Life in the Hive: Supporting Inquiry into Complexity Within the Zone of Proximal Development

Research into students' understanding of complex systems typically ignores young children because of misinterpretations of young children's competencies. Furthermore, studies that do recognize young children's competencies tend to focus on what children can do in isolation. As an alte...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of science education and technology 2011-10, Vol.20 (5), p.454-467
Main Authors: Danish, Joshua A., Peppier, Kylie, Phelps, David, Washington, DiAnna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bee dances
Bees
Child Development
Children
Complex systems
Complexity
Computer programs
Computer Simulation
Computer Software
Curricula
Design
Early Childhood Education
Education
Educational activities
Educational Environment
Educational Technology
Grade 1
Grade 2
Group facilitation
Insect behavior
Insect colonies
Instructional scaffolding
Learning
Learning Theories
Nectar
PART A: INNOCATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR K-6
Science Education
Software
Students
Young Children
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Research into students' understanding of complex systems typically ignores young children because of misinterpretations of young children's competencies. Furthermore, studies that do recognize young children's competencies tend to focus on what children can do in isolation. As an alternative, we propose an approach to designing for young children that is grounded in the notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky 1978) and leverages Activity Theory to design learning environments. In order to highlight the benefits of this approach, we describe our process for using Activity Theory to inform the design of new software and curricula in a way that is productive for young children to learn concepts that we might have previously considered to be "developmentally inappropriate". As an illuminative example, we then present a discussion of the design of the BeeSign simulation software and accompanying curriculum which specifically designed from an Activity Theory perspective to engage young children in learning about complex systems (Danish 2009a, b). Furthermore, to illustrate the benefits of this approach, we will present findings from a new study where 40 first-and second-grade students participated in the BeeSign curriculum to learn about how honeybees collect nectar from a complex systems perspective. We conclude with some practical suggestions for how such an approach to using Activity Theory for research and design might be adopted by other science educators and designers.
ISSN:1059-0145
1573-1839
DOI:10.1007/s10956-011-9313-4