Analyzing Scientific Explanations About Earthquakes and Tsunami on a Context of Risk

• In Event: Critical Thinking and Cognition in Environmental Education

Abstract

Constructing explanations of scientific phenomena is a high-leverage practice to promote understanding. Usually, children receive explanations, but they are rarely encouraged to explain phenomena that might affect their lives. We explored students’ reasoning about earthquakes and tsunamis, combining written, oral explanations and drawings. The participants were 25 fourth-graders from the Chilean coast in an environmentally damaged zone with high-risk of flooding by a tsunami. The analysis used a socio-materiality perspective, qualitative methods and learning samples. The students connected more often their intuitive reasoning with the formal knowledge about tsunamis than earthquakes, which we interpret as more sophisticated reasoning afforded by the context. We discuss implications of combining sources for approaching children’s thinking, taking an environmental justice perspective in context-based learning.

Author

• Valeria M. Cabello, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile