of a dried out plant. The child is using
a metaphor as a way of grasping an objective reality. Statement (17) questions an event that is difficult to comprehend, and even paradoxical: “How
can it be that the water under the ice is colder than the ice itself?” If it weren’t
so, then this water would also turn to ice. Indeed, the water is located under
the ice layer. These might well be the thoughts the child is having as he
speaks. We can detect a personality inside the child that is curious and pursues self-active inquiry and who may well show a similar interest in the
world as an adult. That is precisely what we need!
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Figure 29 and 30: Does the air have mass, too?
The child wishes to get to know the world, to discover it and to have an impact upon it. We also want to make use of this natural urge as part of formal
learning procedures. We have reported above about aspects of engagement
with natural phenomena, including possible content and themes for this engagement. We would seem to have adequately demonstrated that the method
of project work is efficient and realizable for teaching this content. The children’s feedback shows that this represents an effective alternative to traditional classroom teaching that can be implemented in schools and kindergartens, which unites children and adults in the processes of collective problemsolving.
Literature
Barabási Tünde (2010): A projektmódszer elmélete és értelmezés/alkalmazási változatai az
óvodában és a kisiskolai fejlesztésben. Erdélyi Pszichológiai Szemle, megjelenés alatt. (The
Theory of the Project Method and Variants of Analysis and Application in the Development of
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Falus Iván (1993): Bevezetés a pedagógiai kutatás módszertanába (Introduction to the Study of
Methods in Pegagogical Research). OPSZ Kiadó: Budapest, Hungary.
Fischer, Hans-Joachim/Hegedűs, Gábor (ed.) (2009): Természet és technika a gyermekkorban
(Nature and Technology in Childhood). Egyetemi Kiadó: Kolozsvár, Romania.
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Chapter 8: Recognizing and Understanding Nature
Education as a Social Process
(Hans-Joachim Fischer)
Through play, children not only interact with the phenomena of air and water,
but also with the ways in which other children approach play. The same is
true with respect to constructive arts and crafts, the exploration of patterns of
daily life, improvisational movement and aesthetic gesture, and the verbal
interpretation of phenomena. Through the ideas, responses, cooperative pursuits (cf. Völkel 2002), and craftwork associated with these activities, child
interaction with natural phenomena is significantly facilitated. Moreover, the
actions and deliberations by children that are occurring in physical space also
carry over into social space, where they seek out and find affinity and resonance. These actions and deliberations establish contact and relationships
with other lives; to other topics, interpretations, interests, and priorities; to
other perceptions, feelings, and emotions; and to other activities and observations. The Self finds a mirror not only in natural space but also in social
space, where it comes to know and reflect upon itself. Nature education,
socialization, and the development of selfhood are, therefore, inseparable
from one another and operate reciprocally.
This chapter is devoted to the social dimension of childhood interaction
with natural phenomena. It poses the following core questions: Which
stimuli result from interaction with natural phenomena through the social
spaces of communication and interaction? And to what degree can nature
education therefore be understood as a process of social education?
To this end, the following chapter will present two key scenes collected during video-based ethnographic research. The scenes are subjected in the following to microanalysis via free interpretation. Our interpretations have been
evaluated intersubjectively in discussions with experts. 1 Crucial in selecting
the scenes was the need to take into account both nonverbal-actional as well
as verbal-deliberative forms of interaction. 2 The scenes are microanalytically
subdivided into sequences that are individually described and interpreted.
Perspectives are subsequently derived that have relevance for the questions
posed above. Our focus is heuristic and explorative. Thus, the analysis may
1
See e.g. Chap. 1
For this reason, video documentation of children under the age of 4 (two-year-olds) was employed in one instance. In actuality, it turned out during the course of the project that it was
neither possible nor practical to limit the project to children between the ages of 4 and 8. Older
and younger children were also taken into consideration, even though the focus remained on the
stated age group.
2
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reveal insights overlooked by current theories and models of social interaction and communication (cf. Watzlawik/Beavin/Jackson 2002; Schulz von
Thun 1981; Schülein 1989). The case-analysis approach also makes it possible to pursue a practical aim in research and application – namely, to recognize and understand the social implications of childhood educational processes and to apply these to strengthening nature education for children.
“Mine!”
A mat lies on the floor in a kindergarten activity room – a mat large enough
for a group of children. In front of the mat, facing the wall, is a second,
thicker mat. On the wall are climbing studs. To one side is a large mirror.
Scattered around the room are building blocks, mats, and large geometric
shapes made of foam rubber. Two young boys are active in the background.
Sitting on the mat in the foreground are: Melissa (2;1), Melina (2;5), and
Leonie (2;5). They are standing next to each other facing the wall. The camera is filming them diagonally from the front.
Sequence 1: Melissa holds a large inflated balloon in both hands in front of
her chest. To her right, Melina, who is also holding a balloon, and Leonie,
the only one without a balloon, are both standing up. Melissa looks to one
side and catches Leonie looking back at her. Once the girls are standing,
Melissa begins hopping. As if on command, the other two start hopping
too. All of them are facing the wall. Melissa hops one last time while
throwing her arms up, still holding the balloon, then falls forward onto the
thick mat. She smiles at the camera held by the teacher. Leonie hops a few
more times, slows her momentum, and topples over lazily onto the mat.
Melissa and Leonie look at each other lying on the floor. Melina, who
stopped after her third hop, looked into the camera, and watched as Melissa
fell, is working at her nose. She turns to one side, wipes off her nose and
finger, and starts hopping again while the other two get up from where they
had been lying.
Resonance: The soft, flexible mat, which sinks in and absorbs every footfall,
is perfect for jumping around on and falling down onto. When the children
hop, they escalate and intensify the effect. The mat sinks in deeper and propels them upwards, allowing them to jump higher. The children can sense
their weight when they fall and their lightness when they hop. The whole
room seems to fall when they hop up and to rise when they descend. This
sensation is explored and participated in rhythmically. The rhythm has its
own supporting quality as part of the movement. It lends the movement a
measurable quantity, pulse, a consistency, and a repetition. The movement is
rhythmically transferred into the mat and into the room, drawing in perceptions and sensations that it can enjoy and indulge in. With each successive
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leap, sensations reach demonstratively further outward, seeking after new
impressions, more pleasure. A cycle of resonance develops in which the
children can explore their own motor and sensory perceptions obtained
through the room and the mat. They explore inwardly through external action.
Two of the children hold balloons, which actually work to hinder
movement. But they are large and squishy enough to cushion a fall. Plus, they
are – perhaps surprisingly, as far as the children are concerned – light enough
to travel upwards with each hop. Besides, they’re simply there for the taking.
The rhythm, the mat, the room, and the balloons do not make the movement
continue endlessly. Movement is achieved over time and increases right at
the end just prior to the fall onto the mat. Sequence 1 demonstrates such a
cycle.
Melissa hops differently than Leonie. With each hop she applies all
her strength to leap ever higher. Her whole body is straining with the effort,
the balloon jerks downward in her hands, as if she were about to leap over it.
Leonie, on the other hand, does not put her whole body into each hop. She
hops only with her legs so that her arms and torso are not as tensed up with
effort and are therefore more relaxed and looser, allowing her to pay more
attention to each hop and giving herself a little more momentum at just the
right moment.
Melissa waits on the other children before starting to hop. When she
hops, the others do as well. Since all of them are hopping, with all of them
engaged in the same movement, the same sensation, the movement and sensation that each experiences is increased and intensified. The hopping of each
is echoed in the hopping of the others, in the concert of hopping together,
keeping the whole in motion. The physical cycle of resonance can only be
maintained if it is embedded in a social cycle of resonance operating through
the activity – and vice versa. What the children experience thereby is an inseparable mix of physical and social qualities. The hop of one child involves
the hop of another. One child’s fall is felt by the other child. The vibrations in
the mat, the sounds in the room transmit the communicatively aligned
movements of all the children. The children hop and fall down together, or
before or after one another. They become aware of themselves inwardly
through external simultaneous movement and in the movements of the others.
Through their glances at each other, Melissa and Leonie engage with their
shared experience via a moment of shared reflection.
Every child hops in his or her own particular way. Melina interrupts
her own movement, but her gaze remains focused on what’s going on, which
she rejoins a short time later. Melissa falls down sooner than Leonie, who
continues hopping a little while longer. But the common element of movement is strong enough to link together the whole of the proceeding. There are
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periods of consolidation and concentration and others in which the activities
no longer occur simultaneously.
Sequence 2: Melissa stands up with legs apart, her gaze directed to one
side at Leonie and starts hopping again close beside Melina. Melina stops
moving, stretches out her arm and emphatically pushes Melissa to one side,
saying “Go away!” Melissa, whose hopping has been interrupted, sheepishly takes small steps in place, rocking her body back and forth. For a
moment, the two children stand motionless while looking at each other
crossly and in silence. Melissa then turns away and begins hopping again.
Melina continues to stand there, her gaze fixed on Melissa. She eventually
sits down awkwardly, still holding the balloon in her hands. Melissa stops
hopping, turns, and throws her balloon at Melina.
Dissonance: Melissa is focused on Leonie, so she does not notice that she has
gotten too close to Melina. As much as Melina tries to have her own movements accord with those of the others by hopping together with or behind
them while holding the balloon in front of her, as Melissa does, and as much
as she complicates her own movements by letting the large, cumbersome
balloon bounce along with her, there still remains a critical distance that she
seeks to maintain between her own movements and those of the others. If one
child gets too close to another, the quality of the social space is altered. The
other child’s movements, which just a moment before had been elicited,
cultivated, encouraged, shared in, and reinforced, and which thereby intensified the first child’s experience of her own movements, suddenly interfere
with those movements, turn too insistent, get in the way of the first child,
causing her to founder. Thus resonance becomes dissonance. This dissonance
brings the movements of both children to a stop. Melina pushes Melissa
aside, but she is not able to hop into the free space this opens up for her and
she instead sits down.
While Melina wants to open up more space for herself, Melissa
wants to assert a claim to her own space. She refuses to concede an inch. Her
steps, her body movements remain planted to one spot, as if she were trying
to fend off an attack. The exchange of defiant looks causes both children to
freeze up in motionlessness. Melissa is able to break away for a short time in
order to return to the rhythm and cycle of resonance produced by hopping.
But nothing in social space still resonates and supports her movement and
instead inhibits, weakens, and drives it away. The balloon that she throws at
Melina bears her feelings of confinement, the frustration of her movement,
and is an expression and a gesture of an external and inner blockage of
movement and emotion that releases itself in the form of anger.
