ABSTRACT
One of the most important factors influencing children’s learning is the knowledge and understanding which they bring to any new task. From their experiences children build up a set of explanations and beliefs which enable them to make sense of what happens around them. The recognition that children have their own ideas about phenomena, and that they may be very different from their teacher’s ideas, has important implications for teaching and learning. In this chapter Pamela Wadsworth discusses some of the ideas that primary children hold about natural events and processes and how these influence their learning in school. The chapter is based on the work of the SPACE (Science Processes and Concept Exploration) Project. She describes the strategies the project used to explore children’s ideas and some of the findings. She ends by considering how teachers can create a classroom climate in which children can make use of and extend their own ideas.
