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'And the Boat Started to Roll Like This': Preschool Children Struggling with a Bodily-Based Illustration of Stability

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Title: 'And the Boat Started to Roll Like This': Preschool Children Struggling with a Bodily-Based Illustration of Stability
Language: English
Authors: Anneli Bergnell (ORCID 0000-0003-1373-8429), Lisbeth Åberg-Bengtsson (ORCID 0000-0002-2691-9731)
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. 2025 69(2):332-346.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 15
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Early Childhood Education, Science Education, Learning Modalities, Scientific Concepts, Learning Activities, Dramatic Play, Foreign Countries
Geographic Terms: Sweden
DOI: 10.1080/00313831.2024.2308865
ISSN: 0031-3831
1470-1170
Abstract: This article is based on multimodal perspectives and contributes to research on how children deal with a multimodal illustration of scientific concepts used in emergent science (i.e., early years science) education. It presents a study of a group of 14 preschoolers observed when dealing with the concept of stability, as illustrated in a pedagogical drama during a visit to a science centre and follow-up sessions in the preschool. The results indicate the importance of educators paying attention to the balance between cohesion and tension among elements in multimodal illustrations (such as verbal language, images, gestures, etc.), when designing and presenting learning activities in emergent science education. Furthermore, it cannot be taken for granted that children by themselves are able to bridge gaps between modes. Educators should therefore be prepared to provide well-reasoned guidance for children's linking between everyday and scientific concepts.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: EJ1466701
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0182949491;55b01mar.25;2025Feb13.02:15;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0182949491-1">"And the boat started to roll like this": preschool children struggling with a bodily-based illustration of stability </title> <p>This article is based on multimodal perspectives and contributes to research on how children deal with a multimodal illustration of scientific concepts used in emergent science (i.e., early years science) education. It presents a study of a group of 14 preschoolers observed when dealing with the concept of stability, as illustrated in a pedagogical drama during a visit to a science centre and follow-up sessions in the preschool. The results indicate the importance of educators paying attention to the balance between cohesion and tension among elements in multimodal illustrations (such as verbal language, images, gestures, etc.), when designing and presenting learning activities in emergent science education. Furthermore, it cannot be taken for granted that children by themselves are able to bridge gaps between modes. Educators should therefore be prepared to provide well-reasoned guidance for children's linking between everyday and scientific concepts.</p> <p>Keywords: Preschool science education; multimodality; concept of stability; balancing cohesion and tension; bodily-based illustrations</p> <p>In the wake of an increased focus on early childhood science education, research on young children's early encounters with scientific concepts and phenomena is an urgent and growing domain. We join researchers and educators, who recognise these encounters with the tentative making of meaning of scientific concepts and phenomena among preschoolers and young primary pupils in the early years of schooling as "emergent science education" (e.g., Areljung & Sundberg, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref1">4</reflink>]; Siraj-Blatchford, [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref2">42</reflink>]).</p> <p>The present study deals with a group of 4–5-year-old pupils, observed during their visit to a science centre, which offered a pedagogical drama based on the story of <emph>The Swedish Royal Ship Vasa</emph>[<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref3">1</reflink>] with activities including multimodal illustrations related to several concepts such as stability and centre of gravity ("what makes a ship stable and secure"). Whether the illustrations presented to young children in emergent science education support or hinder understanding, is an important domain that still needs further research. Our study is meant to contribute with new knowledge when focusing on preschoolers' whole-body experiences and making meaning of the concept of stability.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-2">Literature review on emergent science education</hd> <p>Different opinions as to whether early exposure to scientific concepts is beneficial for the understanding of scientific phenomena in later school years, have been brought to the fore. On the one hand, for instance Siraj-Blatchford ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref4">42</reflink>]) as well as Eshach and Fried ([<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref5">10</reflink>]) and Hadzigeorgiou ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref6">18</reflink>]) write in favour of emergent science education. Hadzigeorgiou argues that good science activities could give children opportunities both for acquaintance with and for development of fundamental scientific concepts. On the other hand, Sackes et al. ([<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref7">39</reflink>]) state, somewhat differently, that "early science experiences provided in kindergarten" are not "strong predictors of children's immediate and later science achievement" (p. 217). These varying views may be due to different foci as stated by Siraj-Blatchford ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref8">42</reflink>]), who points out that "we should quite clearly differentiate between science education that focuses on established conceptual knowledge and an 'Emergent Science education' [...] that focuses on the development of emergent conceptions of the nature of science and the development of positive dispositions" (p. 5).