PRESCHOOL PUPILS MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS ON ELECTRICITY, SIMPLE ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT AND ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES

George Kaliampos, Vasiliki Kada, Antomi Saregar, Konstantinos Ravanis

Abstract


This research paper seeks to determine 5-6 years-old pupils’ representations about the general characteristics of the elementary electricity, the electrical appliances and their reasoning about the consisting elements of a simple electrical circuit. The sample consisted of 131 children from public kindergarten classes in an urban area in Greece. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews. The analysis of the qualitative data showed that although the preschoolers had fruitful representations, the majority of them encountered difficulties on approaching several aspects of the phenomena. Pupils’ reasoning about the phenomena also seemed to be without a stable and coherent structure. The need for a categorization of preschoolers’ representations based on the use of a system of concrete criteria and the prospect of a didactic approach leading to the creation of a precursor model is designated.

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pre-school pupils’ representations, electricity, early childhood science education

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v7i12.3471

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