IMAGES AND CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS IN A PROCESS OF MEANING CONSTRUCTIONON A TEACHING SEQUENCE ABOUT WATER CYCLE

ABSTRACT:

This work aims to investigate children's drawings understood as language and the contributions of an animated info-graphic as a mediational resource in the meaning making process in science classes on the water cycle. The research is based on theoretical and methodological constructs of socio-historical approach and social semiotics. Data were collected in a 3rd year class at a public school in the city of Contagem/MG. To examine the effectiveness of the children's drawing as a way of production in knowledge construction, we seek to investigate what signs of understanding of the water cycle can be found in the drawings produced by children in two moments of the teaching sequence on water cycle: in the first class - drawing based on the preliminary ideas of children - and in the fourth class, after the use of an animated info-graphic. The results reinforce the expressive and communicative potential of children's drawings on the construction of scientific concepts and their relationship with written verbal texts. In addition, progress in children's understanding about the water cycle demonstrate the effectiveness of the animated infographic, presented by the teacher with intense participation of the students, as a mediacional mean.

Key words:
children's drawing; science education; images; language and cognition.