</p> <p>In line with this later suggestion oriented towards the development of emergent concepts and positive dispositions, some studies have argued for making use of young children's spontaneous activities and communicative patterns embedded in everyday life (e.g., Klaar & Öhman, [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref9">25</reflink>]; Sikder & Fleer, [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref10">40</reflink>]; Thulin, Jonsson, Fridberg & Redfors [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref11">47</reflink>]). Such activities as well as play or drama (e.g., Bulunuz, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref12">8</reflink>]; Fleer, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref13">11</reflink>]; Fleer & Pramling, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref14">12</reflink>]; Gomes & Fleer, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref15">16</reflink>]; Pramling & Pramling Samuelsson, [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref16">36</reflink>]; Varelas et al., [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref17">50</reflink>]), are assumed to promote understanding and meaning making more successfully than through direct instruction (cf. Frejd, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref18">15</reflink>]). Some of these researchers, as well as others (e.g., Hadzigeorgiou, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref19">19</reflink>]; Inan & Inan, [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref20">22</reflink>]; Michaels et al., [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref21">35</reflink>]), maintain that discovery learning does not, on its own, result in experiences that are beneficial for learning. A number of researchers also emphasise the importance of teachers' openness and responsiveness to children's questions, curiosity, speculations, interests, and insights, as well as their support for children's agency (e.g., Areljung, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref22">3</reflink>]; Frejd, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref23">15</reflink>]; Gustavsson & Pramling, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref24">17</reflink>]; Kewalramani & Veresov, [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref25">24</reflink>]; Larsson, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref26">31</reflink>]; Siry & Max, [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref27">43</reflink>]).</p> <p>Irrespective of theoretical standpoint, research on young children's understanding of balance, stability or centre of gravity has not been easy to find. However, in one such study investigating the development of the concept of mechanical stability in preschool children, Hadzigeorgiou ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref28">19</reflink>]) concluded that appropriate activities involving children's actions on objects, immediate reactions from these objects and scaffolding strategies, could help children to construct the concept and apply it in similar contexts. The author also argued that certain scientific concepts from physics could be taught not only to first year pupils in primary school, but also to very young children, as long as they receive appropriate guidance.</p> <p>As evident from the review above, there is an increasing body of studies on emergent science education as such and part of this research has been directed towards the way multimodal illustrations are used in preschool when dealing with natural scientific phenomena. Our study contributes to a less investigated domain of early science education, linked to whole-body experiences in relation to children's meaning making of scientific phenomena in general and stability in particular.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-3">Multimodal illustrations in emergent science education</hd> <p>In the present article, the term illustration is used in a broader sense, which differs from how it is generally referred to in everyday contexts, where it is most often related to images. Here, it also includes communicational resources, for example, words, gestures, models, facial expressions, sounds, etc. (Jewitt, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref29">23</reflink>]; Kress, [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref30">27</reflink>]; Kress & van Leeuven, [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref31">30</reflink>]). Illustrations in emergent science education are most often multimodal in nature in that several such resources or modes are combined in order to provide information about concepts and processes.</p> <p>Several researchers have stressed the importance of guiding the children in their interpretation of illustrations (e.g. Åberg-Bengtsson, Beach, et al., [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref32">1</reflink>]; Åberg-Bengtsson, Karlsson, et al., [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref33">2</reflink>]; Bergnell Karlsson, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref34">5</reflink>]; von Zeipel, [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref35">51</reflink>]; Westman & Karlsson, [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref36">54</reflink>]). These authors conclude that even with such guidance, illustrations might be difficult to understand due to lack of transparency of the scientific information and that teachers must be aware of children's alternative ideas.