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Sequence 3: The balloon bounces to Leonie, who now holds one of her
own balloons, albeit a smaller one, in her hand. Melissa leaps after her
balloon. Leonie sees the balloon coming and tosses her small one aside.
She bends over to catch Melissa’s balloon, which has landed at her feet.
Melissa gets there just in time to prevent her from taking it. Both children
stand now face to face – Leonie stands with empty hands and pursed lips
while Melissa, who has turned away sideways with her rescued balloon,
putting some distance between herself and Leonie, turns her head and face
directly at Leonie and says, “Mine.” “Mine,” Leonie replies, slightly
louder, then extracts herself from the confrontation and kicks at the mat.
“Mine!” Melissa yells assertively, leaning her whole body toward Leonie
while pressing the balloon to her chest. Leonie does not look at Melissa,
throws her arms into the air and falls onto the mat. Melissa bites into her
balloon once, then twice.
Confrontation: The balloon was tossed into the social space as a gesture, but
physically, it quickly leaves this space. Perhaps that is why Leonie hopped
without a balloon – because hers is so small. In any event, she does not hesitate to exchange it when the larger one comes toward her. At that point, the
balloon lands back in social space, leading to confrontation. When Melissa
snatches the balloon away, she seems to be rescuing a part of her self.
The balloon is not an extrinsic object freely disposable in all types of
spaces. It is not released into social space, passed on for other children to
play with. It is also not sent on a trial run into physical space in order to see
what it will do there. The children do not disengage from the balloon in order
to deal with it as a conceptual abstraction, to objectify it. The balloon is a part
of Melissa, which she holds tightly to her chest. It is constantly a part of her
movement, both while she is hopping and when she falls – as well as in her
gesture of liberation.
Melissa would not merely lose the balloon if Leonie were to take
control of it; she would directly suffer loss herself. The central issue here
relates to the extrinsic quality that increases the intrinsic value of the balloon.
Social space is locked in confrontation as the children face off against each
other. And this time it is not merely movement but the Self that is at stake.
“Mine!” In much the same manner in which the balloon was thrown at her,
Melissa now “hurls” a word at Leonie. It comes from a Self that perceives
itself to be under threat and seeks to rescue itself and to fend off further encroachments. Leonie hurls back her “Mine” even though she has already
given up trying to get the balloon. Instead of battling with Melissa over the
balloon, she attacks the mat. Without a balloon, her “Mine” is an attempt to
extend the confrontation and thereby preserve her Selfhood. But Melissa’s
resistance is too strong. Leonie yields, her resolve evaporates. Her hands and
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body flee from confrontation. Meanwhile, Melissa remains emotionally in an
attack mode, expressed by biting into the balloon.
Sequence 4: Melissa is distracted by Melina, who gets up with some difficulty, holding her balloon close to her chest. Melina fixes her gaze at
Melissa, then at her balloon and says, “Mine.” Leonie, who is now standing again and holding her small balloon in her hands, directs her attention
at Melina. Melissa also focuses her gaze at Melina while she sits down on
the higher mat. Melina starts hopping. Melissa, who was just about to bite
into her balloon again, stands up and starts hopping too. Leonie stands for a
short time, facing away, and presses her small balloon closer to her chest.
Then she turns to Melissa, who is hopping very near to her, and, holding
her balloon tightly, announces, “Mine!” Melissa continues to hop, responding loudly with her own “Mine!” Leonie looks at her balloon, fingers it,
and stretches it out toward Melissa, saying “Mine.” Melissa, still hopping,
replies even more insistently: “Mine!” Leonie hesitates, then turns in the
same direction as Melissa and hops along beside her. Melina, who had
momentarily stopped hopping in order to observe attentively what was
going on, joins in again with the others. Leonie hops for just a short time,
then pauses, staring directly ahead. She drops her arms, letting the balloon
dangle in her hands.
Self-assertion: The force with which Melissa’s and Leonie’s respective
“Mines” collided echoes in social space. This gives Melina cause and opportunity to bring her Self and her balloon into position. She positions herself
across from Melissa, whom she had previously bumped into. It is perhaps
significant that her balloon is the same size as Melissa’s. In any case, she
does not gaze enviously at Melissa’s balloon but at her own when she says
“Mine.” This alters the focus of the confrontation. It is no longer about attack
or defense. It is now about maintaining a claim to her own balloon, about
asserting what is her own, staking out a place for her own Self in social
space. The Other is not repelled but instead placed in relation to what is her
own. Through what is her own she sets limits on what is the Other. By contrasting the Other with their own, and with themselves, the children are
struggling to assure themselves of their own Selfhood. Only the one who can
assert Selfhood truly exists. Through confrontation, through the vis-à-vis of
resistance to the Other, the children are able to gain a sense of their own
Selfhood. The resistance expressed in the cry “Mine” reflects individual
power, one’s own power of resistance. Self-awareness is completed through
the “Mine” delivered in reaction. One’s own resistance and that emanating
from the Other take each other’s measure and validate each other dialogically
in a back-and-forth that produces increasing certainty each time. Selfrealization and realization of what is the Other are inextricably interwoven.
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Leonie continues the dialogue with Melissa that Melina began. First Leonie
takes her balloon and presses it tightly to herself as if needing to assure herself of her own “Mine.” In any event, the children use their balloons to present themselves and perhaps also to reassure themselves of their own Selfhood. The Self not only reflects back the social context, it also perceives
objects sensually. In the face of Melissa’s forceful “Mine,” Leonie at first
pauses and touches her balloon and then holds it out, using it to confront
Melissa with her own Selfhood. The children are only able to find a place for
themselves in social space, and thereby achieve a sense of Selfhood, by referencing themselves in physical space and localizing themselves within it.
The confrontation between the children is precarious, because it involves a
risk of becoming self-perpetuating. This accounts for the tension between the
children. They all repeatedly abandon their hopping: Melissa and Melina
(who is more an observer) and especially Leonie, who clearly has to get a
grip on herself after twice enduring Melissa’s attacks.
And yet their confrontation also provides an opportunity for the Self
to gain a better sense of itself. It offers the children the exhilarating and rewarding experience (even if the reward is by no means certain or without
anxiety) of asserting themselves, of withstanding the verbal assault from the
Other while asserting a verbal response. And in the course of this phase, the
children are able to find a way back to the concerted rhythm of hopping.
Their relative standings mutually stabilize one another in social space so that
things may now return to the way they were before. Both the resistance and
resonance coming from the Other serve as the media of self-awareness. One’s
own movement is supported and intensified, but also halted and limited.
Clearly, the resumption of concerted movement serves to mitigate the precarious tension brought about by confrontation. 3
Sequence 6: Melissa chews on her balloon, producing a squeaking noise,
while looking over at Leonie. Leonie is now squatting on the mat, turned
sideways to Melissa. She makes a motion with her hand in Melissa’s direction while holding the balloon by the tail, saying “Mine” loudly and distinctly with a serious look in her eye. Melissa counters with her own
“Mine.” She stands firm, grasping tightly to the balloon. Melina is seated
3
The 5th Sequence was not included as part of the study and is described as follows :
Sequence 5: Two boys come up just as Melina hops and tumbles onto the mat. One of the
boys bumps against Leonie, causing her to fall. The boys start hopping, too, then drop down
onto the mat so that, for a moment, all five children are lying closely side-by-side on the mat.
Melina presses her face onto the balloon. Then one of the boys moves off elsewhere. Melissa
stands up while Melina and Leonie are still focused on the boy left lying between them..
“Wanna hop too,” he says, then stands up and follows the other boy.
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between the two girls, her head turning back and forth between the two.
“Mine,” Leonie shouts back. And once again a series of “Mines” are exchanged back and forth until Melina finally stands up and asserts her own
claim of “Mine.” She turns to Melissa, who is about to let go with another
“Mine” but which, as a consequence of the interruption, comes out weakly.
Melissa starts hopping while Leonie calls out more loudly, taking one leg
out of the crouching position. Melissa’s initially loud answer is diminished
somewhat by her hopping. Melina inserts herself somewhat hesitantly into
the midst of things again: “Mine.” For a moment it appears as if Melissa is
about to throw her balloon at her opponent once more. Leonie shouts at a
high pitch. Melissa replies with all her might, screaming and hopping.
Shouts of “Mine” go back and forth while Melina observes from between
the two, hopping, and smiling. Leonie shouts again. Melissa stops what
she’s doing, crouches down and shouts back. Leonie smiles. Melina cries
out “Mine” again. For a moment the children stop to catch their breath
while Melissa presses down on her balloon and rolls it around. Leonie
holds the balloon in front of her face, smiling coyly and preparing to let
loose with another shout. As if she needed to make a running start at it, she
spins around and casts a smiling glance at Melissa: “Ouch!” Melissa waits
while Melina laughs and then cries out “Ouch” in return. Leonie’s smile
blossoms. Her next “Ouch!” sounds joyously exuberant and receives a
modest echo from Melissa. Yet another “Ouch” from Leonie, to which
Melissa, leaning forward, responds with “Mine.” “You,” Leonie replies
good-naturedly, fiddles with the balloon, and throws herself onto the mat
with a shout.
Intensification and resolution: The confrontation in social space continues.
Leonie continues the unfinished exchange of shouts: “Mine.” She knows how
Melissa will respond and how she can reply in kind. She still has a serious
look on her face, the situation is still fraught with tension and risk, with Selfhood still at stake. But what occurs next is both predictable and expected, and
can even be provoked. This is why Leonie, unlike Melissa, need not make
every effort or assume every risk. She can continue to squat on the floor,
turned to one side, simply holding the balloon loosely in her hands. She does
not intend to exert pressure on Melissa, and yet she does want to show her
own colors and thereby defy Melissa. She senses that Melissa cannot give in,
that she is mobilizing all her effort to assert herself. When Melissa begins
hopping in the midst of the ongoing confrontation, she is no longer seeking
resonance, she is no longer trying to bond with the other children. Instead,
she rears up, making herself large and invincible. It is as if she wants to have
her shouts hop with her, applying her whole body with force and intensity. It
is as if she affirms herself by hopping, while remaining in close contact with
the balloon, which serves as a means of defending her own “Mine.” She
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almost falls down while carrying out this gesture of liberation. And in fact
she does end up bumping up against two other children, first against Leonie,
who does not cease defying her, and against Melina, who had forced her
aside and now also seeks to assert her own claims of “Mine.”
By now, Melissa’s and Leonie’s places in the social space are set.
