Objects to Learn about and Objects for Learning 2

While it is incontestable that objects are plentiful in kindergarten and that they are used in early learning, their role often receives little attention or analysis from educators and researchers. The second part of this work, devoted to objects and early learning, sets out to shed some light on very diverse objects.

Certain objects, such as mascots, have become commonplace in kindergarten; they are supposed to help bring parents and teachers closer together in a collaborative vision of the parent–teacher relationship; it is precisely this supposed rapprochement that is investigated here in terms of social inequalities by Marie-Noëlle Dabestani ( Chapter 6). Based on a survey of teachers in mainland France, this author shows a recurrent use of a notebook linked to a mascot and highlights an accentuated, attenuated or neutralized scansion between two spaces of socialization: the family and the school. Thus, the socializing practices of parents and teachers can either be coordinated and reinforced between the two spaces or, conversely, remain separate, the same object being understood differently by each of the stakeholders.

Posters, which are also objects positioned at the interface of materiality and symbolism, are widely used in kindergarten classrooms, generally with no consideration being given to their role in pupil learning and the difficulties they can pose from a didactic point of view. In Chapter 7, Elisabeth Mourot studies the way in which kindergarten pupils from contrasting social backgrounds construct the meaning of didactic posters. Based on interviews in which pupils are confronted with this kind of material, she puts forward configurations of social interpretative subjects, according to the pupils’ ability to symbolize and use language in its evolutionary function.

Conversely, other objects are found less often in kindergarten or elementary school classrooms, such as robots, but are worthy of attention in order to understand the use made of them by the pupils and the skills and knowledge they help to develop. Olivier Grugier and Sandra Nogry show in their testimony ( Chapter 8) how elementary school pupils seize upon small robots ( BeeBots ) and manage to program instructions to generate their movements. Analysis of the sessions observed reveals the essential role of certain artifacts in teachers’ guidance. A comparison of three different class levels (pre-school, first grade and fourth grade) shows a learning progression in computer science and technology.

Space and time, brought together in Part 1of Volume 2, may suggest a familiar disciplinary split, illustrated by geography and history. This is not the case, however, even if, because of the groupings made during the compilation of the work, objects to learn about/objects for learning in geography are placed together here.

Regarding space, the issue discussed in Chapters 1, 3and 5is how objects to learn about make it possible to learn, not so much about geography itself or during geography lessons but, more broadly, about space. Learning about space means articulating through the medium of school objects – wall maps (Xavier Leroux in Chapter 1), “paper” maps and sketches (Sylvie Considerère, Anne Glaudel, Maud Verherve and Mikaël Glaudel in Chapter 3) – or non-school objects – tactile interactive maps ( Chapter 5) of images and relevant information in an egocentric spatial frame of reference (oneself, here, at this moment) with relevant images and information in an allocentric spatial frame of reference, for example, a universal system of geographic coordinates. Object systems are thus required to support sensory, emotional, linguistic and cognitive articulations, which are not simple matters, in the standard situation of the geography class ( Chapters 1and 3) or during experiments conducted with visually impaired people ( Chapter 5). The common issue in the three propositions is perhaps to describe this change of status imprinted on the proposed objects which, from tools, must become objects – representations – in other words, discourses supported by a materiality that permits the sharing of knowledge.

This part allows us to ask whether it is easier to materialize space rather than time. Thus, Chapter 5seeks to further improve the multimodality (touching and verbal interactions) of objects that enable visually impaired people to find their bearings in space. Christine Croset, in Chapter 4, focuses on the difficulty of representing musical time: “A problem arises when we want to represent these dimensions: while a visual product (writing, drawing, photo) relies on spatial perception, oral flow (linguistic or musical content) must be reconstituted, which involves memory and attention. The perception of time thus requires more effort than that of space, which is instantaneous.”

This comment is all the more relevant since Chapters 2and 4, which deal with time, address the preschool teaching of pupils who cannot yet write; a level which takes us away from a strictly subject-related historical approach. The issue is to design the concept of time in young pupils, a specific sub-topic in French syllabuses and associated with space in a wider topic concerned with learning about and exploring the world. While maps or plans are traditional teaching aids in the geographical approach, only chronological timelines or calendars traditionally support these early learnings, time being so difficult to grasp no matter what the age of the learners. The calendar approach in a Greek nursery school (Maria Moumoulidou in Chapter 2) raises the question of the teaching aids used but above all of the objectives pursued, the learning approaches chosen. In a more unusual way, musical time makes it possible to work on another dimension of time as part of the child’s development in the framework of a pedagogy that embraces sensoriality ( Chapter 4). In fact, music, by definition, like the speech process, has to do with multiple temporalities (succession, rhythm, simultaneity, etc.). The writing of musical scores by young children, aged between 4 and 6 years old, in a Swiss school, was thus chosen to materialize the appropriation and characterization of segments of a song learned in class.

Part 2of Volume 2 deals with various objects (assessments, technical objects, school objects) and their activation by subjects. The contributions in this part are based on a variety of theoretical and analytical frameworks, which do, however, have the common point of studying the way in which material or symbolic objects become usable objects as soon as they enter into a relationship with the user. The relationship between the subject and the object thus reveals unique experiences and activities, which differ according to the contexts studied, and these traces must be recorded. This part consists of three research reports and a testimony.

With regard to the research aspect, Sylvie Grubert Jost’s contribution ( Chapter 6) focuses on the practice of self-assessment of the skills expected in elementary school as a learning object and a shared responsibility between pupil and teacher. The author shows how assessment becomes a communication object as soon as it enters into a relationship with the subject who uses it. Communication between the teacher and the pupil around the practice of self-assessment then becomes a means of making the two parties jointly responsible for learning and for better perceiving each other’s expectations. The contribution of John Didier, Marion Botella, Rachel Attanasio and Marie-Dominique Lambert ( Chapter 7) analyzes the process of creation of a technical object by elementary school pupils, paying particular attention to the different stages that lead them to this creation, whether reflective, decisional or linked to action. The objective of this research is to analyze the process of transforming recycled materials to enable the creation of a sound garden and to analyze what the pupils take away from it in terms of learning throughout the process. Chapter 8, by Corinne Marlot, Christine Riat and Patrick Roy, examines the methods of entry into scientific culture for elementary cycle 1 pupils. More specifically, the authors analyze the conditions under which a school discipline object (in this case, a collective poster) can foster the institution of scientific practices in these pupils. The results show that scientific acculturation – as a means of learning about and understanding the world – involves thinking about the nature of the material, symbolic and language objects that can be mobilized, their relationship and also the way in which they should be introduced in order to engage pupils intellectually. This part concludes with the testimony of Irene Guevara, Iván Moreno-Llanos, Lucía Romero, Laura Zapardiel and Cintia Rodríguez ( Chapter 9) who examine the self-regulatory practices of children below 3 years of age by analyzing their actions on objects and instruments around them. The authors show that children control their behavior and actions long before they have consolidated verbal language. Their actions on objects arise from understanding the phenomena but also from the solutions and strategies envisaged to understand what must be done and how. They also underline the role of the teacher and the challenges they impose on them to foster the development of the child.