Reasoning with External Representations in Elementary Astronomy
Irini Skopeliti (eskopel@phs.
uoa.
gr) &
Stella Vosniadou (svosniad@phs.
uoa.
gr)
Cognitive Science Lab
Department of Philosophy and History of Science
National and Kapodistrian University of...
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Reasoning with External Representations in Elementary Astronomy
Irini Skopeliti (eskopel@phs.
uoa.
gr) &
Stella Vosniadou (svosniad@phs.
uoa.
gr)
Cognitive Science Lab
Department of Philosophy and History of Science
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Ano Ilissia, 157 71, Greece
Abstract
This experiment investigated the effect of the presentation of
two culturally accepted external representations of the earth -a
map and a globe- on children’s reasoning in elementary
astronomy.
Eighty four children from grades 1 and 3 were
interviewed individually.
First, the children were given a pretest which determined their internal representations by asking
them to make drawings and play-dough models of the earth
and indicate where people live.
The children were then
divided in two experimental groups: Half of the children were
presented with a globe, and half with a map.
In both groups
the children were asked to answer another set of questions
about the earth, in order to determine
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