The “Mines” that have traveled back and forth have confirmed and stabilized
the situation. Melina is pushed to one side somewhat by this dynamic. Her
attempts to establish a place for herself are not truly successful.
When Melissa starts hopping, Leonie amplifies her shouting. The
equilibrium that had settled in with respect to their mutual standings in social
space is once again thrown out of balance. Each side puts increasing stress on
its own shouting in order to shift the balance in its favor. The children put
their utmost into asserting themselves, into measuring themselves against
each other. Only once they have taken this measure do they realize that they
are not really threatened. Selfhood remains intact; it cannot be overrun or
shouted down. The situation shifts just as the confrontation reaches its climax. The tension is allowed to dissipate. Though the children continue to
shout, their shouts are neutralized by smiles. Melissa no longer feels the need
to hop and squats down instead. Melina absorbs the new atmosphere with a
sympathetic smile, resuming the carefree hopping from before. And even
though she hauls off with a shout that tops all others, her effort is a playful
put-on. The earnestness and tension of self-assertion has turned into play and
resolution. A playful word (“Ouch”) slips in to replace the more pugnacious
“Mine.” In the end, Leonie disengages from self-assertion and returns to the
familiar, saying “You.” During the course of this testing of boundaries, not
only the “I” but also the “You” were put to the test and repositioned. Each is
passed back to the other with a reconciliatory smile. With the “Mine” phase
now concluded, “You” can reassert itself. And in fact, the development of a
proper “You” can only occur where a “Mine” exists.
Sequence 7: While Leonie shouts repeatedly, Melissa and Melina gradually
crawl up to her. Melissa rolls around on top of her balloon, watching as
Leonie and Melina take their balloons over to the mirror. Melina turns
around and jumps off of the high mat while Leonie pins her balloon between her face and the mirror, rolling her face back and forth over the
balloon. She lets herself drop back onto the mat, lets go of the balloon,
picks it up again and tosses it into the space behind a large wedge-shaped
piece of foam rubber. She falls onto her back, turns on one side and sits up.
Melina squats next to her and says “Mine” with a smile. Leonie turns
sideways with a shout. Before that, Melissa slides off of her balloon and
yells so loudly that Leonie puts her hands over her ears. The other two girls
look at Melissa with rapt attention. Leonie laughs, her hands still clapped
over her ears. “Oh Melissa, you can yell really loud,” the teacher says.
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Melissa looks at her sheepishly, turning the balloon with her arms. When it
bounces over to Leonie, Melissa retrieves it. Leonie makes no effort to
grab it and turns away to one side.
Lingering resonance: A testing of boundaries in which the Self must mobilize all of its energies in battle with another Self can leave a child completely
preoccupied with trying to find its composure. The animation of battle that
stirred up emotions has not yet faded away. Actions are now undirected.
Released from confrontation, the impulses for activity discharge themselves
into physical space. Melissa rolls around on her balloon. Leonie presses her
face into the balloon. The just contested Self presses itself once more into the
balloon, seeking certainty and comfort. But Leonie, visibly exhausted from
the effort of the confrontation, tosses the balloon away in the end. When
Melina, the only one who did not become engaged in battle, tries once again
to resurrect the topic of “Mine,” Leonie can only turn away screaming. The
extent to which Melissa is still caught up in the emotions of struggle is demonstrated by her final shout, which rises to the level of the intolerable. Leonie
covers her ears, but she smiles. The shout no longer bothers her. Perhaps she
hears herself shouting, an echo of her own feelings and emotions. And it is
certain that in the shout she encounters the “You” that she only just now
found and accepted in direct proximity to her “I.”
Pipeline
A group of children are outside on an open lot at a kindergarten. Sitting next
to one of the building’s walls, not far from a sandbox, are two tubs, one of
which is filled with water – along with with a barrel, out of which protrude
plastic pipes in various lengths and shapes. Various containers, shovels, and
molded shapes are lying around in the sandbox. A teacher films the scene (35
minutes) while also occasionally speaking with the children. During the
course of this scene, a group of children, ages 5 and 6, manage to assemble a
pipeline running from one of the tubs across to the middle of the sandbox.
We have selected from this scene three sequences, concentrating on four boys
and one girl, who are the main actors in the events that follow. The children
are: Fabian, David, Diyar, Marc, and, later, Minja. Nearby are several
younger children who watch what is going on, come over briefly, and then
move on again. They are not taken into consideration in what follows.
Sequence 1: (00:00) David uses both hands to carry a pipe over to the
water barrel, where another pipe is located. He first tries in vain to fit the
two pipes together, then turns one of the pipes around so that its narrow
end fits into the sleeve-end of the other pipe. “What are you doing?” Diyar
calls out from behind. David looks at him briefly while trying to fit the
pipes together more snugly. “Can I do it too?” Diyar asks, grabbing a pipe
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and taking it to the water barrel. He sticks the pipe into the barrel, looks in
the top end, then impatiently rams it twice into the bottom. “What can you
do with it?” “Build something,” replies David, who has in the meantime
added on a shorter piece of pipe after having first tried out a longer piece.
He leans the pipes he’s stuck together against the lip of the barrel, points to
the upper end, and says, “Put it on that end.” He grabs Diyar’s pipe resolutely, though Diyar doesn’t let it go, and pulls it out of the water, “Put it
here!” “Okay.” Diyar stands David’s length of tubing upright and tries to
put his piece of pipe on the upper end. “That’s not how it goes; that won’t
work,” David says and takes a hold of the pipes with both hands to fit them
together. “That’s the right way,” he says as he fits the two pipes together.
David’s spontaneous laughter is picked up by Diyar. “Should we use it
all?” Diyar asks while he walks around David to get another segment of
pipe from the barrel. “Oh yeah, we need all of it,” David says, smiling,
while holding the whole of what he’s assembled sideways and trying to
keep it steady. When Diyar attempts to add the next segment of pipe,
David says “Wait!” “Woah!” Diyar responds, as David lifts up the whole
thing, which now rises far above the children’s heads. Fabian runs up from
one side: “What are you making?” “A pipeline,” says David, who carefully
lays the long length of tubing down across the top of one of the tubs so that
one end is in the water and the other end bends down slightly, curving over
and sticking out past one side of the other tub. The other children are standing around watching and commenting on what’s going on: “Oh, what are
they doing?” “They’re making a drinking fountain.” “That’s a good waterfall,” says David as he walks the length of the pipeline, inspecting it with a
smile. “Yeah, OK, good.” Marc comes over, attracted by the long length of
tubing. He comes up and takes a look at the pipeline. David pushes the
back end of the pipe deeper into the water so that it lifts up at the other end,
then he inspects their handiwork, together with Fabian and Diyar, who’re
both now busy at the water tub. Diyar points to the other end, which is now
touching the ground: “When that’s full of water, then it’ll come out over
there at the other end.” (01:07)
David is the first to discover the plastic tubing. Immediately upon plunging
the first pipe into the water-filled tub, he is establishing a sensory link: the
tubes are there for transporting water. His very first actions bore the intention
of drawing water from the tub. His second action involved taking a second
segment of pipe and joining it to the first. The action is prefigured in the
pipes themselves. They can be joined together, even though David may not
fully understand how they connect, nor is he able to accomplish the task with
ease. Putting the pieces together, fitting one piece into the other so that it
snaps into place snugly, is pleasurable in and of itself. David has had this
experience often before. Therefore, his action follows a familiar and habitual
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pattern. Unfortunately, the process of coupling the pieces together is a little
more than he can handle (the rubber seal makes it hard to fit two pipes together, such that he is only able to push the second piece part way into the
first, leaving the assembly unstable). That’s why he tries out several different
pipes, trying to make the whole thing fit together better. The second action,
which was delayed by the difficulty of fitting the two lengths of tubing together, is aimed at making the pipeline longer. Somehow increasing the
length may make it possible to get water from the tub.
Diyar’s attention is obviously drawn to the pipes, but even more so
to what David is doing with them. He does not ask what David has but instead what he is doing. He does not simply take a pipe, he wants to join in on
the same activity that David has demonstrated, imitating David’s behavior. In
contrast to David’s action, Diyar’s action has not yet formulated an aim of its
own, no direction or pattern of its own to try out. Diyar is at a loss as to how
he should proceed once the pipe is in the water. So he attempts to orient himself by looking around, appearing to be stalled in place. It is possible that
Diyar is not interested in finding a purpose of his own and only wishes to
follow along with what David is doing. The question he directs at David,
asking him what one can do with the pipe, is perhaps only superficially directed at physical space. Diyar’s unexpressed purpose may be to investigate
and secure possible courses of action in social space: I want to do the same
thing as you, to do something together with you.
Through Diyar’s questions, David is placed in the position of guide
or leader. He can decide in which direction the actions will go, which at this
point also include Diyar’s actions. And he does in fact take up Diyar’s offer
of help. He does not turn Diyar away but instead includes him – not as a
partner, but rather as an aide. He shows him exactly what he should do, directs his movements, observes and controls actions, evaluates and intervenes
and ultimately takes the decisive steps to fit the pipes together. Diyar does
not express his own delight over the results of their efforts until after David
does so. David knows how it’s done, he understands the aim, he knows the
criteria against which the individual sub-actions will be measured and he is
already experienced at fitting together the parts. All this gives him the certainty and assurance needed to act in physical space. These attributes of his
physical actions also lend competency to his actions in the social space created through his relationship with Diyar. In social space, the actions appear to
be those of directing and following, of example and imitation. The relationship between the two children is that of expert and novice. In physical space,
Diyar finds orientation and David gains support. In social space, the children
both immerse themselves in the closeness of a relationship in which they can
mutually identify possibilities for action. David now knows that he is the
expert and acts accordingly. And he expects that Diyar will not set an independent course of action.
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Once he has gained sufficient experience and orientation by participating in David’s activities, however, Diyar seizes the initiative himself.
While David is still fussing over the stability of the connections, Diyar’s gaze
and his actions are already directed at the pipes still lying around yet to be
used. Even though the next action (like all actions) can only accommodate
just one pipe, the larger vision is already directed at the whole. Diyar wants
to put together all the pipes. The vision is first directed as a query at the expert, who happily agrees, since he shares the same vision. But when Diyar
connects the next piece of pipe without asking, David resolutely puts a stop
to it, crying out, “Wait!” The action poses an equal threat to both the physical
and the social balance. The overseer has not given his approval. By taking
things into his own hands, he denies Diyar access to the project. But by
standing the pipeline up vertically, it rises far above the heads of the other
children. Diyar’s surprise and delight are expressed spontaneously this time
and do not require prior confirmation from David. And the pride that mixes
with the delight is now a product of his own actions. Diyar’s actions ceased
to follow in the wake of David’s actions, they preceded them. The novice has
stepped out of the master’s shadow. Even so, David still holds the construct
in his hands. He shall determine how things will proceed from this point.
