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VI LÄRARE DEBATT: Regeringens uppdrag till Skolverket – att göra utbildningen i förskolan skärmfri – riskerar att ge negativa och allvarliga konsekvenser, särskilt för barn som är i störst behov av att möta en digitaliserad värld med stöd av utbildade förskollärare och barnskötare. Det skriver 27 barn- och förskoleforskare i ett gemensamt upprop.

VI LÄRARE DEBATT: Regeringens uppdrag till Skolverket – att göra utbildningen i förskolan skärmfri – riskerar att ge negativa och allvarliga konsekvenser, särskilt för barn som är i störst behov av att möta en digitaliserad värld med stöd av utbildade förskollärare och barnskötare. Det skriver 27 barn- och förskoleforskare i ett gemensamt upprop.

Open Peer Commentary

Digital devices such as iPads are prevalent in children’s play from an early age. How this shapes young children’s play is an area of considerable debate without any clear consensus on how different forms of play are brought into the iPad interaction. In this study, we examined 98 play activities of children in two preschool settings, featuring 2 and 4–5-year-olds, their play with iPads and non-digital artefacts. Three analytical approaches were used: an index built on a digital play framework (Bird, Jo, and Susan Edwards. 2015), a quantitative description of the index, and a qualitative interaction analysis of children’s play. Results show how play with iPads is characterised as less ludic than play with other artefacts, and diverges from the age-typical norms of play. We discuss what these results might mean for children’s play in contemporary early childhood settings and for children’s learning.

While many children grow up in linguistically and symbolically diverse communities, it is still rare that they encounter an early educational experience adapted to the complexities of their everyday communicational reality. This paper takes an ecological and multimodal approach to a preschool’s book project in a multilingual community. The study examines the web of resources that emerges from activities, actors and their interrelations during the book project. It is shown how multimodal resources emerge when supported by active pedagogical community engagement, and how resources underpinning early childhood literacy cross linguistic and modal boundaries. The paper uses a multimodal interaction analysis to show how the socioecological resources emerging during the project come together in multimodal interaction. Pedagogical potentials building on multimodal resources involving the wider ecology of actors in linguistically complex settings are discussed.

Critical thinking is a competence that involves several different skills, one of which is systematicity in lab practice. Recent research has called for physics education that aims for students to be more active and physics labs to focus more on developing lab skills, like systematicity, rather than reinforcing concepts. In this study, we employ social semiotics and the resources framework to study students’ potential systematicity in an inquiry-based lab activity. We add to the growing body of research on critical thinking, lab skills, and active learning by investigating the components of systematicity. We do this by analysing pairs of students with physics backgrounds and experience with the instructional approach of the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) as they carry out an inquiry-based lab activity involving adding salt to ice as the central observational experiment. Contrast is made with students that do not have experience with ISLE as they carry out the same activity. The results and subsequent analysis show that the epistemological resources exploratory mindset, procedural self-regulation, and metacognitive reflection are important for students’ engagement during productive activity. These may be some of the components of systematicity. Additionally, it is shown that students coordinate these resources with conceptual resources such as exemplars and that the resources are conveyed through particular semiotic resources. We argue that it is important for students to practice the epistemological resources for them to become systematic (thus promoting critical thinking)., Currently in review.

Att förbjuda skärmar i förskolan vore ett misstag. Vi behöver istället bredda debatten och ta en ny kritisk riktning för digitalisering i förskolan, skriver forskaren Robin Samuelsson

