Young children's path to conceptual change in the context of questioning-exploration-experience learning

This paper reports a preliminary study of the characteristics of young children's understandings that are likely to bring about conceptual change in a classroom setting. This study is grounded on the sociocultural perspective and contemporary views of concept development and learning. A group of five- to six-year-old children's concept learning of weighing scales in the context of Questioning-Exploration-Experience (QEE) learning is explored. Qualitative methods of data collection and analysis are adopted. A path of young children's characteristics of understandings leading to conceptual change is portrayed. Several distinctive features salient to the design of instructional strategies are implied. Results of the study confirm that human mental activity operating in the social processes, which situates in a specific cultural context, is conducive to young children's conceptual change. Copyright © 2010 Common Ground, Sing-pui Chan, Mei-lin Cheng.