</p> <p>Research on the role of gestures or bodily-based illustrations accompanying spoken words in teaching and learning situations has typically dealt with older students in later school years, or even in universities (e.g., Flood et al., [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref37">14</reflink>]; Roth & Welzel, [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref38">38</reflink>]). However, science education in preschool and primary school has been attracting increasing interest and has become a growing research domain, also with respect to the role of multimodal approaches. For instance, Siry et al. ([<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref39">44</reflink>]), argued that the children demonstrated "clear representations of science processes" (p. 334) that were made available in their discourse-in-interaction, and that these processes were not of "lower quality" than those "of standard science" (p. 334). Ünsal et al. ([<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref40">48</reflink>]) stated that "using gestures is continuous with learning science" (p. 141). Bergnell Karlsson ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref41">6</reflink>]), on her part, concluded that bodily-based illustrations seem to facilitate linking everyday and scientific levels, as well as being a means for the children to express and communicate scientific meaning for which they have not yet appropriated the proper words.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-4">Purpose of the study</hd> <p>By adopting a multimodal perspective on interaction between children, educators and illustrations when focusing on a bodily-based illustration of a scientific concept, this study will contribute to this particular area of emergent science education.</p> <p>Our overall aim was to study how a multimodal illustration of centre of gravity as an issue of stability was presented and explained to a group of preschoolers and how these children dealt with the representation. More precisely, we asked the following questions:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> How do the different communicational resources that are used in the multimodal illustration work together to explain the concept of stability?</item> <p></p> <item> How does this illustration seem to affect the children's explanations and meaning making related to the concept of stability?</item> </ulist> <p>Our interest thus concerned how a scientific concept was presented <emph>in situ</emph> and whether the presentation successfully guided or perhaps hindered the intended meaning making. In this way, the study builds on empirically generated questions that are theoretically grounded in a multimodal approach. Following, for instance, Price and Jewitt ([<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref42">37</reflink>]), we have chosen to use the term bodily-based instead of embodied (for further reading on embodiment, see, e.g., Sullivan, [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref43">45</reflink>], for an extensive review), when referring to modes building on bodily expressions in multimodal illustrations. In the concept of bodily-based, we include gesturing, interactive materials, and bodily activity in general when used to illustrate a scientific content.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-5">Theoretical framing</hd> <p>Multimodal and socio-semiotic perspectives take a stance, in which modes are social and cultural semiotic resources for meaning making (Kress, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref44">26</reflink>]). Verbal language is but one resource that can be combined with several non-verbal modes (e.g., gestural expressions and demonstrations, actions with objects, images, writings, animations, sounds, colours, layouts, etc.) and orchestrated in different combinations used to facilitate communication and sense making (Jewitt, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref45">23</reflink>]; Kress & Selander, [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref46">29</reflink>]; Price & Jewitt, [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref47">37</reflink>]). However, it is pointed out that non-verbal modes, such as illustrations or gestures, bear their own meanings and thus have full communication capacity rather than merely duplicating the meanings made in spoken or written forms (Bezamer, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref48">7</reflink>]; Kress, [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref49">27</reflink>]). According to Kress et al. ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref50">28</reflink>]), using ensembles of modes has profound effects on shaping knowledge because "the representational potentials of different semiotic modes differ—never absolutely, but differ, nevertheless, in the facilitation of certain forms of knowledge and the impeding of others" (p. 16).</p> <p>As stressed by Engebretsen ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref51">9</reflink>]), the importance of cohesion between elements in multimodal texts and presentations has long been an issue of interest (e.g., Lemke, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref52">32</reflink>]; Martinec & Salway, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref53">34</reflink>]; Unsworth & Clerigh, [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref54">49</reflink>]) and the need for coherence in the science curriculum in these respects has been addressed by, for instance, Sikorski and Hammer ([<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref55">41</reflink>]). But there are as yet few examples of researchers having recognised the benefit of tensions within or between modes as a means of promoting learning (e.g., Jewitt, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref56">23</reflink>]). Engebretsen ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref57">9</reflink>]) is one of them. He suggests an interdisciplinary approach to the study of multimodal complexity. Posing the question about what characterises the most successful texts for learning, in his framework model, he argues for a balance between multimodal cohesion and tension in the interplay among semiotic modes. We found this model most useful for analytical purposes in the present article, even though our focus is upon a multimodal illustration and not upon written texts.