Primary Physical Science for Student Teachers at Kindergarten and Primary School Levels: Part I—Foundations of an Imaginative Approach to Physical Science

Abstract

This is a theoretical paper in which we describe the motivation for and the design of a novel primary physics course for student teachers at kindergarten and primary school levels that uses cognitive tools such as metaphor, analogy, and narrative. The course has been taught in the master's program in teacher education at three Universities over the last 5 years. It is based upon a model of the experience of forces of nature that draws upon four existing frameworks in physics, narratology, cognitive linguistics, and a theory of the development of cognitive tools. In short, the course is created upon the foundations of an imaginative, metaphoric and narrative, approach to physical science in general and to forces of nature in particular. Student teachers who learn science based upon this model can more directly relate to how children themselves experience nature and become confident narrators of stories of forces of nature. We describe the notion of Force of Nature ("The Gestalt of Force of Nature") and explain what we mean by cognitive tools ("Cognitive Tools: Tools of Imagination") before showing in what sense modern macroscopic physics is both metaphoric and narrative at its core ("An Imaginative Approach to Physical Science"). In "A Systemic Imaginative Approach to Primary Physics", we give an outline of what is needed in order to apply the approach to a course for primary physics for student teachers. In the final section, we will discuss some questions and challenges raised by this approach and show that it is a viable avenue to bringing together science and the humanities, both for research and for teaching.

Embodied Simulations of Forces of Nature and the Role of Energy in Physical Systems

“…Forces of Nature [2,3,12,[14][15][16] constitute a category of phenomena we experience as agentive and powerful (see Section 2.1). Examples of FoN are wind and rain, water and air, heat and electricity, food and medicines, and gravity and motion.…”

“…In recent years, we have created designs for ES and FoN-T performances for young learners to combine direct physical experience of FoN in natural and technical settings with narrative experience, i.e., with particular forms of communicative activity between themselves and teachers who jointly attend to phenomena (Sections 3 and 4; [12,16]). ES (see Section 3) can be used to represent storage and flow (and production/destruction) of extensive quantities related to tension (i.e., differences of potentials).…”

“…However, it is important to augment the scientific list of basic forces with that of primary forces, since the latter are primary in direct physical experience. For a pedagogy of Primary Physical Science [12,16], we need to take a perspective that allows us to deal with such primary experience of lay persons (adults and children alike).…”

“…The concepts of ES and FoN-T performances that have been presented from a theoretical perspective in our paper have been tested in the context of teacher training [12,13,16,34]. The authors are developing a natural science course (focusing on physical processes) for future kindergarten and primary school teachers [12,16] that provides for student teachers to be involved in ES or in FoN-T performances. This happens directly during lectures and labs, and may be part of practice periods in school, or as didactic projects for their exams or master theses.…”

“…Our previous studies have been limited to relatively short-term interventions. We are expecting important insights, not just for single activities such as ES or FoN-T, but for our narrative-based approach to Primary Physical Science Education [12,16] as well.…”