@article{article_356304, title={Preservice Early Childhood Teachers Use of Graphs as Mental Tools in Internalizing Scientific Concepts}, journal={Necatibey Faculty of Education Electronic Journal of Science and Mathematics Education}, volume={11}, pages={364–380}, year={2017}, DOI={10.17522/balikesirnef.356304}, author={Saçkes, Mesut and Trundle, Kathy Cabe}, keywords={preservice early childhood teachers,science methods course,socio-cultural theory,mental tools,astronomy}, abstract={<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%;"> <span lang="en-us" style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;" xml:lang="en-us">The purpose of this study was to examine how preservice early childhood
teachers used graphs as a mental tool in a science methods course to make sense
of their data and how graph use facilitated preservice teachers’
internalization of scientific concepts. T </span> <span lang="tr" style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;" xml:lang="tr">wenty-six preservice early childhood teachers
participated in the study. Data were collected through participant observation
technique. Field notes were kept to record observations and discourse taking
place during the classroom observations. </span> <span lang="en-us" style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;" xml:lang="en-us">The current
study utilized a Vygotskian framework in the analysis and the interpretation of
the study data. </span> <span lang="tr" style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;" xml:lang="tr">The
results demonstrated that using the graph as a mediating tool facilitated
preservice teachers’ understanding of the targeted science concepts by
organizing their data in a way that could reduce the burden of cognitive load
to process information, which made it possible for higher psychological
functions, such as seeing patterns and deriving conclusions from the pattern,
to operate more efficiently.  </span> <span lang="en-us" style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;" xml:lang="en-us"> </span> </p> <p> </p>}, number={1}, publisher={Balıkesir University}