</p> <p>According to Engebretsen, <emph>multimodal cohesion</emph> is based on similarity, proximity and continuity. Cohesion is a necessary prerequisite for enabling the readers to make the connection between textual elements and their prior knowledge of the world, that is, to learn. He brings to the fore another important issue that has hitherto been less focused and elaborated on, namely that of textual tension. <emph>Multimodal tension</emph> is based on contrast, distance and discontinuity. Being the inversion of cohesion, it forces the readers to react, engage and draw conclusions, which are central to a fruitful meaning-making process. Both cohesion and tension are necessary for learning situations to become understandable and engaging. In the present study, we do not apply Engebretsen's approach in relation to written texts and readers, but instead in an attempt to investigate the interplay between multimodal elements of an illustration and its balance between cohesion and tension with respect to the participant's use of spoken language, gestures, movements, gazes, mimicry, etc.</p> <p>Engebretsen ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref58">9</reflink>], pp. 147–153) operates with three levels of user-text interaction. First, the <emph>material and formal dimension</emph>, which relates to how the text appears and sounds to the readers and the feelings that it evokes in them. Second, the <emph>semantic dimension</emph>, which involves meaning-making and interpretation processes. Third, the <emph>performative dimension</emph>, which concerns what social action was involved in the production of the text and what kind of response was required. Even though our research would have benefitted also from all three dimensions, in order to keep a close focus, we found the semantic dimension to be the most useful. Partly, because according to Engebretsen, high level of cohesion is needed in the semantic dimension to support learning. In addition, to mobilise learning capacities, Engebretsen advocates that this cohesion should be balanced with the conscious shaping of gaps to be bridged by the learners. These "gaps and tensions between the parts must be deep and sharp enough to be challenging, though not deeper and sharper than what is possible to bridge" (p. 150). In our understanding, Engebretsen's concerns ought to be applicable to learning situations including multimodal illustrations as well.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-6">Method</hd> <p>Data for this study emanate from observations and video recordings of (a) a group of preschoolers visiting at a science centre and (b) a follow-up with four of the children at their preschool. The entire preschool group of 4–5-year-old pupils (14 children in total) and their two teachers visited a science centre in a middle-sized city in Sweden to attend a theme event concerning the ship Vasa, involving activities relating to stability and density. It was designed by the centre's exhibit project managers and presented by the centre's pedagogically trained guides.</p> <p>During the visit, the group was engaged in several activities related to a theme of the royal ship of Vasa, led by two guides from the centre. A crucial part of this theme was a dramatised story about how the ship was constructed and tested for stability, but never-the-less foundered on her maiden voyage. This drama activity is analysed and discussed below, while other parts of the visit are not focused upon in this article. Before leaving the centre, the group was encouraged to continue their exploration of stability and density. Therefore, two days later, follow-up discussions with their teacher about the story of Vasa were arranged at the preschool. However, due to practical circumstances, only two pairs of children had the opportunity to participate in this activity.</p> <p>During all observations, the first author took detailed and extensive field notes especially during the drama-play session that was not allowed to be video documented for copyright reasons set by the science centre. In this particular case, we would argue that this restriction did not fundamentally affect the quality of the data, as the researcher could follow the activity and the participants closely but still without attracting much attention. It may be argued that field notes can never capture multimodal interaction the way a video camera can. However, a video camera on a tripod covering lively children in this vivid activity on a large floor area would not have captured facial expressions and gestures in much detail (Heikkilä & Sahlström, [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref59">21</reflink>]). Furthermore, to participate in the drama with a hand-held camera would have interrupted the running and interfered with the activity as such.</p> <p>The two table-activity sessions at the preschool were both permitted and appropriate to video record in their whole (in total, 2.5 h) and thus benefitted from the advantages of the method, such as capturing a variety of means of communication (e.g., spoken language, pointing, movements, gazes, mimicry, etc.), as well as creating an over-arching and comprehensive record of the activity as such. The recordings were conducted with a camera placed on a tripod at some distance from the participants.</p> <p>To ensure as good a reliability as possible from the video-documentation, transcriptions were made as soon as possible, after the observed sessions, and included both verbal and non-verbal communication. In order to obtain transcripts in as much detail as possible, the fieldnotes from the drama session were immediately and carefully re-written to clarify and complete sketches of gestures, voice mode, and movements as well as unfinished notes. From the video-recordings, all verbal utterances were written down verbatim and completed with gestures, facial expressions, etc. These transcripts were used together with the recordings in the data analysis.