Med ljus på boksamtal om skugga

Author
Backman, A.
Source
Akademisk avhandling. Göteborgs universitet.
Year
2018

Purpose

Teaching materials or textbooks are usually not used in kindergartens, but rather children’s books and stories to teach various topics within areas of knowledge such as science. The purpose of this study is to describe how five children and a kindergarten teacher talk together about the phenomenon of shadow in four different children’s books.   

Result

The results show that the children experience shadow as something that can be influenced by someone or something, being visible through light and projected area, being manageable like tangible objects, and as something self-acting with fictitious abilities. The analysis highlighted various dimensions of variation that emerged through the book conversations. Visibility was the aspect of the light/shadow phenomenon that was most easily accessible to the children. They had difficulty discerning location and length.  

 Based on the study, it becomes clear that everyday conversations about shadow based on children’s books are not adequate enough for children to experience something new about shadow, whether it is about shadow as a scientific, artistic or fictitious phenomenon. One conclusion that can be drawn based on the results of the study is that the understanding of what a book conversation means in kindergarten must be reconsidered and supplemented. The author expresses that more investigative book conversations are needed, which are based on the children independently taking the initiative to specifically investigate things they do not understand in the children’s books.

Design

Shadow was chosen as a physical phenomenon for the children to investigate in line with Swedish pre-school curriculum. Four books on shadow have been published in Sweden between 2006 and 2014 that are aimed at children aged 3–6 years. All these books were available in Swedish libraries at the time of the study. A kindergarten teacher gathered five children who could and wanted to join the study and they discussed these four books. The conversations lasted 93 minutes and were filmed. The researcher transcribed and analysed this video material based on a variation theory framework. 

References

Backman, A. (2018). ”Med ljus på boksamtal om skugga”. Akademisk avhandling. Göteborgs universitet.

Financed by

The Swedish Research Council, Sweden