Configuration and dynamics of the Earth-Sun-Moon system: an investigation into conceptions of deaf and hearing pupils

Abstract

The day-and-night cycle, the seasons and the phases of the moon, as seen by Norwegian deaf pupils aged about 7, 9, 11 and 17 years, and by Norwegian hearing pupils about 9 years old, are reported and analysed. The analysis centred around 'naive', 'synthetic' or 'scientific' conceptions. The majority of students of all cohorts were found to hold a 'synthetic' conception. The explanatory power and the inner coherence of the conceptions were also investigated. A high level of explanatory power and also of inner coherence in the models were found. Among the 9-year olds there was no difference in the inner coherence of the conceptions between the deaf pupils and the hearing ones, and little if any difference in explanatory power of known phenomena. The possibly positive influence of the spatial/gestural sign language on the deaf pupils' conceptions of these spatial phenomena is discussed.