Once the construction is standing up for all to see, it extends far
above the limited social space in which David and Diyar worked together to
build it. Before this, there were already onlookers and spectators. But now
the space is opened to new participants, drawn in by the imposing creation.
They at first only stand around asking questions. Again the questions relate –
as Diyar’s own questions had previously – to the creation and how it was
made. This offers David the opportunity to once again play the expert. He
labels and identifies the creation, and thereby sets the direction and aim of the
activities. He lays the pipeline down horizontally for all to see, thereby placing it under his regulation. He puts the end in the water tub in order to secure
an inflow of water. He checks, evaluates, apprises. He looks expectantly at
the great, finished creation; all the separate actions that contributed to its
completion are now crowned with success. David’s gaze is aware of being in
the midst of many gazes, all acknowledging the creation with approval. The
fascination of size, difficulty, and the novelty of the exercise is reflected in
the looks it receives in social space. Diyar, though disoriented to begin with,
now once more calls attention to the purpose and principle of the project.
Once the tub has been filled, the water will then flow through the pipes. But
soon it becomes apparent that the pipeline will not be able to fulfill its purpose. And in much the same way that things are reordered in physical space,
the actors, too, will now take on a new configuration in social space, causing
new relationships to take shape.
Sequence 2: (20:17) “Put water in it!” The children stand huddled around
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the water tub: David, who stands to one side, watching; Marc, who is holding one end of the pipe; Minja; and Fabian, who calls out loudly: “Yeah,
now we can put the water in.” Using an elbow-pipe, the children have run
the tubing from the ground up to the level of the water basin. Two more
elbow-joints allow the tubing to run into the basin and then up again. Marc
holds onto the flimsy construction with both hands while another child uses
a small bucket to draw water which he then pours into the end of the pipe.
Marc looks back along the pipeline that runs at an angle over to the sandbox. At the front end, near the hallway, two y-shaped pieces have been
added on, open at the ends. David comes up, looks things over and calls
out, “Look out!” Minja, who has just been checking the complex elbowjoint construction, goes over to the first opening of the y-shaped component, where David has noticed a leak. She squats down a moment to try
and close the opening by hand, then turns away fretfully seeking help. “Oh
no!” David rushes over with a short piece of pipe in his hand, saying “We
have to let it drain off this way.” He pulls the open y-shaped piece out just
as Minja returns. She puts her foot in the gap to prevent water from flowing out uncontrollably. “Stop!” David yells excitedly to Marc and Fabian,
who are still pouring water into the pipe. He squats down at the opening,
then jumps up and yells again louder, holding up an arm in warning:
“Stop!” Quickly he adds on the short piece of pipe at the spot that Minja
had been stopping up with her foot. Minja helps him fit on the second end.
Marc jumps up and throws his arms into the air: “Ok, now start pouring the
water in again!” (21:09)
The tubing was rearranged and realigned in physical space. It was placed on
the ground while elbow-joints and vertical segments of pipe were used to run
it to the water basin. The assembly was given a precise purpose, which was to
transport water over to the sandbox. To do that, it would have to be made
considerably longer, elbow-joints would need to be added, and it would have
to be adjusted. Once the children realized that the water could not be conveyed vertically out of the basin, they found a way to scoop the water out and
pour it down the pipe. Now it’s finally finished and water can be poured into
the pipe.
The social space is no longer under the control of an expert acting to
bind together and direct all the activities. Now the goal of transporting water
through the pipe to the sandbox binds together and directs all the participants
and their actions. Each action finds fulfillment in helping to make a pathway
for the water. The actions of the children fit together in the same way that the
segments of pipe fit together. The pipe growing in physical space establishes
and constructs a social space of ideas, sensations, perceptions, movements,
actions, and interpretations that are exchanged, correlated, negotiated, and
coordinated with one another. It does not all fit together neatly. There are
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impediments and breakdowns. Things that do not fit together in social space
also hinder progress in physical space. The water pipe establishes, even necessitates, a social space in which it can be built. The water ultimately does
not flow merely through a tube made of plastic, because the pipeline is also
made up of many hands and movements, of gestures and their meanings, of
desires and emotions. When Fabian calls to the others to pour water into the
pipe, social space is also filled. Whether the pipes hold, whether they remain
water-tight, whether the water will reach its goal is determined by whether or
not the web of actions that the children wove into the pipeline are sound and
strong enough. Marc, who holds the pipe end, momentarily holds the entire
network of actions in the palm of his hands as the children stare spellbound to
see what will happen.
David’s cry of alarm abruptly creates tension, effort, concentration,
as if a shockwave had passed through the network. The leak in the pipe
threatens the integrity of the social relationships that interweave the children’s actions. This is a critical moment, with the whole project threatened
with possible failure. Were that to happen, not only the water pipe itself
would come apart, the social space in which it was constructed would collapse as well. The strands of the social web in which the pipeline took shape
would have dissolved. The dramatic rescue staged mainly by Fabian reflected, in both senses, what was at stake. Fabian repairs not only the pipe
itself but the social network as well, which for a moment was unable to prevent a leakage. “Stop!”: Just as Minja uses her body – her hand and foot – to
hold back the water, Fabian stems the actions being taken by the other children, who are still pouring in water and thereby increasing the danger. Fabian
struggles not only with the water leak, but also with the actions that are placing the entire project in peril. The physical defects in the pipe cannot be repaired without first mending the social “conduit.” The points at which the
project nearly broke down reveal just how fragile and wobbly the social
structure of actions is that is supposed to hold the construction together and
permit its assembly to proceed. This is why David celebrates his successful
rescue of the project. Not only the pipeline itself was preserved, but also the
whole social edifice of strategies, suggestions, ideas, actions, movements,
and emotions that brought the children together in excitement, experience,
and delight, and by means of which they underwent a process of growth.
Each successful step in completing the pipeline also encompassed a successful encounter, a shared experience, an answer, an echo from social space. The
activities in physical space using the tubing allowed the Self to reach out, to
stretch and broaden itself, to venture and to validate itself. “You can start
pouring again now!” In the end, after the danger has been overcome, action
may flow once more. The action did not really even seek to destroy, to veer
from its course; it sought out its goal. It sought to complete the project triumphantly, sought arrival, validation. It had not considered the possibility that
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the leak and the defect might grow. It was good that Minja and Fabian were
there to save the day. The breaches in physical and social space necessitated
saviors.
Nature education in the medium of social processes
In both of our key examples, the physical space in which the children act and
gather experiences is at the same time a social space of interaction and communication. All of our examples, not only those presented here, share these
same traits in common. Obviously there are always situations in which children temporarily disassociate themselves from the group in order to seek out
and acquire their own separate space that they do not share with others. But
the things they do there and experiences they have there produce questions
and supply answers that issue from and flow back into social space.
The term “social space” is used here to refer to that which children
share with other children: conceptions and perceptions, moods and sensations, movements and actions, gestures and significations, observations,
thoughts, deliberations, priorities, and valuations. In this sense, social space
is constantly changing; it is always being recreated. Each child experiences it
and interacts with it in his own way. And yet everything need not always be
regenerated anew. There are commonalities of experience, shared practices
that direct actions which in turn establish who I am and who you are.
What does it mean when one’s own movements occur in the midst
of other movements? Take another look at Melissa, Melina, and Leonie as
they hop together while holding onto their balloons. The movements of one
are drawn into the motion of the others. We find this same principle at work
wherever children play and explore together. The movement of one is provided with an impetus, a direction, and a purpose by the motion of the others.
Jünger (1953, p. 47 ff.) described this phenomenon decades ago as Ahmung
(approx. “echoing” or “shadowing”), the unconscious mimicking of and
participation in the actions of others. Even when one’s own actions rush
ahead of what others are doing, one still looks back to draw in others and
ensure they are joining in. In this manner, movement in social space is subject to cohesion, a tendency to mimetic convergence with surrounding
movement. The discovery of mirror neurons in contemporary brain research
(cf. Rizzolatti/Sinigaglia 2008) shows that the source of this phenomenon lies
deep in the neurophysiologic make-up of the human organism. Not all children do the same things, of course. Even when they imitate each other, they
are absorbing something into a Self. Melissa hops differently than Melina or
Leonie. Something of their own bodies, their own lives, their own stories is
bound up in their own individual style of hopping. Imitation taking place
within socially resonant space is not directed solely toward harmonization,
towards making things ever more alike. It is also a source of creativity.
Movement patterns are adopted, modified, passed back again, refined, en-
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hanced, reshaped. Thus, the shouts of “Mine” exchanged between Melissa
and Leonie are not simply hurled back and forth but instead undergo a dramatic evolution. Exploratory encounters with nature profit from the potentialities of this sort of diverging modulation, which flows paradoxically from
imitation. Children engage in a playful encounter with natural phenomena in
a converging progression, which nevertheless continues to take and communicate new twists and turns, finds new avenues for access and thereby acquires ever newer approaches to and perspectives on those phenomena. What
is valid with respect to movement is also valid with respect to all the kinetic
and aesthetic aspects of any interaction with nature. It is valid with respect to
alertness, expectation, attentiveness, concentration, commitment, and orientation vis-à-vis a particular thing. It is valid with respect to inner-movement,
motivation, curiosity, and emotion, to joyful attunement and to the richness
of an experience, to perceptions, sensations, and impressions, and it is valid
with respect to the seeking and questioning and interpreting that allow children to sound out the realities of the world. This all operates in an intertwining fashion whenever it finds resonance, echo, and response in social space.
This echo not only beckons and attracts, it has its own motion, which it imparts to the movements of others, increasing and intensifying those in a concert of motion which takes them above and beyond themselves.
The flip side of this is that social movement can slip out of resonance into dissonance. Melissa, Melina, and Leonie become entangled in
each other. They obstruct one another, constrict each other, and, in the process, break off their movement. Movement finds the means to free itself and
even enters into confrontation. Now it is far from allowing itself to be drawn
and borne along. Left alone, it must find the nerve and strength to assert itself. Paradoxically, the children return to a state of resonance at the moment
of confrontation. They provide each other resonance and response by trading
movements back and forth. Each movement on the part of one draws on the
momentum in the countermovement coming from the other and then returns
it. The movements shift into alignment with each other, even when they are
directed against each other. This process does not operate with simultaneous
synchronicity but with non-simultaneous diachronicity. Now and again there
occur repeated synchronous phases of movement when the children spontaneously resume their hopping, in the process shifting back into alignment.
