Η διερεύνηση των ιδεών μαθητών πρώτης σχολικής ηλικίας για τη μηχανική ισορροπία ως μια πολυτροπική διαδικασία

Abstract

In international literature, studies that record pre-existing ideas about various concepts and phenomena in the natural sciences usually do not consider that meaning making is a multimodal process. As a result, the tools with which the data are collected often do not activate more than one mode of expression and thus limit the learner's ability to express his/her reasoning more fully. In this context, to investigate the conceptualizations of 1st grade students about the phenomenon of mechanical balance, semi-structured interviews were applied to 2 (two) students, which included 3 equally targeted scenarios, each of which, however, activated a different semiotic system (oral discourse, pictorial expression and embodied interaction respectively). The analysis of the interviews revealed that each semiotic system influenced differently on the meaning-making of the trainees' thinking, while a synergy between the 3 semiotic systems was recorded during the expression of the relevant views. This synergy appeared to play an important role in conceptualizing the concept of distance and its relationship to the force exerted to achieve balance. An alternation between adequate, intermediate and inadequate, in relation to the scientific standard, reasoning was also recorded in the different scenarios. This alternation potentially indicates different routes of thought in the attempt to understand the physical world. Finally, it is documented that the trainees used, regardless of the outcome, measurement and the notion of visual symmetry in their reasoning, two data considered essential for building meaning about mechanical equilibrium.