The purpose of the project was to explore how a learning study (LS) based on variation theory could support the development of playful physics learning in early childhood education. The study explored what patterns of variation used during a three-cycle LS challenged and developed children’s ways of discerning why a shadow occurred. The empirical material comprised a screening (n = 7), three video-documented interventions, and 78 individual pre- and post-test interviews (n = 39) at 4 - 5 years old. Three somewhat different patterns of variation were implemented within a playful frame in the three groups. The results indicate low and non/significant improvements in cycle A, somewhat higher and significant improvements in cycle B, and substantially higher and significant improvements in cycle C. The study indicates a promising ability to combine a playful approach with the variation theory perspective to stimulate children’s understanding of a quite advanced scientific phenomenon. The careful process of identifying potential critical aspects, the awareness of the relationship between the whole and its parts, and the concretization of simultaneity are discussed as key aspects of these findings.
References
[1]
APA (2010). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/
[2]
Bateson, G. (1976). A Theory of Play and Fantasy. In J. S. Bruner (Ed.), Play: Its Role in Development and Evolution (pp. 119-129). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
[3]
Bjorklund, C. (2012a). One step Back, Two Steps Forward—An Educator’s Experiences from a Learning Study of Basic Mathematics in Preschool Special Education. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 56, 497-517.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2011.599425
[4]
Bjorklund, C. (2012b). What Counts when Working with Mathematics in a Toddler-Group? Early Years: An International Research Journal, 32, 215-228.
[5]
Brante, G., Holmquist Olander, M., Holmquist, P.-O., & Palla, M. (2014). Theorising Teaching and Learning: Pre-Service Teachers’ Theoretical Awareness of Learning. European Journal of Teacher Education, 38, 102-118.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2014.902437
[6]
Cheng, E. C., & Lo, M. L. (2013). Learning Study: Its Origins, Operationalization, and Implications. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 94. Oxford: OECD iLibrary.
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/learning-study_5k3wjp0s959p-en;jsessionid=7hk1gts28htkf.x-oecd-live-02.
[7]
Christidou, V., & Hatzinikita, V. (2006). Pre-School Children’s Explanations of Plant Growth and Rain Formation: A Comparative Analysis. Research in Science Education, 36, 187-210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11165-005-9006-1
[8]
Cunningham, A. E., Zibulsky, J., & Callaghan, M. D. (2009). Starting Small: Building Pre-School Teacher Knowledge that Supports Early Literacy Development. Reading and Writing, 22, 487-510. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11145-009-9164-z
[9]
Davies, P., & Dunnill, R. (2008). “Learning Study” as a Model of Collaborative Practice in Initial Teacher Education. Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, 34, 3-16.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607470701773408
[10]
Eriksson Lindstrand, A., & Olsson, R. (2014). “Darlyserdet, darlyserdetinte”: Enundersokningavdetintentionellalarandet i ett Learning study projekt i forskolan [Light and Shadow: Children Discerning a Physical Phenomenon during a PreSchool Learning Study Project]. Studentpaper: Kristianstad University.
[11]
Fleer, M. (2008). Understanding the Dialectical Relations between Everyday Concepts and Scientific Concepts within Play- Based Programs. Research in Science Education, 39, 281-306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11165-008-9085-x
[12]
Fleer, M. (2013). Affective Imagination in Science Education: Determining the Emotional Nature of Scientific and Technological Learning of Young Children. Research in Science Education, 43, 2085-2106.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11165-012-9344-8
[13]
Hansson, L. (2014). Variation—En nyckel till larande? En Learning study med focus p? forandringar i forskolebarns satt att beskriva vad en skugga ar [Variation—A Key to Learning? A Learning Study with Focus on Changes in Preschool Children’s Way to Describe What a Shadow Is]. Studentpaper: Kristianstad University.
[14]
Helldén, G. (2005). Exploring Understandings and Responses to Science: A Program of Longitudinal Studies. Research in Science Education, 35, 99-122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11165-004-3435-0
[15]
Holmqvist, M. (2006). Larande i skolan: Learning study somskolutvecklingsmodell [Learning at School: Learning Study as School Development]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
[16]
Landgren, L., Svard, H., & Wennas Brante, E. (2013). Verksamhetensbeh?llningaven Learning Study [Benefits from Learning Study in Early Childhood Education]. In M. Holmqvist (Ed.), Larande i skolan: Learning study somskolutvecklingsmodell [Learning at School: Learning Study as School Development] (pp. 145-160). Lund: Studentlitteratur.
