Drama activities as ideational resources for primary‐grade children in urban science classrooms

Abstract

In this study we explored how dramatic enactments of scientific phenomena and concepts mediate children's learning of scientific meanings along material, social, and representational dimensions. These drama activities were part of two integrated science‐literacy units, Matter and Forest, which we developed and implemented in six urban primary‐school (grades 1st–3rd) classrooms. We examine and discuss the possibilities and challenges that arise as children and teachers engaged in scientific knowing through such experiences. We use Halliday's (1978. Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press) three metafunctions of communicative activity—ideational, interpersonal, and textual—to map out the place of the multimodal drama genre in elementary urban school science classrooms of young children. As the children talked, moved, gestured, and positioned themselves in space, they constructed and shared meanings with their peers and their teachers as they enacted their roles. Through their bodies they negotiated ambiguity and re‐articulated understandings, thus marking this embodied meaning making as a powerful way to engage with science. Furthermore, children's whole bodies became central, explicit tools used to accomplish the goal of representing this imaginary scientific world, as their teachers helped them differentiate it from the real world of the model they were enacting. Their bodies operated on multiple mediated levels: as material objects that moved through space, as social objects that negotiated classroom relationships and rules, and as metaphorical entities that stood for water molecules in different states of matter or for plants, animals, or non‐living entities in a forest food web. Children simultaneously negotiated meanings across all of these levels, and in doing so, acted out improvisational drama as they thought and talked science. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 302–325, 2010

Effect of a Performing Arts Program on the Oral Language Skills of Young English Learners

“…We are currently beginning a project that will examine the impacts of incorporating dramatic movement into science teaching for students in grades 3-5. Similar research has shown success in this pairing (Varelas et al, 2010 ), and we seek to replicate it on a large-scale level.…”

Nature-culture constructs in science learning: Human/non-human agency and intentionality

“…Contexts. In addition to design research, we are also interested in fundamental questions about culture, cognition and development, and have sought to more deeply understand the intellectual generativity (as opposed to deficits) and implicit pedagogies mobilized within everyday practices (Warren et al 2005;Barton, Tan, & Rivet, 2008;Gonzalez et al, 1995;Guti errez, Baquedano-L opez, & Tejeda, 1999;Lee, 2010;Varelas et al, 2010). For example, our research teams have studied outdoor practices of fishing, hunting, harvesting and gardening, among others.…”

Dramatisering i spänningsfältet mellan som om och som är och sexåringars meningsskapande av kemiska begrepp och processer

“…I presentationsdrama ges barnen rollen som publik, medan upplevelsebaserat drama innebär att de själva deltar som aktörer. När barn själva deltar, navigerar de mellan vardagliga och föreställda världar, vilket skapar ett tillstånd av dubbelt medvetande (Dorion, 2009;Varelas et al, 2010). Ett sådant tillstånd av dubbelt medvetande -metaxis -innebär att kunna växla mellan en föreställd värld (som om) och en verklig värld (som är).…”

“…Enligt Ødegaard (2003) tillåter dramatisering av vetenskap att begreppen, som hon uttrycker det, kommer till liv och införlivas i barns egna erfarenheter och livsvärldar. Varelas et al (2010) diskuterar användning av drama i relation till modellering och naturvetenskapligt lärande, och visar hur drama kan vara ett produktivt sätt för barn att närma sig abstrakta naturvetenskapliga modeller. De genomförde en studie där syftet var att stödja barn i lågstadiet att utveckla och kommunicera naturvetenskap genom drama.…”

“…Barnen fick agera som molekyler i olika tillstånd -fast, flytande och gas -för att sedan reflektera över aktiviteten och använda de disciplinära begreppen. Undersökningen belyser komplexiteten i hur barn skapar och kommunicerar mening med varandra, och Varelas et al (2010) diskuterar utifrån sina resultat vilka nya möjligheter för undervisning av naturvetenskap dramaformen kan bidra med. De drar, utifrån sina resultat, slutsatsen att dramatisering av naturvetenskapligt innehåll kan erbjuda barn möjlighet att skapa mening som grundar sig i kroppsliga erfarenheter och gör så att de får möjlighet att utveckla förståelse bortom dualismer som tänkande-kännande, kropp och intellekt, för att på så sätt ge barnen tillgång till mer komplexa och funktionella former av tänkande.…”