Movement seeks orientation even through confrontation; it seeks clues in
other movement about what course to pursue. This is why it mimics the other
movement. Thus, even contrary movements within social space are shaped by
the principle of Ahmung. And perhaps it is most crucial in this instance,
when movement is still mostly unsettled and most in jeopardy. It is possible
that the phenomenon of Ahmung rests upon a deep-seated anthropological
principle: the need for orientation and surety. In any event, both resonance
and dissonance come into play as part of children’s exploratory investigation
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of nature. The children get in each other’s way so that clashes and conflicts
are inevitable. The activities in physical space operate to produce reconciliation in social space. The two processes are intertwined, having a reciprocal
effect on one another. Therefore, one can only understand the processes at
work when using nature to educate children if one comes to appreciate that
these processes are processes of social interaction. In pedagogical terms, this
means that during conflicts in social space, we must allow time for dissonances to fade away in order to make use of the momentum of concerted
creative movement which can then be applied in physical space as well.
The social cycle of resonance is also at work in older children, the
same processes of perception, movement, sensation, and action that led
Melissa, Melina, and Leonie to begin hopping. Here, too, it operates as an
important driver behind the course of events. The construction of the pipeline
is also repeatedly disrupted by conflicts and dissonances, though not so serious that they lead to confrontation. And it appears that the conflicts in this
case were not quite as personal in nature as they were with the younger children. The older children do not encroach heavy-handedly on each other’s
personal space, nor do any of them seek to take away something that another
child holds closely to his body. The conflicts between the older children are
not about things held closely to their bodies but relate instead to their actions
in assembling the pipeline. David disallows Diyar’s hasty attempt to add on
another segment of pipe. And Fabian saves the project not only from the leak
but also from the children who are heedlessly pouring water into the pipe.
David and Fabian have an objective reason to oppose the actions of the others: they want to see the successful completion of their construction project.
Melina and Melissa have a more subjective reason for what they do: they do
not want to be pestered and they do not want to surrender what they have. It
is quite likely that David and Fabian would understand the conflict between
Melina and Melissa and that they may be able to have the same sort of conflict themselves. The reverse is clearly not possible, however.
When Diyar is first drawn to what David is doing, he begins by
doing the same. He places a pipe into the tub. He willingly allows himself to
be guided in the steps that follow, continuing the project that David began.
Later, once he has gained his bearings, he acts independently, fitting the next
segment of pipe in place himself. As the project grows, numerous actions and
movements conjoin – though they are obviously different in terms of their
social nature from the synchronous hopping of Melissa, Melina, and Leonie.
Numerous actions work to build the pipeline, even though some actions may
resemble others. In the same way that the tubes themselves must fit together,
so too must the actions be placed in proper relationship to one another. And
since it is not always apparent how to proceed, the children must continually
take a moment to think things through. The activities directed at completing
the pipeline appear, therefore, to be a complex interwoven succession of
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various elements that must be coordinated with one another. The metaphor of
a social space of resonance that draws movements together so that they operate synchronously and reinforce one another does not seem to fit in this case.
And yet the children are nonetheless involved in a process because they all
want to do the same thing. While the actions do not occur with absolute synchronicity, there is nevertheless an idea that ties together all the actions and
operations. Every step taken in constructing the pipeline is validated in social
space. In the same way that Leonie’s hop is borne up and amplified by
Melissa’s, Fabian was also borne up on David’s shouts of joy when he was
able to repair the leak in the pipe. This joy leads him to his next action: to
take up the bucket in order to pour in more water. Thus, the construction of
the pipeline also occurs in a cycle of social resonance involving the children’s experiences and actions. Every completed action, every movement,
and every emotion has an appeal that entices and motivates. But it is guided
by an overriding idea that demands that impulses not be immediately acted
upon but instead adjusted to fit into a system of actions that must operate in
concert if the idea is to be realized. Here again, in the case of the older children, it is something objective in nature that conveys itself into the cycle of
social resonance.
The actions of the children in physical space are simultaneously
actions in social space and are conveyed through that space. Therefore, each
physical action incorporates a social meaning, and vice versa, so that the
processes of interaction with the natural world correspond to those of social
interaction. In our examples we find indications that this correspondence may
extend deep into the basic modalities and stratagems associated with learning
about both physical as well as social environments that children develop at
various stages and in different aspects of their lives. These modalities comprise more than just the cognitive elements of thinking and acting. They relate to the interrelationship of the corporeal, aesthetic, and transactional
means of experiencing the world of the Self as well as the physical and social
worlds (cf. Schäfer 2010). They relate fundamentally to the ways and means
by which the subjective incorporates the external, objective world into itself.
Melissa, Melina, and Leonie hop around on the mat. With each leap,
they experience the feel of the mat, it resonates in them. Each hop soaks up
new momentum and the gathering momentum increases the enjoyment and
the motion of hopping. But the children are not interested in exploring the
mat, only in exploring themselves. They pay no attention to what the mat is
doing. Rather, the children are directly experiencing and appreciating themselves through the action of hopping. The echo of the objective world that
they hear and experience while hopping comes directly and inseparably from
their own movements and sensations. Perception, experience, and orientation
are implicitly present in the children’s movements and actions. A social cycle
of resonance operates within the physical cycle of resonance issuing from
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their hopping. Here, too, there is something objective entering in from outside, namely, the movements of the other children. The children are also not
concerned with experiencing the objective characteristics of other movements. It is not important how or in what direction the other children are
hopping. What is important are the subjective impressions, the resonance, the
dynamics of one’s own body as it absorbs the motion of others. As occurs
with respect to physical space, the external is drawn directly into one’s own
movements and sensations, as the enhanced, intensified, activated movement
of one’s own. Physical and social space are implicitly experienced within the
body’s resonant space. What applies to the hopping on the mat is also demonstrated in the other relationships that the children enter into in physical and
social space. A child carries a balloon pressed close to her chest. It is thus a
partner in the child’s own movements, whether she is hopping or falling. The
balloon has no movements of its own separate from those of the child; it is
not sent out into physical space to see what might happen. Neither is it sent
out into social space to see what others may do with it. It is held onto within
the contexts of both spaces. Its possessor cannot risk letting go of it. It might
get lost. Objective space is still too murky and uncertain for the subject to
venture out far; its actions cannot advance into that space.
It is surely the subjectively accessible depth of objective space – of
physical as well as social space – that sets limits on individual experience, on
individual exploratory behavior, on the individual subjective opportunities to
advance into the external and acquire the objective. The actions of the older
children associated with the construction of the pipeline are, like those of
Melissa, Melina, and Leonie, bound by the physical and social cycles of
resonance obtained through impression and expression, experience and performance. But they delve more deeply into objective space. They want to see
if the pipeline they have put together will stay together. They check to see
where the water they pour in at one end flows. They disengage themselves
from their own actions in order to examine the outward results of those actions. They take a step back from the merely experiential, then return to it
again so that their actions and the results those actions produce can be observed as entities and objects capable of being explicitly considered, conceptualized, and intellectually systematized. Action may still dominate; everything is still composed of movement. But those actions have now found their
bearings. When they enter into the depths of a space, they may still encounter
surprises. Those spaces are still full of risks. They could destroy the structure
erected. But they are aware of where they want to go: They want to direct
water to the sandbox. Physical space is no longer so murky and uncertain.
Experience has made it less opaque. And among these experiences is the
experience that one does not lose one’s way in objective space. One can loose
one’s movements into space and they will return enriched. And thus the actions involved in constructing the pipeline move outward in order to gather
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new experiences in the depths of physical space. And in the same way that
actions are sent out into physical space, they are sent out into social space as
well. There they seek out other actions with which they can coordinate and
ally themselves. The pipeline is also a social construct by means of which
individual actions are objectivized and integrated into a set of interrelated
actions.
Childhood nature education requires not only physical space, it also
requires the social space provided by a peer group (cf. Krappmann 1994). As
is the case with natural space, social space also encourages a child to exercise
his or her experiences and actions and to acquire new external experience.
Children thereby acquire not only experiences but, via the increasing depth of
the spaces they explore, they also acquire new modalities for involving themselves subjectively with the objective. Experiences with nature and social
experiences flow into each other, mutually stimulate each other, amplify and
sustain each other, even when conflicts and impediments occasionally arise.
Above all, however, they set down meanings that cast light into the depths of
one or the other space and thereby contribute to a willingness to enter pathways into the objective world – though it is not possible to differentiate what
experience may acquire from the objective world. Childhood knowledge of
the natural world is nurtured by social contexts of meaning – and vice versa.
In holding to her balloon, Melissa holds tightly to the sense of Self she
gained from and asserted against the Other. And the process of laying out a
pipeline to direct water into a sandbox produces more than simply the knowledge of how to fit pipes together. It also provided for the experience that
demonstrated how multiple hands helped hold the pipeline together – first
Marc, who held up the opening at one end to let another child pour water
through it, and then Fabian, who saved the project by stopping up the leak.
Literature
Jünger, Friedrich Georg (1953): Die Spiele. Ein Schlüssel zu ihrer Bedeutung. Frankfurt a.M.
Krappmann, Lothar (1994): Sozialisation und Entwicklung in der Sozialwelt gleichaltriger
Kinder. In: Schneewind, Klaus A. (ed.): Psychologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation. Enzyklopädie der Psychologie. Pädagogische Psychologie. Vol. 1. Göttingen, Bern, Toronto, Seattle.
pp. 495–524.
Rizzolatti, Giacomo/Sinigaglia, Corrado (2008): Empathie und Spiegelneurone: Die biologische
Basis des Mitgefühls. Frankfurt a.M.
Schäfer, Gerd. E. (2010): Welten entdecken, Welten, gestalten, Welten verstehen. In: Fischer,
Hans-Joachim/Gansen, Peter/Michalik, Kerstin (eds.): Sachunterricht und frühe Bildung. Bad
Heilbrunn. pp. 13–28.
Schülein, Johann August (1989): Mikrosoziologie. Ein interaktionsanalytischer Zugang. Wiesbaden.
Schulz von Thun, Friedemann (1981): Miteinander reden 1 – Störungen und Klärungen. Allgemeine Psychologie der Kommunikation. Reinbek.
Völkel, Petra (2002): Geteilte Bedeutung – Soziale Konstruktion. In: Laewen, HansJoachim/Andres, Beate (eds.): Bildung und Erziehung in der frühen Kindheit. Weinheim, Basel,
Berlin. pp. 159–207.
