Primary School Children Conceptualize Shadows in the Sun: A Vygotskian Perspective / Las sombras del sol en alumnos de Primaria: una perspectiva vygotskiana

Abstract

This paper is aimed at showing how Vygotsky’s elaborations on thinking, imagination, conceptualization and their relationships with reality allow us to describe and interpret the long-term evolution of students’ conceptions of shadows cast in sunlight from their spontaneous concepts to a conscious mastery of different ways of thinking about, imagining and representing them. Classroom documents for this purpose were available from a three-grade teaching-and-learning path on shadows in the sun, a topic that has been widely experimented upon ever since the eighties. One focus will be on the initial student approach, in grade III, to geometric conceptualization of the shadows through specific games and measurement activities. Another focus will be on the students’ complex and conscious relationships with the phenomenon, developed thanks to the teacher’s contributions (from geometric tools to paintings, tales and myths) and related tasks to nurture their imagination. Students’ emerging consciousness of (and freedom of choice among) possible, different relationships with the phenomenon will be brought to the fore and discussed, together with possible roots in previous imaginative activities on shadows.