Chapter 6, page 65
Figure 6.1b. Daryl’s second drawing.
Lilly: Here is a picture of a house. This house is on the earth, isn’t it?
Daryl: No, it’s on the ground.
Lilly: Why is the earth in this picture flat, but you drew it round at the top of the picture?
Daryl: Because this one [points at the flat picture] is the ground.
Lilly: Why does it look flat?
Daryl: Because we’re on the ground.
Lilly: If you walked and walked for many days in a straight line, where would you end up?
Daryl: I think you’d come to the edge.
Lilly: So there is an edge to the earth?
Daryl: No. The earth doesn’t have an edge.
Lilly: OK.... Hmmm. Well, can you fall off the edge?
Daryl: Of this? [He points to the straight line at the bottom of the picture.] Yeah.
Lilly: Now I want you to show me where Atlanta is.
Daryl: [points next to the house.]
Lilly: Now show me where China is.
Daryl: [Draws the line under the house farther out and points to the end of the line. See Figure
6.1b.]
Lilly: Now tell me what is down here below the earth.
Daryl: The sky and the sun or moon. And the ground.
Think carefully about Lilly’s interview with Daryl, and answer these questions:
- Does Daryl have a consistent or coherent idea about the earth’s shape, or is he just confused?
Present evidence for your answer. - If he does have a consistent or coherent idea about the earth’s shape, what is that idea, and what
is your evidence for your conclusion?
Drawn from Vosniadou & Brewer (1992).
The Reflection above is about a topic that is central to good teaching. Students have ideas about the
world (in this case, about the earth’s shape) which are often very different from the ideas that teachers are
hoping that their students will learn. This chapter is about these conceptions and how they affect learning.
As we will see as we examine students’ ideas about the earth’s shape later in the chapter, Daryl’s ideas
arise because the new ideas he is learning (e.g., the earth is round) are incompatible with some of this