The Effect of Human Presence on the Representations of Children 4-6 Years Old in the Case of Air Within Vases

Abstract

A distinctive direction within the framework of Early Childhood Science Education research is the study of young children's mental representations of natural world phenomena and concepts in science. The study of representations offers the possibility of developing activities that address the real difficulties of children and lead to the construction of new representations compatible with school science knowledge. The current research presents a study on the potential effect of the presence of humans on the representations of children aged 4-6 years regarding the case of air within vases. 41 children attending a kindergarten in Patras (Greece) participated in the study. During individual semi-structured interviews, children were presented with 3 different images displaying a vase with people standing next to it in different settings and were asked to indicate whether there is air in the vase and whether this is related to that people. The results showed that the presence of air in the containers was best identified in the outdoor environment, while few children attributed the air to human presence, especially when the vases were placed indoors. Based on the frequency table, it seems that regarding the outdoor environment, there are more adequate responses, as the presence of human elements influences less the participants, while in indoor settings there are more intermediate and inadequate responses, suggesting that the presence of the human element has a greater impact in participant's responses.