Using historical reconstruction
to implement inquiry-based teaching
in primary school
Cécile de Hosson, Paris7-Diderot University (France)
Teachers in primary school and science education
“I’m afraid of teaching science
because I don’t know about
science”
The use of history of science in training
sessions can be a way to reconcile the
teachers with the scientific contents.
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Inquiry process for active learning
Children’s ideas
Scientific content
Question
Answers’attempt : Discussion
History
of
science
Problem to be solved
Experiment based process
Model based approach
Activity of documentation
Technological process
Share
Conclusion
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History of science in science education
Provides the teachers with the students’
difficulties
Provides the students with
comprehensive view of science
a
more
Gives turning-points that can inspire the
teachers with pedagogical strategy
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Questions to be solved
History of science
?
Tool for a learning
pathway
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Similarities between
ideas in the past and
children’s reasoning :
What can we do ?
Rediscovering
scientific contents :
Reality or illusion ?
First example :
Following the footsteps of Eratosthenes
http://www.mapmonde.org/eratos/pdf/moduleen.pdf
Following the footsteps of Eratosthenes
In Egypt, about 2200 years ago, a papyrus drew attention of a certain
Eratosthenes, then Director of the Great Library of Alexandria (a town
located on the side of the Mediterranean Sea): it was about a vertical stick
which, on the first day of summer (that is to say on June the 21st) and at
noon local solar time, did not cast any shadow on the ground. This
happened very far from Alexandria, straight to the South, in a town called
Syene (now Aswan). However, Eratosthenes noticed from his side that in
Alexandria, on June the 21rst also and at the same time, a stick vertically
driven in the ground did cast a shadow, even if such a shadow was
relatively short. What the hell was this mystery?
We invite you to discover it by yourselves. This will lead you pretty far
since, as Eratosthenes showed, the key of this mystery will allow you to
measure the circumference of the Earth, nothing less!
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Following the footsteps of Eratosthenes
Even if they know about the circular shape of the Earth, the pupils use a
flat local space in their reasonning.
Most of the pupils will draw the Sun on their sheet with divergent rays.
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Following the footsteps of Eratosthenes
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Following the footsteps of Eratosthenes
The line between Aswan and
Alexandria is a curve one !
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Following the footsteps of Eratosthenes
Some pupils use a spherical Earth for their explanation, BUT...
They still draw the propagation of the sunlight with divergent rays.
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Following the footsteps of Eratosthenes
This does not
square with their
observations
The model of the divergent rays is not operational to explain both
situations : it has to be changed !
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Following the footsteps of Eratosthenes
The stake of the learning-sequence is :
The parallelism of the solar rays
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Following the footsteps of Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes hypothesis :
Children’s hypothesis :
The parallelism of the solar rays
The sphericity of the Earth
≠
Eratosthenes discovery :
Children’s discovery :
The sphericity of the Earth
The parallelism of the solar rays
The use of the Eratosthenes discovery involves an pedagogical orientated
reading of the history of science.
This reading is guided by what one knows about children’s ideas about light,
about the shape of the Earth, etc.
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Seconde example :
How did light became the stimulus of the eye ?
Children’s ideas about light and vision
Vision is mostly explained in an eyeobject direction.
The role played by light is often limited to lighting.
The entry of the light into the eye is solely associated
with dazzle and pain
The light stays on the objects when it is not strong
enough to bounce
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Children’s ideas about light and vision
Prof : Can you see the wall ?
Clara : No.
Prof : Why not ?
Clara : Because of the light. It lights my
eyes, It comes into my eyes, and it hurts.
Prof : What could I do for you to see the
wall ?
• 45 min
• Experiment
• 25 children (5 years-old)
• Interviews tape-recorded
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Clara : You put less light on the wall. It
will just stay on the wall and won’t come
into my eyes…
Clara, 5 years-old
History of science
Science education
enables the
researchers to explore
the history of science in
a different way…
… In order to favour the
children’s learning
process
Science education
« Part of what I know about how to question dead scientists has been
learned by examining Piaget’s interrogations of living children »
Kuhn, The Essential tension, 1977.
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Questions
What can be the role played by science
education (SE) in apprehending the history
of science (HS) ?
How a didactically-orientated reading of the
HS can be used in order to help the children
admit that vision occurs through the light
passing from a lit object to the eyes ?
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Exploring Ibn al-Haytham’s work
Every lit object sends out some of the light
it receives
It is the property of sight to be affected by
light (Dazzle)
This affection can be compared with pain
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Light treated in a quantitative way
“The effects of light in the eye vary only by
more or less. But owing to the mild effect
on the eye of weak and moderate lights
they are not felt as pain”.
Ibn al-Haytham, Kitab al manazir, book 1, chap. 6
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Light treated in a quantitative way
Too much light
Just enough light
Not enough light
…sent out into the eyes
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SE ofr another reading of the HS
Dazzle :
–Obstacle for the children, considering the
role played by the light in the mechanism
of vision.
–Starting point for a revolutionary theory
of vision in Ibn al-Haytham’s work (Kitab al
Manazir, chap. 4)
Promote a learning pathway which appears to be spontaneously
stopped by the children’s interpretation of vision and dazzle.
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HS for a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) in elementary optics
« Dialogue on the way that vision operates »
•1h30 planned teaching learning sequence
•12 children (12-13 years-old)
• Binomial interviews tape-recorded and transcribed
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HS for a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) in elementary optics
Is reasoning with quantity
operational in other situations ?
of
light
« This part on the wall is
less lit, it sends out less
light… »
« …and this part sends
more light »
Kevin, 13 years-old
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HS and children ’s opinion
Elements of the history of science as a motivational
factor : “It’s interesting to talk about people, what
they did and what they thought before” (Julie).
Identification with the characters portrayed in the
sequence as a positive aspect : “ What I said
earlier (The eye sends a vision) was like the
beginning of the text so I think it’s reassuring to
see that some people had the same idea”
(Océane).
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Conclusion
There is a difference between introducing HS
into a science course and organizing a
science course on historical grounds.
When a science educator uses HS as a
guidelines for his course, he emphazises
some aspects of HS sometimes ignored (or
reduced) by historians and philosophers of
science > historical reconstruction
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