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Comprehension of the night and day cycle among French and Cameroonian children aged 7–8 years

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Abstract

In this article, we compared French and Cameroonian schoolchildren’s initial conceptions and comprehension of the night and day cycle in order to test for cultural influence. Forty students aged almost 8 years (Grade 2) were individually interviewed in their schools about night and day dynamics before they had received any teaching in astronomy. Results indicated that French children have significantly more heliocentric knowledge about the night and day cycle than Cameroonian children who propose rather a geocentric view, underlining the impact of cultural mediation (e.g., artifacts, media, and personal accounts). French children, who grow up in a mechanistic culture, give explanations of the night and day cycle based on the Earth’s rotation, whereas their Cameroonian peers, who live in an animistic society, mainly propose movements of the Sun to explain the cycle (consistent with their observations and local cosmologies). Regarding the organization of this knowledge, we found that only a few children had a coherent model of the night and day cycle. It did not appear to be influenced by cultural context, as both the French and Cameroonian children’s conceptions were mainly fragmented.

Résumé

Dans cet article, nous comparons les conceptions initiales et la compréhension qu’ont les enfants français et camerounais du cycle journée/nuit en vue de tester une influence culturelle sur leurs représentations. Quarante-deux élèves d’environ 8 ans (CE2) ont été interrogés individuellement dans leurs écoles avant tout enseignement en astronomie. Les résultats indiquent que les enfants français ont une conception davantage héliocentrique du cycle journée/nuit que les enfants camerounais qui proposent plutôt une vision géocentrique du phénomène. Ces observations soulignent un effet significatif de la médiation culturelle sur l’acquisition et le développement des connaissances (à travers les artéfacts, les médias et les témoignages personnels qui diffèrent d’un contexte culturel à l’autre). Les enfants français, qui ont grandi dans une culture “mécaniste”, proposent des explications à propos du cycle journée/nuit se référant majoritairement à la rotation de la Terre sur elle-même. A l’inverse, les enfants camerounais, qui ont grandi dans une société de tradition animiste, proposent plutôt des explications en lien avec des mouvements propres ou volontaires du Soleil en cohérence avec les observations et les cosmologies locales. Concernant l’organisation de ce savoir, très peu d’enfants présentent un modèle cohérent du cycle journée/nuit. De plus l’organisation des connaissances ne semble pas influencée par le contexte culturel, puisque les conceptions des enfants français et camerounais apparaissent principalement fragmentées.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks Eugénie Conte for contributing to the collection and analysis of the data, and the teachers and students of the schools in Cameroon and in France (Bonamoussadi elementary school in Douala and Molière elementary school in Toulouse), as well as Soren Frappart for our useful discussions about this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CLLE-LTC UMR 5263, Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès, 5, allée Antonio Machado, 31058, Toulouse Cedex 9, France

    Valérie Frède

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  1. Valérie Frède
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Correspondence to Valérie Frède.

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Lead editor: C. Pouliot.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Questionnaire

Q1: Here is some modeling clay. (a) Can you please make a model of the Sun? (b) and a model of the Earth? (c) Where is the Sun at night? d) How does that happen?

Q2: Here is another model of the Earth and another model of the Sun. (Place the models several centimeters apart on the table in front of the child.)

  1. (a)

    In this position, is it night or day on this side of the Earth? (Point to the “light” side.)

  2. (b)

    Now, I would like it to be night on this side. (Same side as before.) Show me and explain to me how it will happen.

Q3: I have met several children and I am going to show you four different explanations they gave me to explain why it is sometimes night and sometimes day. (Show pictures of each model to the child, one after the other, explaining each one orally and model them dynamically using the same models as in Q2.)

  1. (1)

    The Sun does not move and the Earth rotates on its axis every day. (Scientific model based on heliocentric reference frame.)

  2. (2)

    The Earth does not move but the Sun does, revolving around the Earth every day. (Synthetic: geocentric model.)

  3. (3)

    The Sun does not move, but the Earth does, revolving around the Sun every day. (Synthetic: Earth revolution model.)

  4. (4)

    The Earth does not move. It is night because something (e.g. a cloud) comes to hide the Sun or because the Sun disappears (or hides somewhere). (Initial model.)

    1. (a)

      Which of these propositions (if any) seems to you to be the correct explanation for the night and day cycle? (b) Why?

Appendix 2: 2D representations of the night and day cycle

See Fig. 7.

Fig. 7
figure 7

2D representations of the night and day cycle. a Synthetic Earth revolution model. b Synthetic geocentric model. c Initial model. d Scientific model

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Appendix 3: Examples of 3D productions of the children

See Fig. 8.

Fig. 8
figure 8

Examples of 3D productions of the children. a Flat Sun and spherical Earth (left); Spherical Sun and Earth (right) (French). b Flat Sun and flat circular Earth (left). Spherical Sun and Flat rectangular Earth (right) (Cameroonian)

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Frède, V. Comprehension of the night and day cycle among French and Cameroonian children aged 7–8 years. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 14, 587–615 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-018-9897-6

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