Children’s existing ideas: building blocks or barriers to learning in science?

Thinking about the problem Ask a group of children, young people or adults to identify an object they haven’t seen before and it isn’t long before we hear phrases such as, “It could be…”, “It looks bit like…”, “It reminds me of….”. We may even hear someone say, “It has [e.g. six legs] so it could be [e.g. an insect].” Discussions of this sort probably go on in classrooms everyday as our pupils (of all ages) endeavour to come to terms with new phenomena and ideas. What is striking is that they are trying to relate the unknown object or idea to what they already know in order to come up with a name or explanation. It also reminds us that our pupils come to school with ideas of their own based on what they have seen, heard and experienced in their lives to date; at home, in school and elsewhere. The reservoir of knowledge that our pupils accumulate varies from individual to individual and provides for each of them the backdrop to their future learning. Howeve