The role of embodied scaffolding in revealing “enactive potentialities” in intergenerational science exploration

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21392680
AutoresMinna O Nygren (0000-0002-4086-2479, UCL Knowledge Lab University College London London UK), Sara Price (0000-0002-5092-1663, UCL Knowledge Lab University College London London UK, autor de correspondencia), Rhiannon Thomas Jha (0000-0003-0217-7996, UCL Knowledge Lab University College London London UK)
Año2024
Volumen108
Número2
Páginas495-523
Fecha de publicación2024-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaScience Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/sce.21845
PMID38827519
OpenAlexW4388412800
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas54

Although adults are known to play an important role in young children's development, little work has focused on the enactive features of scaffolding in informal learning settings, and the embodied dynamics of intergenerational interaction. To address this gap, this paper undertakes a microinteractional analysis to examine intergenerational collaborative interaction in a science museum setting. The paper presents a fine‐grained moment‐by‐moment analysis of video‐recorded interaction of children and their adult carers around science‐themed objects. Taking an enactive cognition perspective, the analysis enables access to subtle shifts in interactants’ perception, action, gesture, and movement to examine how young children engage with exhibits, and the role adult action plays in supporting young children's engagement with exhibits and developing ideas about science. Our findings demonstrate that intergenerational “embodied scaffolding” is instrumental in making “enactive potentialities” in the environment more accessible for children, thus deepening and enriching children's engagement with science. Adult action is central to revealing scientific dimensions of objects’ interaction and relationships in ways that expose novel types of perception and action opportunities in shaping science experiences and meaning making. This has implications for science education practices since it foregrounds not only “doing” science, through active hands‐on activities, but also speaks to the interconnectedness between senses and the role of the body in thinking. Drawing on the findings, this paper also offers design implications for informal science learning environments

Cognitive science · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Mathematics education · Philosophy of science · Scaffold · Science education · Sociology · Child and Animal Learning Development · Computer Science · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Representations and Identity