ERIC Number: EJ852835
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Sep
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0926-7220
EISSN: N/A
Science and Theatre Education: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach of Scientific Ideas Addressed to Student Teachers of Early Childhood Education
Tselfes, Vasilis; Paroussi, Antigoni
Science & Education, v18 n9 p1115-1134 Sep 2009
There is, in Greece, an ongoing attempt to breach the boundaries established between the different teaching-learning subjects of compulsory education. In this context, we are interested in exploring to what degree the teaching and learning of ideas from the sciences' "internal life" (Hacking, in: Pickering (ed) "Science as practice and culture," 1992) benefits from creatively coming into contact with theatrical education as part of the corresponding curriculum subject. To this end, 57 students of the Early Childhood Education Department of the University of Athens were called to study extracts from Galileo's "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican," to focus on a subject that the "Dialogue's" "interlocutors" forcefully disagree about and to theatrically represent (using shadow theatre techniques) what they considered as being the central idea of this clash of opinions. The results indicate that this attempt leads to a satisfactory understanding of ideas relating to the content and methodology of the natural sciences. At the same time, theatrical education avails itself of the representation of scientific ideas and avoids the cliches and hackneyed techniques that the (often) simplistic choices available in the educational context of early childhood education tend towards. The basic reasons for both facets of this success are: (a) Genuine scientific texts force the students to approach them with seriousness, and all the more so if these recount the manner in which scientific ideas are produced and are embedded in the historical and social context of the age that created them; (b) The theatrical framework, which essentially guides the students' activities, allows (if not obliges) them to approach scientific issues creatively; in other words, it allows them to create something related to science and recognize it as "theirs"; and, (c) Both the narrative texts describing processes of "science making" (Bruner, "J Sci Educ Technol" 1:5-12, 1992) and theatrical expression constitute fields that are characterized by what, for the students, is a common and understandable manner of expression: the narrative.
Descriptors: Student Teachers, Early Childhood Education, Young Children, Foreign Countries, Teaching Methods, Interdisciplinary Approach, Preservice Teacher Education, Scientific Concepts, Scientific Principles, Science History, Science Instruction, Theater Arts
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Greece
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A