Inom naturvetenskapsdidaktik har mycket av forskningen fokuserat på hur man kan få studenter att ersätta gamla idéer med nya (Potvin et al., 2020), ofta så kallade missuppfattningar eller naiva idéer som ska ersättas med något som är korrekt inom disciplinen. En av de vanligare modellerna för hur detta kan göras är den som är utvecklad av Posner et al. (1982): Enligt modellen, som tar sin grund i Piagets (1955) begrepp ackommodation och assimilation, så kan tidigare idéer bland annat ersättas med hjälp av anomalier (det vill säga tidigare kunskap är inkompatibel med presenterad kunskap) om dessa skapar så kallade kognitiva konflikter och leder till ackommodation (radikal förändring av den tidigare förståelsen). Den nya kunskapen måste emellertid verka vettig för den lärande. Det har senare visat sig vara väldigt svårt att få lärande att ackommodera ny kunskap eftersom det dels är svårt att finna tillfällen för kognitiva konflikter och dels för att man ofta återgår till den tidigare förståelsen en tid efter interventionen (e.g. Dunbar et al., 2007). På senare tid har man istället fokuserat på de produktiva idéer som studenter redan besitter och som ligger i linje med det disciplinära innehållet som ska läras ut (Hammer, 2000; Redish, 2013), alltså de associationer som vi gör som är intuitiva (som är lättillgängliga) men som ändå kan leda till, för kontexten, korrekta resonemang. Dessa idéer kan sedan användas för att till förankra disciplinspecifik kunskap i något som är intutivt för studenten genom, till exempel, analogier [bridging analogies] (Clement, 1993) eller för att få studenterna att uppleva undervisningsinnehållet som koherent och intuitivt (e.g. Samuelsson, 2020). I min forskning har jag bland annat studerat dessa så kallade resurser (Hammer, 2000; Redish, 2013) vid introduktion av fysikaliska fenomen i kemi- och fysikundervisning för studenter inom lärar-, ingenjörs- och naturvetenskapsutbildningar på högskolenivå. Forskningen syftar till att identifiera

What is critical thinking? It is often thought of as a general and rather vague skill or set of skills. Recent research (Nygren, Haglund, Samuelsson, Geijerstam, & Prytz, 2018) suggests that students that perform well on problems, involving critical thinking in one discipline, do not necessarily perform well on problems involving critical thinking in other disciplines, i.e. it may be discipline-specific. Furthermore, it has been suggested (e.g. Nygren et al., 2018; Walsh, Quinn, Wieman, & Holmes, 2019) that important aspects for critical thinking in physics in particular include systematic investigation, or how one proceeds in an investigation, of a phenomenon. In this presentation, I will draw on results from an ongoing study (Samulesson, Gregorcic, Elmgren & Haglund, preprint) to illustrate some epistemological components important for students’ systematic investigation in an inquiry-based lab activity involving freezing-point depression.

Video has become a widespread tool for capturing naturalistic behavioral data. While mixed methods show great potential in understanding the active nature of children’s interaction, only a few studies have developed mixed methods for video-based interaction research. This paper presents a mixed methods embodied interaction model appropriate for studying complex embodied interaction and draws on methodological insights from a mixed methods project to capture changes in children’s interaction with touchscreen technologies. The paper details how integrated mixed methods analysis was needed to fully explain the results and how mono-method studies would provide misleading results. The theoretical advancements generated during the project illustrate how mixed methods for video-based studies have valuable properties for understanding complex interactional phenomena, such as learning.

Many children grow up in multilingual communities characterised by linguistic heterogeneity and semiotic and cultural complexity. Translanguaging theory has provided a perspective attuned to communication and education in multilingual settings. However, translanguaging pedagogies have not yet had a broad uptake in early educational settings. The recent interest in embodiment within translanguaging studies and the study of touch combinedly provide a potential perspective for early childhood education. This study examines the role of touch in a multilingual preschool featuring 2-year-olds. The results point to two key functions for touch. One is that touch creates a shared experiential ground where languages can be learned. The other function is that touch allows children to sensorially explore and learn multicultural experiences from the diverse cultural and linguistic systems available. Based on the results, the role of touch in early childhood translanguaging is discussed as a way forward for translanguaging pedagogies for creating both equitable and diverse educational opportunities for children in multicultural and multilingual communities.

We have studied what epistemic games students employ to formulate observations, hypotheses and design experiments within an investigative learning environment. The students participated in an activity based on ISLE (Investigative Science Learning Environment) focused on the melting of ice when some table salt is added to it. Two pairs of students were compared: a pair of engineering students and a pair of physics teacher students. Finally, two types of epistemic games were identified that made the physics teacher students more successful in their engagement with the activity than the engineering students.

Since the early 2000s, there is a growing body of research on how IR cameras can be used in science education. This body consists of two types of publications: instructive and empirical. While the instructive papers describe experiments that could be used in teaching science with IR cameras, the empirical papers test those, or other, experiments with groups of learners. The latter type of publications is the focus for this chapter. In this chapter, a review of the empirical publications, published up to this point, includes what level of education, what discipline and what learning perspectives, or theoretical frameworks, that can be found in each publication. Additionally, the chapter includes a discussion on what the research tells us so far.

