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The role of children's journals in elementary school science activities
Author(s) -
Shepardson Daniel P.,
Britsch Susan J.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/1098-2736(200101)38:1<43::aid-tea4>3.0.co;2-i
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , the imaginary , phenomenon , science education , psychology , mathematics education , pedagogy , epistemology , paleontology , philosophy , psychotherapist , biology
This article reports on a study that investigated the ways that children's use of science journals aided their acquisition of science understandings in one kindergarten and one fourth‐grade classroom. The questions for investigation were: how does the child contextualize the science experience on the journal page? How do child‐produced graphics on the journal page reflect the children's experiences with other school texts? The study found that children recontextualized their understandings of the science investigation and phenomena by using three types of mental contexts that were reflected in their science journals: these contexts were imaginary, experienced, and investigative worlds. By drawing on these three worlds or internal contexts, the children were able to pull the external phenomenon into an internal context that was familiar to them. The child's construction of ideas about a current science experience as expressed on the journal page may reflect experiences with other conventional texts. In this study the children's representations of their imaginary, experienced and/or investigative worlds were shaped by other texts and structures such as school science texts. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 43–69, 2001