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Watzlawik, Paul/Beavin, Janet H./Jackson, Don D. (2002): Menschliche Kommunikation. Formen, Störungen, Paradoxien. 10th edition. Bern.
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Chapter 9: Evaluation of the “Naturbild”
Project – Methodology, Instruments, and Results
(Martina Knörzer & Elena Grassler)
1. Evaluation as tool for quality development
1.1 General importance of evaluation
Assessment methods are necessary for determining the quality of concepts,
processes, and their modes of action. In very general terms, the educational
assessment process involves the qualified description, analysis, and rating of
a project or process together with an assessment of the learning achievements
of participants, the learning process employed, and, finally, options for the
continued development of concepts. Pedagogical evaluation can thus be defined as follows: “Evaluation means the methodical collection and substantiated assessment of processes and results so as to better understand and organize practical measures in the area of education by impact assessment, management, and reflection” (Reischmann 2003, p.18, translated from the German).
As a rule, the following is true: “Primary quality criteria for evaluation are no longer validity, reliability, and objectivity, but instead, communication, intervention, transparency, and relevance” (Gruschka 1976, translated
from the German). Evaluation has long played an important part in quality
management; it is used to monitor whether measures have actually achieved
the intended effects.
Alongside self-evaluation methods, there are also methods of external evaluation. The type of method chosen depends upon the specific context.
In the case at hand, we selected the summative self-evaluation method, as we
were aiming to evaluate the quality of an educational measure. An evaluation
may be conducted using different standard procedures for obtaining data;
examples include: observational methods, testing, experiments, case studies,
materials analysis, questionnaires, and interviews. The choice of an evaluation instrument depends upon the question to be studied and the context of
the particular project. A number of different qualitative and quantitative
methodological evaluation instruments were employed in the “Naturbild”
project so as to obtain the most comprehensive possible picture of concept
implementation, as well as to retrospectively monitor effectiveness. In particular, we sought to answer the following question: Does the educational
measure achieve the success that was intended? In addition to documentation,
video recordings, and qualitatively oriented microanalysis of case examples,
we designed our own questionnaire to evaluate the continuing education
program for educators, which we mainly analyzed quantitatively. In the fol-
188
lowing sections, we will briefly present the phases of the “Naturbild” project
and the evaluation measures associated with each phase.
1.2 Project evaluation in the “Naturbild” project
The Naturbild project began in December 2008. All of the partners participating in the project 1 had met on three previous occasions to prepare the project
initiative.
During an eight-month long development phase, an educational
concept was developed in close collaboration with educators in the classroom. This concept was set out in an initial study handbook. Part of the concept is a multi-perspectival approach to nature education for children between
four and eight years of age. Each partner developed a particular area of specialization (playing and experimenting, constructing and craftwork, researching one’s life world/everyday life, movement improvisation and aesthetic
movement
expression,
literature/fantasy/language,
experiments/concepts/interpretations, self-organization of learning in projects). For
each pedagogical specialty, we developed educational scenarios and placed
them in a theoretically grounded context. The scenarios were tested, modified, and optimized during several months of collaboration with a kindergarten and grade school (both of them well-established model institutions). In
addition, we exchanged and discussed the scenarios in our team.
In the next phase, Naturbild educational concept was tried out on a
larger scale. For this purpose, we solicited colleagues from kindergartens and
grade schools. As part of this collaboration, project participants with expertise in early education and in teaching kindergarten and grade school age
children developed a unique continuing education program that provides for
an introduction to the Naturbild educational concept as well as ongoing practice-based training. This program was designed to serve the professionalization of educators and teachers as well as provide for general continuing education in the field of early education. Regular meetings to exchange experiences and professional analysis of case examples accompanied the testing of
the Naturbild concept. We documented pedagogical practice – that is, the
1
Six universities in six countries participated in the “Naturbild” project, together with their
associated local partners:
•
PH Ludwigsburg University of Education (Germany)
•
Pädagogische Hochschule Oberösterreich (Upper Austrian University of Education) (Austria)
•
Kecskemét College (Hungary)
•
Hans Selye University (Slovakia)
•
Babes-Bolyai University, Odorheiu-Secuiesc Division (Romania)
• St. Clement of Ohrid University of Sofia (Bulgaria)
189
actual process of engaging children with the problems and scenarios provided
– in films and written reports. At the conclusion of the testing phase, we
conducted a survey of the educators and teachers regarding the continuing
education program and the testing of the concept. A questionnaire was developed specifically suited for this purpose (see Sections 2.2 and 2.3).
Next, in the evaluation phase, the project documents at each educational institution and the experiences from the survey were assessed: the
children’s activities, problem solutions, and interpretations were evaluated
using qualitative content analysis and ethnographic microanalyses. Selected
individual case studies provided us with a deeper qualitative analysis of children’s engagement with natural phenomena. The results of these analyses are
contained in the earlier chapters of this study handbook. They provide insights into how the actions and interpretations of children should be perceived, observed, and understood, as well as foundations for promoting
childhood education in the natural sciences and technology. In an accompanying DVD we present key scenes from the film documentation, and these
scenes are discussed in the text of the handbook as case examples. The
documents were evaluated using qualitative procedures, content analysis (see
Mayring 2007), and microanalyses.
In addition, a comprehensive evaluation of the project (including the
continuing education program) took place based upon a questionnaire that we
designed for this purpose. The quantitative evaluation of the survey we conducted of educators in participating nations is the central focus of this chapter. We used the SPSS statistical program to analyze the responses.
Overall, we employed and triangulated a number of different surveying and evaluation measures as part of our evaluation process: participatory
observation, video and photographic documentation, group discussions, surveys, and questionnaires.
2. Evaluation of continuing education – project evaluation
2.1 Continuing education for associated partners
The focus of this chapter is the evaluation of the continuing education program for educators that was part of the “Naturbild” project. Participants were
asked to fill out a questionnaire concerning the “Naturbild” project at the
conclusion of the continuing education program.
The eight-month long continuing education program, which included practice-based advising, took place between August 2009 and March
2010. Altogether, 70 institutions – kindergartens, schools, and universities –
took part. The goal of the continuing education program was to guide the
practical implementation of the concept we had developed and tested, as well
as to support the educators in their own ongoing development. At the conclu-
190
sion of the program, the educators who participated each received a certificate.
In Germany, for instance, all-day events took place on Saturdays
with the responsible project leaders. Teachers and educators met over an
eight-month period and participated in intensive continuing education sessions at the PH Ludwigsburg University of Education.
Similar continuing education programs took place in other participant countries as well; the single exception was Austria, where the continuing
education program was designed somewhat differently, because here, students from the Upper Austrian University of Education (Linz) took part in the
implementation of the Naturbild project. In other participating locations, the
continuing education programs were directed at kindergarten and grade
school teachers.
2.2 The evaluation instrument: development and theoretical background
We designed our own questionnaire to serve as the evaluation instrument for
the continuing education program (Knörzer/Grassler 2010). 2 This questionnaire was formulated to cover different areas in the project initiative and
collect information about a number of different learning and evaluation processes. As a basis, we adopted a few items from a questionnaire previously
validated for use in connection with other continuing education programs at
the PH Ludwigsburg University of Education. We performed a factor analysis on the questionnaire, and, in addition, expert discussions and communicative validation took place with regard to the selection, assessment, and
evaluation of individual items.
The questionnaires included a number of selected categories, which
were in turn based on specific theoretical foundations:
Table 1: Selected categories and theoretical background
Category
Subcategories
Theoretical Context
Assessment of
the continuing
education
program
Overall impression
Personal expectations
Relevance to practice
Atmosphere
Structure and orientation to
goals
Counseling and support
Learning atmosphere
Quality development
evaluation theory
(Rolff et al. 2003)
Communications and
2
Communication theories
Learning theories
You can find the questionnaire on the project homepage (see www.projekt-naturbild.eu).
191
educational
support
Educational
expertise:
Knowledge
Educational
expertise:
Competencies
Self-concept
Declarative factual knowledge
Conceptual knowledge
Practical knowledge
Process knowledge
Knowledge of learning psychology
Learning research
(Weinert 2000)
Practice competency
Diagnostic competencies
Observational competencies
Interpretive competencies
Professional research
(Lipowsky 2008)
Competencies in leading
discussions
Socratic dialogues
(Wagenschein) and Philosophizing with children
(Matthews and Schreier)
Self-efficacy research
(Bandura)
Interest research
Continuing personal development
Development of interests
Opinions
Capacity for reflection
Estimation of learning
growth/learning gain
Childhood development
(Weinert 1998),
Brain research (Hüther,
Korte 2009)
Ethnographic research
(Fischer 2009)
Research about development of personality
and cognitive abilities
2.3 Structure of the questionnaire
The questionnaire was organized as follows:
• Personal information: age, institution, pedagogical practice experience,
country
• General questions about the continuing education program: Rating of the
continuing education program (8 items), communication and learning
support (7 items), and pedagogical expertise (15 items)
• Specific questions about each project theme: Each partner country formulated its own suitable items for the various project themes (e.g. Ludwigsburg – play/explorative children’s play, 8 items)
• Open questions (the same for all project partners, 2 items)
192
The structure of the questionnaire and the individual items were communicatively validated at a meeting in Komárno in March 2010 and adapted to the
requirements of the project partners. A general cover letter was drafted to
accompany the three-page questionnaire. This letter explained the purposes
of the survey and provided some formal instructions for filling out the questionnaire.
2.4. Evaluation methods
All participating project partners used the same questionnaire. The questions
in items 1–30 were identical and responses were quantitatively evaluated
using the SPSS statistical program. Items 31–38 were adapted to the particular continuing education programs in each country and the subject focus of
the individual partner (for example, in Germany/Ludwigsburg, they concerned the theme of play) and were qualitatively evaluated (including the use
of content analysis, as described by Mayring 2007). The open-ended questions at the end of the questionnaire (items 39–40) were evaluated separately.
The focus of the present evaluation is on the quantitative analysis of questions 1–30 and the results of this analysis. We will round out the presentation
of our findings with some key individual examples of responses to the qualitative open-ended questions.
3. Selected findings of the evaluation
We used a number of procedures to evaluate the data set. For interval-scaled
values, we used means and standard deviations, and for nominal scaled items,
we used frequencies, in accordance with descriptive statistical procedures.
For examining national differences in the evaluation of the specific continuing education programs, we performed a single-factor analysis of variance
(ANOVA).
