TITLE:
Models, Structures and Analogical Thinking in Early Childhood Education and Care and Primary School: A Qualitative Study on Teachers’ Perception about Those Concepts
AUTHORS:
Francesca Granone, Martin Stokke
KEYWORDS:
ECEC, Primary School, Analogical Thinking, Vygotsky, Structures, Models
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.12 No.11,
November
10,
2021
ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to investigate ECEC teachers and primary school teachers’ perspective about recognizing models, structures and using analogical thinking as a key to facilitate children’s learning process. Without discussing in-depth the definition of a mathematical structure or model, teachers reflected about the possibilities and the reasons whytousemodels, structures and an analogical approach in teaching. Both ECEC teachers and primary school teachers showed a comprehension about those concepts, but mainly related to a theoretical approach. The idea that recognizing structures and models can help to identify what is known and what is new when we try to solve a problem has been discussed. An analogical approach that can help teachers to sustain children in the transition from what is known and what is not has been evaluated,connected to the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky) and to scaffolding (Bruner). Reflections about the Framework Plan for Kindergartens and the Framework for basic skills in primary school are reported.Both ECEC teachers and primary school teachers evaluated the concepts of “models” and “structures” as important, agreeing with Van Hiele and Bartha’s definition. Both groupsof teachers also recognized the importance of analogical thinking, where structures and models are useful for defining a starting point in the learning process.