What is the task about? Exploring the issues discussed by preschool children in engineering activities at kindergarten

JOSEPHINE CONVERTINI

Abstract

Problem solving tasks are one of the topics of investigation within the field of STEM and educational engineering involving children. However, young children have received much more little attention. Accordingly, this paper explores the issues discussed by preschool children during engineering activities. We focus on the issues participants discuss during three building problem solving proposed to preschool children at a kindergarten. The activities were audio-video recorded and the argumentative discussions were identified and transcribed. The argumentative analysis focused on different elements, such as the issuesoccurring in each argumentative episode, the standpoints, the arguments, and the argumentative structure. In particular, to explore the issues and their role in problem solving activities, three illustrative cases are presented. The findings show, from an argumentative perspective, a variety of issues explored by children in solving problems around building tasks. The task presented by the adult as a building activity represents something more for the participant children: for example, the children focus on the technical components to overcome possible obstacles, they refer to the collaboration with peers, to the possession of objects or to the utility of the working activities. As preschool children’s engineering work appears as a complex activity, the present study highlights the value of analyzing the issues that are discussed by preschool children during building activities.

Keywords

Issue, problem solving, preschool children, argumentation, STEM, engineering

Full Text:

PDF

References

Adams, A. E., Miller, B. G., Saul, M., & Pegg, J. (2014). Supporting elementary pre-service teachers to teach STEM through place-based teaching and learning experiences. The Electronic Journal for Research in Science & Mathematics Education, 18(5), 1-22.

Bagiati, A., & Evangelou, D. (2016). Practicing engineering while building with blocks: Identifying engineering thinking. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 24(1), 67-85.

Brenneman, K., Lange, A., & Nayfeld, I. (2019). Integrating STEM into preschool education; designing a professional development model in diverse settings. Early Childhood Education Journal, 47(1), 15-28.

Bova, A., & Arcidiacono, F. (2015). Beyond conflicts: Origin and types of issues leading to argumentative discussions during family mealtimes. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 3(2), 263-288.

Bova, A., & Arcidiacono, F. (2018). The interplay between parental argumentative strategies, children's reactions and topics of disagreement during family conversations. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 19, 124-133.

Cohen, L. E., & Emmons, J. (2017). Block play: Spatial language with preschool and school-aged children. Early Child Development and Care, 187(5-6), 967-977.

Colletta, J. M., & Guidetti, M. (Eds.) (2012). Gesture and multimodal development (Vol. 39). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.

Convertini, J. (2018). The richness and complexity of the children’s work in the argumentative process: a focus on relationship management. Presented at ISSBD Regional Workshop, Social competencies and interpersonal relationships: from the individual to the context, Milan, Italy.

Convertini, J. (2019). Contributo allo studio dei tipi di argomento in situazioni di problem solving tecnico da parte di bambini in età prescolare. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Convertini, J. (2020). An interdisciplinary approach to investigate preschool children’s implicit inferential reasoning in scientific activities. Research in Science Education. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-020-09957-3.

Corsaro, W. A. (1985). Friendship and peer culture in the early years. Norwood: Ablex.

Corsaro, W. A. (2003). Le culture dei bambini. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Corsaro, W. A., & Eder, D. (1990). Children's peer cultures. Annual review of sociology, 16(1), 197-220.

Dale Tunnicliffe, S., & Gkouskou, E. (2019). Science in action in spontaneous preschool play. An essential foundation for future understanding. Early Child Development and Care, 190(1), 54-63.

Ejiwale, J. A. (2013). Barriers to successful implementation of STEM education. Journal of Education and Learning, 7(2), 63-74.

Fleer, M., Fragkiadaki, G., & Rai, P. (2020). Methodological challenges of studying children in a living laboratory: Case example of conceptual PlayLab. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 16(3), 47-59.

Fragkiadaki, G. (2020). Conflicts during Science concept formation in early childhood: Barriers or turning points? Review of Science, Mathematics and ICT Education, 14(1), 113-128.