The results of the evaluation are based upon the 215 questionnaires
returned. All items could be answered by using a five-level Likert scale
(ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” through 5 “strongly agree”). We asked
closed as well as open questions.
3.1 Findings from the survey of continuing education participants
The persons surveyed who had participated in a continuing education course
in Austria represented the largest group in the sample (32.1%, see Table 1).
The next largest group was composed of continuing education participants
from Slovakia (23.3% of participants), followed by the 14.4% of respondents
who took part in a continuing education program in Romania; and 12.1% in
Hungary. German participants represented 9.3% of respondents, while the
participants from Bulgaria made up the smallest group, accounting for 8.8%
of those surveyed.
193
Table 2: National distribution of participants surveyed
Germany
Hungary
Austria
Bulgaria
Romania
Slovakia
Total
Number of
Participants
20
26
69
19
31
50
215
Percentage share
9.3%
12.1%
32.1%
8.8%
14.4%
23.3%
100.0%
In terms of institutional affiliation, kindergartens were more represented in
the sample (37.2%) than grade schools (27.0%). Around 33% of responding
participants belonged to other institutions (e.g. universities – see Table 2).
Table 3: Distribution of participants surveyed by institution
Grade schools
Kindergartens
Other institutions
No information
Total
Number of
Participants
58
80
71
6
215
Percentage share
27.0%
37.2%
33.0%
2.8%
100.0%
Alongside questions concerning country of origin and institutional affiliation,
we also inquired about the type of institution, the participant’s age group, and
the pedagogical experience of the participant in numbers of years. Among
those surveyed, 67.9% were participating in a continuing education program
for kindergarten and grade school educators. The other 32.1% of respondents
were taking part in a college seminar in Austria on the subject of “Nature and
technology in early educational processes.” The professional experience of
the participants ranged from 1 to 39 years. The majority of participants had
more than 15 years of professional experience. Excluded from this number
were the students participating in the continuing education program as part of
a university seminar in Linz, Austria.
Table 3 shows the number of persons surveyed (N), and the arithmetic mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) for individual items. The standard
deviation ranges between 0.46 and 1.64.
194
The item, “In their encounters with natural phenomena, it is most
important that the children make no mistakes” showed the greatest variation
(SD = 1.64). This item was intended for use as a control question, and as a
result, will be considered separately.
It can be seen that the item, “The persons managing the program
take an interest in the questions/wishes of the participants” had the highest
level of agreement (M = 4.83), followed by the item, “The approach arouses
the children’s curiosity and interest” (M = 4.79) and “The course is of relevance for educational practice” (M = 4.77). The lowest level of agreement
applied to the (control) item, “In their encounters with natural phenomena, it
is most important that the children make no mistakes” (M=2.97). These findings were tested for significance. As is apparent, the levels of agreement are
between 2.97 and 4.83; that is, with one exception they fall above the theoretical mean of 3. This may be interpreted as showing that on average, participants rated the continuing education programs very positively.
Table 4: Overall ratings for the continuing education programs
Scales
N
M
SD
1. My overall impression of the course is positive
215 4.74
.56
2. My personal expectations for the course were fulfilled
215 4.51
.80
3. The course is of relevance for educational practice
215 4.77
.55
4. The course is well organized with regard to content
214 4.60
.69
5. I felt comfortable in the course
215 4.75
.53
6. I learned many new things in the course
215 4.42
.81
7. The course is very well structured
215 4.56
.70
8. The goals of the course were clearly identifiable
215 4.65
.71
9. The persons managing the course take an interest in
the questions/wishes of the participants
214 4.83
.46
10. The project advising is very good
210 4.67
.66
11. Support was offered for difficulties and problems
212 4.75
.63
12. The work together in groups was very good
213 4.68
.55
13. I was able to participate with my own personal contributions
211 4.73
.58
14. The learning atmosphere/learning climate was stimu-
213 4.62
.71
195
lating
15. The content is important to my practice
214 4.59
.67
16. I am better able to perceive and support children in
their questions, interests, and motivation as well as
their desire to research
214 4.39
.74
17. I am better able to perceive and understand children
in their interpretation and understanding of natural
phenomena
214 4.28
.82
18. I have a better understanding now of how to create a
supportive learning environment for children
214 4.66
.64
19. I am better able to guide children in their discussions
and reflections about phenomena
214 4.50
.72
20. I have obtained valuable background knowledge for
my pedagogical practice
215 4.67
.62
21. My notions of children’s nature education have been
expanded
215 4.63
.63
22. In their encounters with natural phenomena, it is most
209 2.97 1.64
important that the children make no mistakes
23. I have improved my ability to reasonably select appropriate materials for children’s encounters with
natural phenomena
213 4.46
.75
24. Now I feel more courage to get involved with this
subject
214 4.54
.70
25. I am more aware now that I can create stimulating
214 4.64
learning situations for children using simple materials
.68
26. I obtained new ideas on how to introduce this subject
214 4.70
.57
27. Naturbild’s multi-perspectival approach matches
children’s learning requirements
212 4.65
.61
28. The approach awakens children’s curiosity and interest
214 4.79
.47
29. My children were able to make good progress in their 214 4.58
.66
196
skills
30. The children learned a great deal
214 4.72
.58
Overall, the evaluation showed a very high level of agreement for the individual items on the questionnaire (with the exception of control item 22); this
demonstrates that the participants generally rated the continuing education
programs as being positive and profitable.
3.2. Evaluation of selected individual items
Overall, our assessment of the results with regard to the evaluation of continuing education programs reveals a highly positive picture. Yet we were
also curious as to whether there were differences between how participants
rated the project from one country to the next. For example, were the continuing education programs offered by the Slovakian partner evaluated more
positively than the programs offered in other countries?
Using a single factor analysis of variance (ANOVA), we were able
to examine the impact of the independent variable “country” on the evaluation of individual items (see Janssen & Laatz 2005, p. 323). This statistical
test allows us to check for differences in how the different partner nations
rated the continuing education programs. The degree of significance indicates
whether any significant differences exist overall between ratings given by
participants from different nations. Using the Games-Howell test, we can
then pinpoint differences in how individual nations evaluated the programs.
Overall, there were only small differences in how the various partner
nations rated the continuing education programs. Figure 1 shows that the
general rating given by participants in all partner countries was extremely
positive. The Austrian participants differ significantly from the other nations, 3 even though their rating is still significantly above the average value
(3). It should be noted that the target group for continuing education in Austria was different from other countries. Here, the participants were students
attending a seminar devoted to the subject.
Figure 1: Item “My overall impression of the course is positive.”
3
The differences between the Austrian participants and participants from other countries are
significant at the level of p < .001.
197
Data: Average values using a scale of 1 “strongly disagree”
through 5 “strongly agree”; a rating of 3 means “neither agree nor disagree.”
To a large extent, the continuing education programs were rated as very good
with respect to personal expectations, relevance to practice, content organization, learning atmosphere, good structure, and clear goals. Graph 2 makes it
clear that all participants had learned many new things from the program.
The ratings by Slovakian participants differed significantly from those of the
Romanian, German, Bulgarian, and Austrian participants. There were significantly higher levels of agreement from German participants (p < .01), and
participants from Hungary and Slovakia (p < .001) as compared to ratings
from the Austrian participants.
Figure 2: Item “I learned many new things in the course.”
Data: Average values using a scale of 1 “strongly disagree”
through 5 “strongly agree”; a rating of 3 means “neither agree nor disagree.”
Another important question concerns the relevance of the continuing education program to professional practice. As shown in Figure 3, all participants
find the contents of the continuing education program important for their own
practice. The rating of the continuing education program in Slovakia is sig-
198
nificantly different than the ratings from German, Austrian, Hungarian, and
Romanian participants. 4 Among ratings by participants regarding the importance of the content for their practice, Germany is in first place, closely followed by Romania and Hungary. In general, there are high levels of agreement shown on the part of all participants. 5
Figure 3: Item “The content is important to my practice”
Data: Average values using a scale of 1 “strongly disagree”
through 5 “strongly agree”; a rating of 3 means “neither agree nor disagree.”
Figure 4 shows the level of agreement by participants with regard to the item,
“I am better able to guide children in their discussions and reflections about
phenomena.” In Slovakia, all participants express complete agreement with
this statement. It is clear that the ratings by Slovakian participants are significantly higher than the ratings by Bulgarian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Austrian participants. The level of agreement on the part of Austrian participants
is significantly lower than the agreement by German, Hungarian, Romanian,
and Slovakian participants. 6
Figure 4: Item “I am better able to guide children in their discussions and reflections about
phenomena”
4
The differences between Slovakian participants and participants from Germany, Hungary,
Austria, and Romania are significant at the p < .001 level.
5
The difference between the values from those surveyed from Bulgaria and Austria and the
values from those surveyed from Slovakia is of the same magnitude. While the agreement level
on the part of participants from Austria is significantly different from the values in Slovakia, no
significant difference can be shown between the values from Bulgarian and Slovakian participants. The test for differences between the means is highly reactive to case numbers. For smaller
case numbers, the difference between the means must be comparably high in order to be significant. It makes sense to assume, then, that it is because of the small case numbers for Bulgaria
that no significant differences in the means could be shown.
6
The differences between the means are significant at the p < .001, p < .01 and p < .05 levels.
199
Data: Average values using a scale of 1 “strongly disagree”
through 5 “strongly agree”; a rating of 3 means “neither agree nor disagree.”
Agreement on the part of Austrian participants for the item, “My notions of
children’s nature education have been expanded” is significantly lower than
agreement by participants from other countries. The rating by participants
from Slovakia differs significantly from those of the Austrian and Hungarian
participants. 7
Figure 5: Item “My notions of children’s nature education have expanded”
Data: Average values using a scale of 1 “strongly disagree”
through 5 “strongly agree”; a rating of 3 means “neither agree nor disagree.”
An additional area of interest in the evaluation was related to the control
item, “In their encounters with natural phenomena, it is most important that
the children make no mistakes” (see Figure 6). It can be clearly seen that the
level of agreement on the part of Slovakian participants is significantly
greater than the level of agreement by Romanian, German, and Austrian
7
The differences between the Slovakian participants and the Austrian participants are significant
at the p < .001 and p < .05 levels.
200
participants. The rating by German and Austrian participants differed significantly from that of the Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Slovakian participants.8
Here we can distinguish between two clusters: the first cluster consists of the German, Austrian, and Romanian participants and has a lower
level of agreement. The second cluster includes persons surveyed from Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, with a higher level of agreement. This item was
incorporated in the questionnaire to use as a control item. The high level of
agreement on the part of persons surveyed in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia could have the following causes: it is possible that the questions was
misunderstood (control question) or poorly translated; it is also possible that
the more rigid curriculum system in those countries played a role. We were
unable to definitively resolve these questions in the subsequent evaluation
discussion with the project partners.
Figure 6: Item “In their encounters with natural phenomena, it is most important that the children make no mistakes.”
Data: Average values using a scale of 1 “strongly disagree”
through 5 “strongly agree”; a rating of 3 means “neither agree nor disagree.”
Agreement on the part of Slovakian participants to the item, “Now I feel
more courage to get involved with this subject” is significantly higher than
the agreement by Hungarian and Austrian participants (p < .001). The rating
by those surveyed in Austria differs significantly from those surveyed in
Germany, Romania, and Slovakia.
8
The differences are significant at the p < .001 and p < .01 levels.
201
Figure 7: Item “Now I feel more courage to get involved with this subject”
Data: Average values using a scale of 1 “strongly disagree”
through 5 “strongly agree”; a rating of 3 means “neither agree nor disagree.”
The differences between Austrian participants and participants from Germany, Hungary, Austria, and Romania in relation to the item, “Naturbild’s
multi-perspectival approach matches children’s learning requirements” are
significant at a level of p < .001. The level of agreement on the part of Bulgarian participants is also significantly higher than that of Austrian participants (p < .05).
Figure 8: Item “Naturbild’s multi-perspectival approach matches children’s learning requirements”
Data: Average values using a scale of 1 “strongly disagree”
through 5 “strongly agree”; a rating of 3 means “neither agree nor disagree.”
Another important question concerns the children’s learning success. Figure
9 shows the subjective rating by teachers, educators, and students about the
children’s learning success during the project phase.
202
Figure 9: Item “The children learned a great deal”
The persons surveyed from Germany (p < .05), Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia (p < .001) showed significantly higher levels of agreement in comparison to the ratings from Austrian participants.
3.3 Qualitative evaluation
We also conducted a qualitative evaluation of the participants’ responses to
two open questions on the questionnaire (items 29 & 40). Using Marying’s
content analysis, we derived the following categories:
Table 5: Item “Please describe whether you profited from your collaboration with the Naturbild
learning project, and if so, in what way.”
Individuality/Freedom/Self-determination for the child
Perceptual and observational competency
Valuing the child’s point of view
Significant of reflection/Reflective competency
Significance of play/Play competency
Validation/Encouragement/Professional motivation
Theory, Theoretical foundation
Help for practice
Exchange with others
New insights
Holistic approach to the
natural sciences
203
We will present a number of meaningful key examples from these paraphrased categories in summary form:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Yes, for me it was an enrichment. I could observe children in new situations,
and give them sufficient time that they needed for their play. In the future, I will
create many more situations in my daily work to be able to offer such natural
phenomena” (FB 10, Item 39).
“In working with children, I have become open to accepting the particular focus
of each child and to set aside my own knowledge in order to make room for the
children’s knowledge” (FB 5, Item 39).
“[I have learned] to honor the diversity of children’s actions and reflections” (FB
18, Item 39).
“In everyday situations, we were able to facilitate the children’s holistic access to
natural phenomena – and not only by means of ‘artificially created’ situations”
(FB 17, Item 39).
“Being able to look beyond your own boundaries, to witness how other colleagues relate to children’s perceptions in a sensitive way was of great value for
me” (FB 16, Item 39).
“The ‘Naturbild’ project helped me to develop courage for analysis” (FB 12,
Item 39).
“Now I am more involved once again with educational offerings where children
can function in a self-determined way and I no longer try so hard to be prescriptive in daily classroom life.” (FB 11, Item 39).
“Participation in the project gave me the freedom to develop entirely unique
activities for the children’s center, to present findings and different children’s
products that were rich in interesting ideas” (FB 33, Item 39).
“The knowledge I had a chance to gain during the project is of a high professional level and is irreplacable in my practice as a teacher” (FB 51, Item 39).
“I gained valuable insights for my work. Now I feel more certain that I can create
motivating learning situations for the children using simple materials” (FB 64,
Item 39).
“The project gave me the chance to discover and develop learning content from a
different point of view” (FB 76, Item 39).
“For me it was most interesting to discover how it is possible to create movement
games together with the children and how much they are able to learn about
natural phenomena in this way” (FB 41, Item 39).
“Well, from now on my hair won’t stand on end when I think about imparting
basic knowledge in the natural sciences! Previously I never liked this area of
education” (FB 81, Item 39).
“I had previously only heard about the project. I didn’t know it could be so fantastic. I’m going to do this with my group as soon as possible” (FB 89, Item 39).
204
•
“For me, the most useful thing I learned was that the child should pick his own
role. Before, I always made the choice myself” (FB 73, Item 39).
This overview of the qualitative statements again reveals a predominantly
positive evaluation of the continuing education program. According to most
of the participants, the continuing education program was professionally
planned and executed. Many participants were positively motivated by the
program, and received inspiration for their own professional activities. As a
result, many participants expressed a wish for the project to continue and to
have an opportunity to further engage with the subject (see Table 6).
Table 6: Item “Is there anything more that you would like to tell us?”
Wish for continuation/additional projects/further exchanges
Help for practice
No reply
Extension of project ideas
Thank you
Pleasure/interest in the project
Adaptation of structures/frameworks
Wish for additional continuing education
Confirmation/encouragement/professional motivation
Individual statements by participants in response to the last point on the questionnaire include:
•
•
•
•
•
“It would be important to disseminate this idea to grade schools, parents, and
policy makers!” (FB 4, Item 40)
“Additional engagement or additional information and analyses […] would be
very important” (FB 13, Item 40)
“From these projects, a regular study group should be developed – we would
need this kind of support, stimulation, and input in our daily work. This continuing education program gave me renewed strength for my professional practice”
(FB 14, Item 40)
“I was very pleased with our meetings, since they provided a lot of suggestions
that I could take along into my practice. Many things that were said have fortified and strengthened me for my daily work” (FB 69, Item 40)
“I hope that there will be more learning projects that are so interesting!” (FB 15,
Item 40)
4. Conclusion and outlook
The goal of the project was to develop a pedagogical strategy for bringing
children at the educational stage between four and eight years of age in con-
205
tact with natural phenomena and scientific issues. This child-oriented multiperspectival strategy relies on children’s self-active learning power to generate, exchange, and critically develop worldviews.
The adult guide plays a significant role in this learning process – not
only as a motivator, observer, and architect of the learning environment, but
also as a continuously self-reflective pedagogue who is focused on the children’s thinking and learning processes and on expanding them by means of
mutual exchange. The Naturbild learning approach helps to develop possibilities for supporting, perceiving, and interpreting children’s knowledge of the
world and problem solving. In this connection, the project additionally focused on the goal of professionalizing teachers and educators by means of the
continuing education programs described here. Ultimately, we hope to see
this pedagogical strategy become the common ground and standard for the
professionalization of pedagogues in the early education field. We also hope
that the strategy will contribute to promoting key competencies in the natural
sciences for children.
The findings from the project evaluation have shown that the continuing education programs in individual nations were rated very positively.
Moreover, it is clear that educators were able to draw benefits for their own
ongoing development and for that of the children as well. In all areas of the
questionnaire survey (assessment of the continuing education program,
communication and support for learning, pedagogical expertise, project
themes, and open question about the benefits of the Naturbild project) the
responses from participants ranged between “agree” and “strongly agree,”
thereby reflecting a generally good overall evaluation of the project per se
and of the continuing education program as well. The value of the multiperspectival approach to educational strategy was confirmed. Participants
expanded their pedagogical expertise, and the practical relevance of the project was demonstrated.
It should be particularly emphasized that for many of the educators
who participated, the project initiative enhanced their courage to engage with
natural science and technical phenomena and expanded their notions about
the subject of nature education. It is also very encouraging that the image of
the self-active and creative child was solidified and received ever-increasing
attention in the design of pedagogical learning processes. The central focus in
this respect is promoting children’s creativity, constructivity, and their intersubjective co-construction of knowledge about the world.
The project team itself was able to benefit greatly from the development and realization of the Naturbild project. This was confirmed by internal evaluations conducted by the six project partners as part of the meetings
that we conducted.
In conclusion, it is clear that the Naturbild project has already stimulated gratifying learning and continuing education processes for children and
206
adults, and in its practical implementation has led to positive stimulation and
outcomes. The only criticism in the evaluation was the fact that after two
years of pedagogical and scientific work by the project team, the project was
coming to an end, and that no direct follow-up projects were beginning. Nevertheless, the “Naturbild” network will continue to be active and multiply its
insights.
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Janssen, J./Laatz W. (2005): Statistische Datenanalyse mit SPSS für Windows. Springer Berlin,
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Kronberg 1976, pp. 142-151. Quoted or reformulated in many places, e.g. in Bortz/Döring 2006
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Knörzer, M. (2004): Schulentwicklung an der Schule Schloss Salem. Evaluation eines nachhaltigen Schulentwicklungsprozesses an der Schule Schloss Salem. Bad Heilbrunn.
Mayring, P. (2007): Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. Weinheim.
Reischmann, J.(2006): Weiterbildungs-Evaluation. Lernerfolge messbar machen, Grundlagen der
Weiterbildung. Neuwied 2003, p. 18. 2nd edition. 2006.
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This study volume presents the results of the “Naturbild” project. As part of a
multilateral research and development project funded by the EU, a pedagogical strategy was developed that was designed to connect children in the educational period between four and eight years of age with natural phenomena
and scientific issues. The developed educational strategy was set forth in the
first volume, “Pedagogical Support.” This second volume is based upon the
testing of the strategy that took place over the course of a second project
phase conducted in collaboration with a large number of schools and kindergartens. The testing phase was documented with written descriptions of educational processes as well as video and audio recordings of the children’s
activities, reflections, and interpretations in their encounters with natural
phenomena. This documentation was then evaluated. Qualitative content
analyses examined the children’s spectrum of activities and interpretations.
Individual ethnographic case studies and microanalyses provided deeper
qualitative insights into the process of children’s engagement with natural
phenomena. In addition, questionnaire surveys were administered to examine
Naturbild’s pedagogical approach. It is hoped that this study volume will
make a contribution to enhancing and improving the perception and understanding of children’s engagement with natural phenomena. For this purpose,
a DVD is included, which contains key scenes and associated analyses –
study materials that should prove useful in furthering the perceptive competency of educators.