Reality and Idea - reflection or selection? Two ways in which young children’s perceptual discrimination interacts with conceptual change while building water systems Sharona T. Levy, Tel-Aviv University

ABSTRACT This study explores children’s learning while gaining practice in building operating water pipe systems. In the talk, the focus will be on the relationship between the perceptual discrimination of system behavior and the changes in understanding of the physical rules underlying system operation. Kindergarten children constructed four different hierarchically controlled water systems, based on increasingly complex combinations of three physical relations. Their learning of these physical relations and the specificity in their description of system behavior were analyzed and two kinds of interactions between the two were found: data-driven and theory-driven modes of learning.

INTRODUCTION This study explores children’s learning processes while gaining practice in building operating water pipe systems. Learning is described through a few perspectives: mental models – including both device topology (parts, layout and relations) and causal rules underlying the water flow, perceptual discrimination of water behavior, motor action rates and spatial reference systems. In the talk, the focus will be on the relationship between the children’s perceptual discrimination of system behavior and the changes in their understanding of the physical rules underlying system operation. One of the descriptions of technology views it as an interface between idea and reality, with the dynamics of technological development based upon the strain between these two (Staudenmaier, 1985). We suggest that in this tension lies a great potential for learning: for the builder or reality-changer, idea and reality adapt to each other and are modified to achieve a mutual fit. Conflict between the two makes up the mechanism lying at the heart of mental growth (Piaget, 1952). For learning to occur, new information needs to enter the cognitive system and interact with existing knowledge. While the goal of constructing working systems guides building activity, perception of the developing target object – the layout of parts and their total behavior – provides information on which learning can grow. When this information coincides with expectations, the latter are reinforced and strengthened. When the two contradict, a conflict may arise, a trigger for learning. Models of perceptual learning (gradual enrichment) differ from ecological theories (perception in service of action) and models of scientific discovery (perception as data collection) in predicting the patterns of interaction between conceptual and perceptual processes. It is difficult to deduce clear-cut expectations regarding changes in perception through practice in building. Thus our research question is aimed at a resolution of the issue we have described: What patterns describe the changes in perceptual resolution of the behavior of technological systems over a time period when such systems are being built? How is perceptual resolution related to conceptual change while gaining experience in building water systems?

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METHOD & PROCEDURE The children constructed four different hierarchically controlled water systems, based on increasingly complex combinations of three physical relations. They were tested individually and carried out the tasks with minimal involvement of the researcher. 29 children aged 5’2”6’3” participated in the study, 15 in an experimental group and 14 in a control group. Both groups were interviewed before and after the activities, and the experimental group was interviewed at the end of each of the four building sessions. The control group participated in alternative activities that involved astronomy and Greek mythology. Throughout this period, the builders were interviewed six times, using 33 prediction tasks. They were asked to compare the streams that would emanate from different water systems, and to describe them. They replied to each task in three forms: describing a real system, drawing streams onto a schematic of the system, and explaining their drawing. The highest level response among the three was analyzed, and its consistency was coded. The tasks involved variation of one or dimensions out of three that operated in determining water flow: height of the water-exit, hole-width of the water exit and resistance until the exit. The children’s causal mental models were coded using a scale, that describes both the number of rules in their model and whether its rules are correct. The children’s descriptions of the streams were coded on a scale that counts the number of descriptors and compares their specificity. RESULTS No differences were found in verbal or pictorial description specificity between the pretest and the posttest or between groups. The correlation between rule models and description specificity is calculated. Although some association exists between rule models and specificity in description, it is not a strong correlation. When the experimental group’s progressions were looked into, group results show a heightened specificity coinciding with rule transitions for four out of five tasks where conceptual change was observed. Individual progressions of specificity and rules in each of the tasks were examined. Two main patterns were found (1) Increased specificity before the rule shift or (2) increased specificity during and/or after the rule shift. For each child, a 3.4 (SD 1.8) such patterns were detected. Their temporal ordering shows the following. The dominant temporal pattern is that of a consistent (1) (40%). A pattern of consistent (2) (27%) and one that shifts from (1) to (2) (33%) follow closely behind. None shifted in the opposite direction. No correlation was found between the pattern in which specificity and rule transition interact and the final rule models. DISCUSSION The focus if the discussion will be on the coordination of theory and data, set within the activity of building mechanical devices. We shall resolve the competition between perceptual learning and scientific discovery as an explanation of our results. The patterns of interaction between specificity in describing system behavior and understanding of the causal rules will be ascribed to two modes of learning - data-driven and theory-driven. They are similar to those described by Klahr & Dunbar (1988) as ‘experimenters’ and ‘theorists’. We shall raise questions as to young children’s abilities in coordinating idea and reality and as to the appropriateness of describing such learning styles as dependent on individual differences.

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Finally, the unique opportunity for learning through building technological systems will be discussed. REFERENCES Staudenmaier, J.M. (1985). Technology’s storytellers: Reweaving the Human Fabric. Cambridge, Mass. And London: Society for the History of Technology and The MIT Press. Piaget, J. (1952). The Origins of Intelligence in Children. New York: International University Press. Klahr, D. & Dunbar, K. (1988). Dual search space during scientific reasoning. Cognitive Science, 12(1), 1-48.

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