</p> <p>During the whole research process, the ethical guidelines provided by the Swedish National Research Council were followed ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref60">46</reflink>]). Informed written consent was obtained from parents, but even so, particular consideration was taken for the young children's ease or tokens of uneasiness, if any. In the excerpts presented below, the names of the participating children have been replaced by aliases.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-7">Analysis</hd> <p>Initially, our analytical interest was directed towards the participants' ways of interpreting multimodally illustrated scientific concepts or phenomena. The collected data offered several such occasions. However, in the first review of the data, the follow-up from the preschool stood out as significant with regard to the participating children's meaning making about Vasa's foundering. Consequently, the drama-play, in which the story of Vasa was multimodally illustrated at the science centre, became most interesting for a further analysis. In line with the aim of the study, this illustration offered rich opportunities for analysing how modes such as speech, gestures, pictures, bodily actions, etc. work together and affect children's making of meaning, which led to a close examination of the interplay between these modes (Jewitt, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref61">23</reflink>]; Kress & Selander, [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref62">29</reflink>]; Price & Jewitt, [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref63">37</reflink>]). For this examination, we directed our interest towards Engebretsen's ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref64">9</reflink>]) framework model for an analysis of the balance between multimodal cohesion and tension in a learning situation.</p> <p>Based on Fleer's ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref65">11</reflink>]) suggestions for how to conduct video analyses, the first author repeatedly watched the recorded episodes, with and without sounds or pictures, with increased speed, in slow motion and from different perspectives or foci. Moments that seemed to be of particular interest were then selected and presented to the second author, who made her own interpretation of what had taken place during the episodes. Next, the interpretations were compared and a process of discussions and adjustments was initiated.</p> <p>During the initial analytical process, one bodily-based illustration of how the ship's stability was tested at the time Vasa was built, was by people running over the upper decks to simulate the motions of the sea, seemed to be of utmost interest for highlighting the complexity of the illustrations used in early science education. Using Engebretsen's ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref66">9</reflink>]) approach to investigate the balance between multimodal cohesion and tension and with these initial observations and discussions in mind, we continued our analysis of the drama session at the science centre and the follow-up at the preschool. This course of action was conducted by the first author and thereafter in cooperation with the second author. We focused mainly on the semantic dimension and marked the passages in transcripts from field notes and video-recordings that could constitute examples of cohesion or tension between or within modes. These markings were then scrutinised regarding how well the modes seemed to interact when presenting the illustrated content. To enhance credibility and validity, on several occasions and in an iterative procedure, we discussed our tentative results and how children's expressions could actually be interpreted in the larger research group that was conducting a project of which this study is a part. This enabled a critical scrutinising of the data from different aspects by researches with varied competences resulting in clarifications and rephrasing. After this process, we confidently finalised the analysis.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-8">Results</hd> <p>In this section, we deal with (a) the entire study group's participation in the drama about Vasa, and with (b) the follow-up activity with two pairs of children at the preschool. This grouping corresponds to the two subheadings below. Each subsection comprises an explanatory ingress and one or two <emph>in-situ</emph> episodes, followed by an analytical part. Non-verbal communication is presented within parentheses, and additional explanations are enclosed within square brackets or with clarifying images. Children speaking individually, are given fictive names. The results are addressed in relation to the two research questions in the discussion.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-9">The story of Vasa and the stability test – a drama in the science centre</hd> <p>The visit to the science centre opened with a drama-play of the sinking of the Vasa ship, enacted by one of its guides. However, the children participating as the audience were frequently involved in the dialogue. On one occasion, several children were asked to participate in a bodily-based illustration. Episode 1 gives a picture of the incident.</p> <p>Episode 1. When we enter the stage, the children are seated in a half-circle in front of a female guide, who is dressed as a young man from the seventeenth century. The guide presents herself as Hans, the son of one of the builders of a ship called Vasa, and continues:</p> <p></p> <p> <ephtml> <table><tbody><tr><td>1.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>The king ordered a very large ship, but when the boat builders constructed the ship in the way the king wanted, they became very alarmed because the ship was <italic>thaaaat</italic> high and had <italic>so</italic> many tall masts (talking in a dramatic voice and raising her hands straight up to show just how tall the masts were) and <italic>loooots</italic> of canons. And they [the boat builders] said, "This won't work. The ship is not stable". What does stable mean?