Chapter 6, page 64
Reflecting on Students’ Thinking
Lilly Drake is a third grade teacher in Atlanta, Georgia. She has recently learned in a
graduate course that young children frequently have ideas about the world that are very different
from the ideas of adults and scientists. For example, she found out that some young children think
that when they eat food, the food quickly disperses throughout their body rather than entering any
kind of digestive system (Carvalho, Silva, Lima, Coquet, & Clément, 2004). On the subject of
earth science, she learned that some students think that the earth is flat rather than round <<
Brewer, in press >>.
These ideas were all quite new to Lilly, and they led her to wonder about her own
students. She had recently completed a two-week lesson on the solar system. The students had
learned about all of the planets and how they revolve around the sun. Surely it wasn’t possible that
her students would still think that the earth was flat, was it?
To find out, she decided to interview several of her students using the same interview
questions that she had read about in a study (Vosniadou & Brewer, 1992). She started by
interviewing one of her students, Daryl, who stayed late after school one day. Here is the
interview:
Lilly: Daryl, tell me what you think about the shape of the earth. What is the earth’s shape?
Daryl: It’s all round.
Lilly: OK, and if you want to look to see the earth, which way do you look?
Daryl: Up.
Lilly: Up? OK. Would you draw a picture of what the earth looks like? Here’s some paper.
Daryl: [Draws part of the picture shown in Figure 6.1a]
Lilly: Now show me where the moon and stars are, and where the sky is.
Daryl: [Draws the moon, stars, and sky in Figure 6.1a]
Lilly: And finally, draw where the people are.
Figure 6.1a. Daryl’s first drawing.