Gold, Z. S., Elicker, J., & Beaulieu, B. A. (2020). Learning engineering through block play. Young Children, 75(2), 24-29.

Greco, S., Mehmeti, T., & Perret-Clermont, A. N. (2017). Do adult-children dialogical interactions leave space for a full development of argumentation?: A case study. Journal of Argumentation in Context, 6(2), 193-219.

Greco Morasso, S., Miserez-Caperos, C., & Perret-Clermont, A. N. (2015). L'argumentation à visée cognitive chez les enfants. Une étude exploratoire sur les dynamiques argumentatives et psychosociales. In N. Muller Mirza & C. Buty (Eds.), Argumentation dans les contextes de l'éducation (pp. 39-82). Bern: Peter Lang.

Greco, S., Perret-Clermont, A. N., Iannaccone, A., Rocci, A., Convertini, J., & Schär, R. G. (2018). The analysis of implicit premises within children’s argumentative inferences. Informal Logic, 38(4), 438-470.

Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In G. H. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation analysis: Studies from the first generation (pp. 13-23). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Jiménez-Aleixandre, M. P., & Erduran, S. (2007). Argumentation in science education: An overview. In Argumentation in science education (pp. 3-27). Dordrecht: Springer.

Kennedy, T. J., & Odell, M. R. L. (2014). Engaging students in STEM education. Science Education International, 25(3), 246-258.

Lottero-Perdue, P., Bowditch, M., Kagan, M., Robinson-Cheek, L., Webb, T., Meller, M., & Nosek, T. (2016). An engineering design process for early childhood: Trying (again) to engineer an egg package. Science and Children, 54(3), 70-77.

Migdalek, M. J., Rosemberg, C. R., & Santibáñez Yáñez, C. (2014). La génesis de la argumentación. Un estudio con niños de 3 a 5 años en distintos contextos de juego. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura, 19(3), 251-267.

Mondada, L. (2016). Challenges of multimodality: Language and the body in social interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 20(3), 336-366.

Morrison (2006). Attributes of STEM education: The student, the school, the classroom. TIES (Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM), 20, 2-7.

Priemer, B., Eilerts, K., Filler, A., Pinkwart, N., Rösken-Winter, B., Tiemann, R., & Zu Belzen, A. U. (2020). A framework to foster problem-solving in STEM and computing education. Research in Science & Technological Education, 38(1), 105-130.

Ramani, G. B., Zippert, E., Schweitzer, S., & Pan, S. (2014). Preschool children's joint block building during a guided play activity. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 35(4), 326-336.

Ravanis, K. (2017). Early Childhood Science Education: State of the art and perspectives. Journal of Baltic Science Education, 16(3), 284-288.

Rocci, A., & Pollaroli, C. (2018). Introduction: Multimodality in argumentation. Semiotica, 2018(220), 1-17.

Schär, R. (2018). On the negotiation of the issue in discussions among young children and their parents. Revue Tranel, 68, 17-25.

Schär, R. (in press). An argumentative analysis of the emergence of issues in adult-children discussions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Schär, R., & Greco, S. (2018). The emergence of issues in everyday discussions between adults and children. International Journal of Semiotics and Visual Rhetoric, 2(1), 29-43.

Van Eemeren, F. H., & Grootendorst, R. (1984). Speech acts in argumentative discussions: A theoretical model for the analysis of discussions directed towards solving conflicts of opinion. Dordrecht: Floris Publications.

Van Eemeren, F. H., & Grootendorst, R. (2004). A Systematic theory of argumentation: The pragma- dialectical approach. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Van Meeteren, B. (2018). Elementary engineering: What is the focus? Science and Children, 55(7), 6-8.

Weil-Barais, A. (1996). L’homme cognitif. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.26220/rev.3494

View Counter: Abstract | 839 | times, and PDF | 405 | times



Re S M ICT E | ISSN: 1792-3999 (electronic), 1791-261X (print) | Laboratory of Didactics of Sciences, Mathematics and ICT, Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education - University of Patras.

Pasithee | Library & Information Center | University of Patras