| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 國教所幼兒教育教學碩士班 === 93 === The purpose of the study was to investigate the process of using picture books to initiate science discourse of the elementary students and the factors that influenced the discourse. Thirty-five second graders from my class participated in the research. During the eight-week long research period, students engaged in ten episodes of science discourse. Each science discourse episode started with ten minutes of picture book reading, followed by 10 minutes of small group science discussion, and ended with 10 minutes of teacher-leaded group discussion. Different forms of data were collected, such as fieldnotes and audiotaping of the small group discussion, videotaping of the whole class discussion, interview of the children, and worksheets of the individual and the small group. The followings are major findings of the research:
1. All children enjoyed the picture books, and most of them enjoyed the science discourse following the book reading. In addition, the picture books were very helpful in initiating children’s science discourse.
2. The patterns of discussion in the small group changed from “Sharing Ideas” in the early phase of the study to “Reflecting Each Other” in the later phase.
3. The discussion in the teacher-leaded group discussion contended several science discourse sections. In the end of the section, however, not all of the problems could be solved nor any agreement could be reached.
4. Children reasoned with each other, shared facts they know, and questioned and objected other’s ideas both in small group and large group discussion. However, discourse refining ideas only happened in the large group discussion, and talks not related to the topic discussed only happened in the small group discussion.
5. How the children involved in the discussion was influenced by the following factors: the environment, the discussing topic, the picture books, the role of the teacher, whether children had related experiences, children’s attitude toward learning, children’s speech skills, and the power of the group leader.
Several educational and research implications were made from the findings of this research.
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