Digital devices such as iPads are prevalent in children’s play from an early age. How this shapes young children’s play is an area of considerable debate without any clear consensus on how different forms of play are brought into the iPad interaction. In this study, we examined 98 play activities of children in two preschool settings, featuring 2 and 4–5-year-olds, their play with iPads and non-digital artefacts. Three analytical approaches were used: an index built on a digital play framework (Bird, Jo, and Susan Edwards. 2015), a quantitative description of the index, and a qualitative interaction analysis of children’s play. Results show how play with iPads is characterised as less ludic than play with other artefacts, and diverges from the age-typical norms of play. We discuss what these results might mean for children’s play in contemporary early childhood settings and for children’s learning.

When we see an object, phenomenon or person we tend to make some immediate associations based on our previous experiences. In other words, we use our intuition to make immediate meaning about what we encounter. In dual process theory, this is referred to as System 1 (contrasted with System 2 for analytical thinking) (e.g. Evans, 2007; Kahneman & Frederick, 2002). Our associations affect how we come to approach whatever we are encountering and thus also how learners approach something new that they are about to learn more about. Traditionally, intuitive responses have been studied from a conceptual change (Posner et al., 1982) perspective as misconceptions. However, an alternative model of learning, the resources framework (Hammer, 2000; Redish, 2004), has later been proposed in order to shift focus to the productive aspects of students’ intuition. In this presentation, we will briefly present this model and how one can apply it in their research by giving an example from my own research. In several of our previous studies, university students of different educational programs in science have, in different contexts, had the chance to investigate what happens when table salt is added to ice. Although both the contexts and the background of the participants have shifted, many of the students employ similar resources in reasoning about the phenomenon. One of these resources is the experience that salt is put on roads to melt ice during the winter.

Kan vi undervisa barn på ett lekfullt sätt så att de får möjlighet att utveckla språket och samtidigt stimuleras till socialt och kulturellt lärande? Detta är en av de viktigaste förskolepedagogiska frågorna i dag, när barn förutsätts lära sig ett ständigt växande innehåll i en snabbt föränderlig värld.Här presenteras nu för första gången guidad lek i en svensk förskolepedagogisk kontext. Det är en forskningsbaserad arbetsmetod som används för att skapa lärande genom interaktion och delaktighet. Författaren beskriver hur metoden bygger vidare på den lekbaserade pedagogiska miljön som redan finns på svenska förskolor, och ger intresseväckande inblickar i internationell forskning på området. En lång rad praktiska exempel från svensk förskola lyfts fram, där författaren resonerar kring hur barnens utforskande stöttas genom guidad lek. Målet är att visa hur pedagogen kan göra aktiva och avgörande insatser för ett lekbaserat lärande hos barnen. Guidad lek i förskolan är i första hand riktad till förskollärarstudenter och verksamma pedagoger i förskolan.

While interactive touchscreens are currently entering into educational practice, little is known about what this means for learning in early childhood and, in particular, how touchscreens shape action and communication. In this paper, we examine the interactions of 2-year-olds and their teachers in a multilingual preschool in Sweden. We analyse the communicative environment between the children, teachers and shared touchscreens and books in the context of reading. A mixed-methods analysis was used, taking a concept of action that includes both verbal, non-verbal utterances and digital touch. The analysis shows a reconfiguration to the interactional dynamic where children perform comparable amounts of actions in sessions with the touchscreen and book reading but less talk during the touchscreen sessions. However, while talking less, children display other types of communicative actions. We analyse the changing interactional dynamic that follows, its implications to learning and early childhood pedagogical practice and how interaction can be reconceptualised as cycles of communication and action in which educational scaffolding unfolds.