</td></tr><tr><td>2.</td><td>Anna:</td><td>That the ship is not that steady.</td></tr><tr><td>3.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>That's right! But the king said (talking in a firm voice), "I want those tall masts. And there should be two rows of gun ports, and they should be placed high up" (showing them a images of Vasa, in which a cross-section of her hull illustrates the shallow hold, where stones had been placed to stabilise the ship). This is what Vasa looked like!</td></tr><tr><td>4.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(Looking and pointing towards the images)</td></tr><tr><td>5.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>The boat builders said, (talking in a horrified voice) "What should we do to make the ship stable?" They needed something heavy to put in the bottom of the ship (pointing at the bottom of the ship on the drawing). But the king wanted such a narrow ship, so they couldn't fit so many stones there. They were still worried, so they did a stability test (talking in an eager voice). Should we do such a stability test?</td></tr><tr><td>The children react positively to this suggestion by smiling and cheering. The guide invites six children from the first row to participate in the test of how a ship's stability was performed historically and specifically, how the test was carried out on Vasa.</td></tr><tr><td>6.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>Come and stand in a row like this (indicating "a row" with her hands).</td></tr><tr><td>7.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(The six children get up and line up accordingly.)</td></tr><tr><td>8.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>Now, we are on the floor of the boat, and it is called the deck. Can you take hold on each other's hands?</td></tr><tr><td>9.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(The children on the floor do so.)</td></tr><tr><td>10.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>Let's pretend that we are running on the deck of the boat from one side to the other (talking in an eager voice). Let's run to your teacher over there!</td></tr><tr><td>11.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(Holding hands, the children on the floor run from one side of the room to the other.)</td></tr><tr><td>12.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>And then back to your other teacher over there!</td></tr><tr><td>13.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(They run once again, laughing.)</td></tr><tr><td>14.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>And again!</td></tr><tr><td>15.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(They run, laughing.)</td></tr><tr><td>16.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>And again!</td></tr><tr><td>17.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(They run, laughing.)</td></tr><tr><td>18.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>Now, you can sit down again,</td></tr><tr><td>19.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(The six children go back to their seats, giggling.)</td></tr><tr><td>20.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>What do you think happened when the people ran like this in Vasa's stability test?</td></tr><tr><td>21.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(All the children remain silent.)</td></tr><tr><td>22.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>And the boat started to roll like this (repeatedly turning her hand "palm up" and "palm down" in a smooth, rolling movement and talking in a dramatic voice). Very much, like this (now she rolls with her whole body with arms stretched out and weighing on one foot at a time) (See Picture 1).</td></tr><tr><td /><td /><td>Picture 1.<graphic href="csje_a_2308865_ilg0001.gif" content-type="Graph" /></td></tr><tr><td>23.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>(Talking in a dramatic voice). Have you ever been on a boat that is rolling a lot?</td></tr><tr><td>24.</td><td>Children:</td><td>(Several voices at the same time) <italic>Yeeeees</italic>.</td></tr><tr><td>25.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>Oh well, then you know what it's like. You need to stay seated; otherwise, it will roll like this (doing a rolling hand movement palm up, palm down)</td></tr><tr><td>26.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>[Continuing the drama] And the boat builders said, This boat is not stable! It's not stable at all! Vasa is too narrow and too long and has masts that are too tall. But still, the king wanted the boat to sail away. And the king was the one who decided. So I, and many others, maybe a hundred and fifty men, went on board. And then we waved goodbye to all the people standing on the wharf, and then Vasa set sail. But you know what? When we had sailed only some metres off the shore, a gust of wind made Vasa roll and heel (rolling her body a couple of times and talking in a dramatic voice). We sailed just a little more (holding her hand vertically showing Vasa sailing in an upright position, fingers stretched out and the thumb as a sail pointing up), and another gust of wind hit Vasa (turning her hand from the upright position in a slow falling movement until her hand is horizonal with the palm up). [Picture 2: a,b,c are showing a reconstruction].</td></tr><tr><td /><td /><td>Picture 2. a,b,c.</td></tr><tr><td><graphic href="csje_a_2308865_ilg0002.gif" content-type="Graph" /></td></tr><tr><td>27.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>The boat tips over!</td></tr><tr><td>28.</td><td>Oliver:</td><td>The boat tips over!</td></tr><tr><td>29.</td><td>Children:</td><td>The boat tips over!</td></tr><tr><td>30.</td><td>Guide:</td><td>Yes, it tips over. It founders and sinks to the bottom of the sea.</td></tr><tr><td>31.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>And they drown.