The Use of Digital Artifacts to Analyse Science Concept Formation in Very Young Children

Abstract

AbstractResearch examining conceptual development in pre-school age children has relied predominantly on children’s verbal responses and interactions. During infancy, however, immature verbal language skills limit the use of such commonly used methods. Studying infants and toddlers during the pandemic has added new challenges to this unique and highly demanding research area. In this chapter, we showcase how digital visual methods, developed and introduced in response to this methodological ‘crisis’, offer researchers a means through which many of the challenges inherent in studying very young children, can be overcome. To highlight the affordances of using digital artefacts to analyse very young children’s concept formation, the chapter focuses on science concept formation, during infancy and toddlerhood. Indicative examples from the implementation of a Conceptual PlayWorld as an educational experiment (see Chap. 2) offer illustrative examples of digital data analysis with children aged 8 to 36 months. It is shown that using digital artefacts, subtleties of development reflected in physical movement and interactions (e.g., gestures, embodied peer interactions), can be captured and later analysed. Key points researchers using digital artefacts, are able to look for, capture, and dialectically interrelate when analysing concept formation in very young children specifically are highlighted. We argue that digital artifacts allow the digital recreation of the body shading light to new dimensions of the child’s experience in science and opening a space for reflection for researchers. Consequently, adopting a dialectical lens in analyzing digital data, possible insight into the process of concept formation as it occurs for very young, non-verbal children, is afforded.