[17]
Ljung-Djarf, A. (2013). The Learning Study Process: A Collaborative Way to Develop the Use of Contrast of Critical Aspects in Preschool Educational Practice. Journal of Studies in Education, 3, 33-47.
[18]
Ljung-Djarf, A., Aberg-Bengtsson, L., Ottosson, T., & Beach, D. (2015). Making Sense of Iconic Symbols: A Study of Preschool Children Conducting a Refuse-Sorting Task. Environmental Education Research, 21, 256-274.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.870128
[19]
Ljung-Djarf, A., Holmqvist Olander, M., & Wennas Brante, E. (2013). Patterns of Variation—A Way to Challenge and Develop Early Childhood Learning?: Concluding Reflections from Learning Study Projects Conducted in Swedish Early Childhood Education. Creative Education, 4, 33-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.47A1005
[20]
Ljung-Djarf, A., Magnusson, A., & Peterson, S. (2014). From Doing to Learning: Changed Focus during a Pre-School Learning Study Project on Organic Decomposition. International Journal of Science Education, 36, 659-676.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2013.822604
[21]
Lo, M. L. (2012). Variation Theory and the Improvement of Teaching and Learning. Goteborg: Acta Universitatas Gothenburgensis.
[22]
Lo, M. L., & Marton, F. (2012). Towards a Science of the Art of Teaching: Using Variation Theory as a Guiding Principle of Pedagogical Design. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 1, 7-22.
[23]
Lo, M. L., Pakey, C., & Pang, M. F. (2006). Pattern of Variation in Teaching the Colour of Light to Primary 3 Students. Instructional Science, 34, 1-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11251-005-3348-y
[24]
Marton, F. (2014). Necessary Conditions of Learning. New York: Routledge.
[25]
Marton, F., & Pang, M. F. (2013). Meanings Are Acquired from Experiencing Differences against a Background of Sameness, Rather than from Experiencing Sameness against a Background of Difference: Putting a Conjecture to Test by Embedding It in a Pedagogical Tool. Frontline Learning Research, 1, 24-41. http://dx.doi.org/10.14786/flr.v1i1.16
[26]
Olteanu, C., & Olteanu, L. (2010). To Change Teaching Practice and Students’ Learning of Mathematics. Education Inquiry, 1, 381-397. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/edui.v1i4.21952
[27]
Pang, M. F. (2006). The Use of Learning Study to Enhance Teacher Professional Learning in Hong Kong. Teaching Education, 17, 27-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10476210500527915
[28]
Pang, M. F., & Lo, M. L. (2011). Learning Study: Helping Teachers to Use Theory, Develop Professionally, and Produce New Knowledge to Be Shared. Instructional Science, 40, 589-606. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11251-011-9191-4
[29]
Pramling Samuelsson, I., & Pramling, N. (2008). Didaktiska studier franforskolaochskola [Didactic Studies of Preschool and School]. Malmo: Gleerups.
[30]
Segal, G., & Cosgrove, M. (1993). “The Sun Is Sleeping Now”: Early Learning about Light and Shadows. Research in Science Education, 23, 276-285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02357071
[31]
Siry, C., & Kremer, I. (2011). Children Explain the Rainbow: Using Young Children’s Ideas to Guide Science Curricula. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 20, 643-655. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10956-011-9320-5
[32]
Strang, M. H., & Aberg-Bengtsson, L. (2009). ‘From the Mountain and Then?’ Five-Year-Olds Visiting the ‘Way of the Water’ Exhibition at a Science Centre. International Journal of Early Childhood, 41, 13-31.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF03168483
[33]
Sutton-Smith, B. (1997). The Ambiguity of Play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
[34]
Swedish National Agency for Education (2010). Curriculum for the Preschool, lpfo 98/2010. Stockholm: Fritzes.
[35]
Swedish Schools Inspectorate (2012). Forskola, fore skola—Larande och barande. Report No. 2012:7, Stockholm: Swedish Schools Inspectorate.
[36]
Thulin, S. (2011). Teacher Talk and Children’s Queries: Communication about Natural Science in Early Childhood Education. PhD Thesis, Gothenburg: Gothenburg University.
[37]
Thulin, S., & Pramling, N. (2009). Anthropomorphically Speaking: On Communication between Teachers and Children in Early Childhood Biology Education. International Journal of Early Years Education, 17, 137-150.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669760902982331
[38]
Wernberg, A. (2009). The Object of Learning: What Students Are Expected to Learn, What Is Made Possible for Them to Learn and What They Actually Learn. PhD Thesis, Umea: Umea University.