Lab activities typically involve phenomena that are invisible to the naked eye. For example, in thermodynamics transfer of heat and temperature changes are perceived by the sense of touch or indirectly observed by the use of thermometers. New tools can be introduced to increase the opportunities for talking science. In this paper, we explore affordances and semiotic resources related to infrared (IR) cameras, including color imaging, numerical values and the form of the tool itself, as used by undergraduate students and instructors in chemistry, representing a scientific community at two different levels of expertise, in investigation of a thermal phenomenon. The participants come to attend to thermal aspects of what happens when a salt (sodium hydroxide) is exposed to air, with and without the use of IR cameras. Video data were gathered and transcribed multimodally. Results show that the IR cameras afford a focus on the disciplinarily relevant thermal aspects of the phenomenon in both groups of participants, but that the students’ discussion, coordinated by their embodied engagement with the IR cameras, was limited to cumulative talk, where they do not challenge each other, and static use of the technology. This is contrasted with the instructors who shared their knowledge with each other and explored the phenomenon both spatially with the IR cameras, and verbally through exploratory talk. We suggest that this difference in the use of novel technology may be due to differences in experience of lab work and understanding of the studied phenomena, and that a shift between cumulative and exploratory talk may be an indicator of learning., Part of a special issue on multimodality and science education

Critical thinking is brought to the fore as a central competence in today’s society and in school curricula, but what may be emphasised as a general skill may also differ across school subjects. Using a mixed methods approach we identify general formulations regarding critical thinking in the Swedish curriculum of school year nine and seven more subject-specific categories of critical thinking in the syllabi and national tests in history, physics, mathematics and Swedish. By analysing 76 individual students’ critical thinking as expressed in national tests we find that a student that thinks critically in one subjects does not necessarily do so in other subjects. We find that students’ grades in different subjects are closely linked to their abilities to answer questions designed to test critical thinking in the subjects. We also find that the same formulations of critical thinking in two subjects may mean very different things when translated into assessments. Our findings suggest that critical thinking among students comprise different, subject-specific skills. The complexity of our findings highlights a need for future research to help clarify to students and researchers what it means to think critically in school.

Transcripts (in Swedish) of teacher students participating in a teaching sequence on phase transition and energy transfer.

Students have difficulties understanding phase transition (Coştu, Ayas, & Niaz, 2012; Gopal, Kleinsmidt, Case, & Musonge, 2004). In the Swedish curriculum (Skolverket, 2011), phase transition is first introduced in physics during year 1-3 in primary school. The concept of, and transfer of energy is introduced in year 4-6. However, IR cameras can make the non-perceivable perceivable and thus afford the students an arena for mutual orientation and shared attention. The purpose of this study is to explore the affordances of IR cameras for teacher students that, in their profession, introduces the concepts of energy, phases, phase transition and energy transfer for their own students. We propose a teaching sequence in which the group will get to study four different phenomena involving phase transition and energy transfer. The proposed phenomena are: condensation of water on skin in a sauna, evaporation of water from the skin after a shower, condensation of water on a paper and salt on ice. Each stage of the sequence involves a prediction, an observation and an explanation part (White & Gunstone, 1992). The prediction will be done without access to IR cameras and the observation and explanation will be carried out with the cameras. When later phenomena are introduced, the new predictions are based on the experience and understanding from the earlier stages. From a previous study (Samuelsson, Haglund & Elmgren, 2016), we know that the last phenomenon is difficult to understand, but by starting out in a phenomenon familiar to the students and iteratively working through the three parts in predict-observe-explain, the students may succeed in giving a satisfactory explanation at the end of the sequence. The teaching sequence will be implemented in two physics classes for pre-service year 4-6 teachers during the autumn, and the interactions will be video recorded for analysis within the project.

Critical thinking is brought to the fore as a central competence in today’s society and in school curricula, but what may be emphasised as a general skill may also differ across school subjects. Using a mixed methods approach we identify general formulations regarding critical thinking in the Swedish curriculum of school year nine and seven more subject-specific categories of critical thinking in the syllabi and national tests in history, physics, mathematics and Swedish. By analysing 76 individual students’ critical thinking as expressed in national tests we find that a student that thinks critically in one subjects does not necessarily do so in other subjects. We find that students’ grades in different subjects are closely linked to their abilities to answer questions designed to test critical thinking in the subjects. We also find that the same formulations of critical thinking in two subjects may mean very different things when translated into assessments. Our findings suggest that critical thinking among students comprise different, subject-specific skills. The complexity of our findings highlights a need for future research to help clarify to students and researchers what it means to think critically in school.

Titel i Språktidningens innehållsförteckning: Lekens språk - Samvaron som främjar språkutveckling