</td></tr><tr><td>Then the guide [still portraying the stowaway] tells the children how Vasa starts to sink and how the stowaway falls into the water. He can't swim, but he manages to cling onto a piece of wood and eventually floats ashore on a nearby island. The children now engage in the story and share all their own swimming experiences; the guide chimes in that it is very useful to be able to swim. Thereafter, the guide finishes the story by stating that the stowaway is now stranded on a desert island and needs a much more stable boat than Vasa, so that he can sail home again.</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Regarding the semantic structure (Engebretsen, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref67">9</reflink>]), several occasions of cohesion among the different modes of presentation were traced in the first part [Lines 1–5]. When the guide told the children about Vasa's tall mast, she accompanied her spoken words with a telling gesture in which she raised her hands towards the ceiling [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref68">1</reflink>]. Further to illustrate the construction with the tall masts and the double gun decks, she complemented this with a picture of the ship [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref69">3</reflink>] and used a cross-section of this picture to explain how the builders tried to enhance Vasa's stability with stones in the lower hold [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref70">5</reflink>]. Evidently, in this part, the guide established a strong cohesion among the verbal, bodily-based and visual modes, thus providing "a platform for creating a meaningful whole that correlates with the learning goals" (Engebretsen, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref71">9</reflink>], p. 150). This seems particularly clear in the children's response to the guide's multimodal clarifications, where her hand gestures and whole-body movement seem important in their meaning making [26–31].</p> <p>Next, the guide invited some of the children to join her on the floor, which she claimed to be the deck of the ship Vasa [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref72">6</reflink>], to participate in a bodily-based illustration of the test. By letting these children run back and forth with her across the room, she engaged them in a whole-body and enjoyable experience of the stability test. However, the actual reason for the running (i.e., to simulate rolling sea) is left unexplained. Even though the guide asked them what might have happened when the people ran in the same way during Vasa's stability test [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref73">18</reflink>], it can be assumed that the distance between the children's running on the floor and what historically took place on Vasa created a semantic tension. A minor tension "can itself be meaningful and a means for encouraging reflection" (Jewitt, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref74">23</reflink>], p. 13) but later at the follow-up this turned out to be too wide a semantic gap to be bridged. Furthermore, to make sense of this illustration, the children were supposed to alternate between the present and the past, as well as to imagine the floor (on which they had run) as Vasa's deck. In our understanding, at least three potential tensions related to time: First, the tension between the stability test (present time) and the references to the children's previous everyday experiences, if any, of rolling in a small boat (relatively near-past time). Second, the tension between running back and forth on the floor (present time) and the story of Vasa's stability test (historic time). Third, the tension between the children's everyday experiences of small boats (relatively near-past time) and Vasa's stability test (historic time).</p> <p>Despite the combination of verbal and bodily-based explanatory elements, it seemed that the designers did not manage to create a coherent, well-orchestrated illustration. To use Jewitt's ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref75">23</reflink>]) words, it rather "led to an experience of sequentialized interaction" (p. 150). As the children seemed to focus on one mode at a time, instead of continuity, the combination generated a gap, not only in the semantic but also in the material dimension.</p> <p>When asking the children about their previous experiences of rolling boats [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref76">23</reflink>], the guide presumably tried to create a platform for a meaningful whole by relating the unfamiliar (scientific) stability test to a familiar (everyday) experience of small boats. Although such references to everyday life are most often considered beneficial for meaning making, in this case, the reference interrupted the coherent story of Vasa and created sematic discontinuity.</p> <p>Directly after the children's running as an illustration of the historical stability test, the guide reminded them of the importance of being seated when on board a small boat in general; "otherwise, it will roll like this" [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref77">25</reflink>]. Then, she immediately returns to the story of Vasa's instability [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref78">26</reflink>]. In other words, running back and forth on a deck, the risks of not sitting still on a boat, and a rolling and (implicitly at this point) sinking ship were mentioned in close connection to the story of Vasa and stability test. Later in the analysis, this turned out to be rather unfortunate, as we will return to in the next section.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-10">Follow-up sessions in the preschool</hd> <p>Three days after the preschool group's visit to the science centre, a follow-up took place. Episodes 2 and 3 feature four children (all four years old) in two separate groups, reasoning with their teacher about their experiences from the science centre. The episodes focus on them returning to Vasa's lack of stability and foundering.