Children understanding the world around them Enrica Giordano Dipartimento di Scienze umane per la Formazione Milano Bicocca 15 maggio 2007

Harris question: When children are given information that they cannot check for themselves, do they accept information from any informant? My questions: When children (and adults) are given information (apparently) contrasting what they can check for themselves…… How children (and adults) construct understanding (models) of the world around them

The “resonant cognitive model” (P. Guidoni) The model is centered on the metaphorical notion of understanding as cognitive resonance between different dimensions: experience, languages, knowledge at individual as well as at socio-cultural level.

In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to absorb more oscillatory energy when the frequency of the oscillations matches the system's natural frequency of vibration (its resonant frequency) than it does at other frequencies. Pushing a seat for swinging A pole vibrating when the bus stops and the engine idles

working on sun shadows: is the sun moving? Kinderdargen kids looking at their shadows Teachers working on shadows in astronomy “Night is earth’s shadow” “the sun moved and, to me, the idea moved” (4 years)

Where is Norway? Teachers (and media) give information through words, pictures, drawings, models. They can induce wrong (contrasting evidence) ideas: The geographic North is always “up”? At noon the sun is “above our head”? The “local” tilt of the Earth’s axis is like the globe orientation? Moon phases are caused by Earth’s shadow? …………………………………

Young children and motion From everyday life to (scientific) understanding  Why, when I’m jumping, the wall is moving? (Laura, 4 years)  I’m sitting on a train traveling from Milan to Rome. I’m moving?  What do we mean by “moving”? Observation vs interpretation

We always invent, devise, things that we cannot see, to explain things that we see (students 9-10 years old) From the “permanent object” to the molecular models of matter we construct models, our understanding is an “understanding by models “Our senses don’t describe the worl, they question it” I nostri sensi non descrivono il mondo, lo interrogano”, Boncinelli in (Boncinelli & Bottazzini, 2000). “Understanding is imagination” Capire è immaginare, legame tra concettualizzazione e esperienze percettivo motorie Gallese, V. e Lakoff G. (2005). ‘The Brain’s Concepts: the Role of the Sensory- Motor System in Conceptual Knowledge’, Cognitive Neuropsychology, 21,

Doing and talking “Il discorso é l’ombra dall’azione” (Democrito) The talk is the shadow of action "Se non mi vengono le parole non riesco neanche a pensare" (Marco, classe IV) If I don’t get the words I cannot think (M. 9 y) Una buona scienza non è niente di più che una lingua ben fatta. A good science is nothing more that a well done language “Une science bien traitée n’est que une langue bien faite”, De Condillac in DeMauro, Scienza e lingua,