Reanalysing children’s responses on shadow formation: a comparative approach to bodily expressions and verbal discourse

The present article contains a reanalysis of data resulting from a research project carried out on a group of five preschool-aged children. The data were collected from a class of 16 children participating in a pre/post research design that focused on the shadow formation phenomenon. The findings of the previous research project, based on a speech plus deictic gesture analysis, indicated that the five children had shown regression or no change in their reasoning. In the light of an embodied perspective into science teaching and learning, the current study examines whether we should use a bodily analysis to reassess the extent of knowledge about shadows among these five students. It demonstrates that most of the children selected improved their reasoning about shadow formation by using iconic gestures. Such conflicting results indicate that bodily expression has its own grammar and, to some extent, communicates a meaning that differs from that of verbal discourse.