Family Conversations About Heat and Temperature: Implications for Children’s Learning
Some science educators claim that children enter science classrooms with a conception of heat considered by physicists to be incorrect and speculate that “misconceptions” may result from the way heat is talked about in everyday language (e.g., Lautrey and Mazens, 2004; Slotta and Chi, 2006). We inve...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01718/full |
| _version_ | 1818503599491121152 |
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| author | Megan R. Luce Maureen A. Callanan |
| author_facet | Megan R. Luce Maureen A. Callanan |
| author_sort | Megan R. Luce |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Some science educators claim that children enter science classrooms with a conception of heat considered by physicists to be incorrect and speculate that “misconceptions” may result from the way heat is talked about in everyday language (e.g., Lautrey and Mazens, 2004; Slotta and Chi, 2006). We investigated talk about heat in naturalistic conversation to explore the claim that children often hear heat discussed as a substance rather than as a process, potentially hindering later learning of heat as energy involved in emergent processes. We explored naturalistic speech among children and adults to understand the nature and the frequency of heat- and temperature-related conversations that young children are involved in. This study aims to investigate the actual linguistic resources that children have available as part of a sociocultural approach to cognitive development. Parents’ everyday conversations about heat and temperature with their 2–6-year-old children were drawn from the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) language database and from a parent–child book-reading study. Parents used the word heat rarely, but they did so in ways that implied it is a substance. Parents never talked about heat as an emergent process but sometimes as a direct causal process. Most of the heat- and temperature-related talk, however, focused on words like hot and cold to describe temperature as a property of objects. This investigation of what young children actually experience in everyday conversations is a step toward studying how everyday language may play a role in children’s understanding of heat and temperature. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T21:26:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6d28eda2bfee48b7af1bd9f0c683b557 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T21:26:06Z |
| publishDate | 2020-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-6d28eda2bfee48b7af1bd9f0c683b5572022-12-22T01:32:59ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782020-08-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.01718538775Family Conversations About Heat and Temperature: Implications for Children’s LearningMegan R. LuceMaureen A. CallananSome science educators claim that children enter science classrooms with a conception of heat considered by physicists to be incorrect and speculate that “misconceptions” may result from the way heat is talked about in everyday language (e.g., Lautrey and Mazens, 2004; Slotta and Chi, 2006). We investigated talk about heat in naturalistic conversation to explore the claim that children often hear heat discussed as a substance rather than as a process, potentially hindering later learning of heat as energy involved in emergent processes. We explored naturalistic speech among children and adults to understand the nature and the frequency of heat- and temperature-related conversations that young children are involved in. This study aims to investigate the actual linguistic resources that children have available as part of a sociocultural approach to cognitive development. Parents’ everyday conversations about heat and temperature with their 2–6-year-old children were drawn from the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) language database and from a parent–child book-reading study. Parents used the word heat rarely, but they did so in ways that implied it is a substance. Parents never talked about heat as an emergent process but sometimes as a direct causal process. Most of the heat- and temperature-related talk, however, focused on words like hot and cold to describe temperature as a property of objects. This investigation of what young children actually experience in everyday conversations is a step toward studying how everyday language may play a role in children’s understanding of heat and temperature.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01718/fullscience talkparent–child communicationconceptual changescientific thinkingsociocultural perspectives |
| spellingShingle | Megan R. Luce Maureen A. Callanan Family Conversations About Heat and Temperature: Implications for Children’s Learning Frontiers in Psychology science talk parent–child communication conceptual change scientific thinking sociocultural perspectives |
| title | Family Conversations About Heat and Temperature: Implications for Children’s Learning |
| title_full | Family Conversations About Heat and Temperature: Implications for Children’s Learning |
| title_fullStr | Family Conversations About Heat and Temperature: Implications for Children’s Learning |
| title_full_unstemmed | Family Conversations About Heat and Temperature: Implications for Children’s Learning |
| title_short | Family Conversations About Heat and Temperature: Implications for Children’s Learning |
| title_sort | family conversations about heat and temperature implications for children s learning |
| topic | science talk parent–child communication conceptual change scientific thinking sociocultural perspectives |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01718/full |
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