</p> <p>Both pairs of children gave similar explanations of why the Vasa ship sank. The two episodes will be analysed jointly below.</p> <p>Episode 2. The teacher presents two images[<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref79">2</reflink>] of Vasa to Sofia and Victor. Image 1 shows Vasa still sailing proudly, whereas in image 2 the ship is rolling heavily and probably just about to overturn.</p> <p></p> <p> <ephtml> <table><tbody><tr><td>32.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>Do you remember that we did that in the science centre?</td></tr><tr><td>33.</td><td>Victor:</td><td><italic>Yeah</italic>.</td></tr><tr><td>34.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>(Pointing to Vasa in image 2 and looks at the teacher.)</td></tr><tr><td>35.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>Do you remember these boats (pointing at the two pictures of Vasa)?</td></tr><tr><td>36.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>Mm, it shakes. Wobbles [<italic>vinglar</italic> in Swedish] (holding her hand in front of her and wiggles it).</td></tr><tr><td>37.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>Yes, why? There it is when it's still "standing" (pointing to image 1) and there (pointing to image 2) it is when it has ... </td></tr><tr><td>38.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>Wobbles!</td></tr><tr><td>39.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>And why did it do that?</td></tr><tr><td>40.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>(Shrugging her shoulders.)</td></tr><tr><td>41.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>Wasn't there something silly about that boat?</td></tr><tr><td /><td /><td>(Short silence.)</td></tr><tr><td>42.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>(Slowly lifting her arm up) Run to the first teacher (slowly moving her arm from right to left) and then to the other (slowly moving her arm from left to right). (Picture 3a,b,c).</td></tr><tr><td> Picture 3. a,b,c.<graphic href="csje_a_2308865_ilg0003.gif" content-type="Graph" /></td></tr><tr><td>43.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>Oh, yes! We ran back and forth.</td></tr><tr><td>44.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td><italic>Yeeah</italic> (rapidly moving her arm back and forth a couple of times).</td></tr><tr><td>45.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>And what happened then?</td></tr><tr><td>46.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>It wobbled (doing rapid movements with her arm)!</td></tr><tr><td>47.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>And what happened when it had wobbled for a while..?</td></tr><tr><td>48.</td><td>Victor:</td><td><italic>Eeeh</italic>.</td></tr><tr><td>49.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>Drowned!</td></tr><tr><td>50.</td><td>Victor:</td><td>Drowned.</td></tr><tr><td>51.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>It sank.</td></tr><tr><td>After four minutes of small talk, Sofia returns to the pictures of Vasa.</td></tr><tr><td>52.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>I want to look at this (looking closely at image 2) because it looks so nice. It wobbles' (moving her hand in a rolling movement similar to the one the guide used [22])!</td></tr><tr><td>53.</td><td>Victor:</td><td>(Grasping image 1) Then I will look at this.</td></tr><tr><td>54.</td><td>Sofia:</td><td>Now it's still (pointing at image 1). They're runnin' <italic>rooound</italic> and <italic>rooound</italic> (moving her right index finger over image 1, from Vasa's fore to stern a couple of times). [Picture 4].</td></tr><tr><td /><td /><td>Picture 4. <graphic href="csje_a_2308865_ilg0004.gif" content-type="Graph" /></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Episode 3. Nikki, Jenny and their teacher are sitting at a table with the images of Vasa in front of them. The teacher asks the girls if they remember Vasa and what happened when the ship was launched.</p> <p></p> <p> <ephtml> <table><tbody><tr><td>55.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>But what happened to the boat when they finally got it out of the harbour?</td></tr><tr><td>56.</td><td>Nikki:</td><td>I don't know.</td></tr><tr><td>57.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>But yes! What happened? They built the ship on land. Jenny, do you remember that? That they built the ship on land?</td></tr><tr><td>58.</td><td>Jenny:</td><td>(Hesitating) <italic>Yeeeah</italic>.</td></tr><tr><td>59.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>And then, they went out into the sea.</td></tr><tr><td>60.</td><td>Nikki:</td><td>(Eagerly) Then, then it sank!</td></tr><tr><td>61.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>Yes, it sank. Why did it?</td></tr><tr><td>62.</td><td>Nikki:</td><td>(Eagerly) 'Cause they weren't still on the boat!</td></tr><tr><td>63.</td><td>Teacher:</td><td>Oh yeah. Do you remember? They had to do that kind of test. They had to run back and forth, like you said. But the boat didn't pass that ... </td></tr><tr><td>64.</td><td>Nikki:</td><td>No! 'Cause they didn't sit still!</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>When analysing Episode 1, we pointed out a noteworthy imbalance between cohesion and tension with respect to the semantic dimension. We would argue that high levels of tension were caused mainly by the combination of a prominent whole-bodily experience and less prominent or even omitted verbal explanation. In addition, high levels of tension emanate from the guide´s alternating between time frames (historic and present time as well as the children's previous experiences) in the bodily-based illustration of Vasa's stability test hindered the children's meaning making as to why Vasa sank. In Episodes 2 and 3, this illustration apparently resulted in the assumption that Vasa's sinking was caused by people running on her deck [36–51 and 60–62].</p> <p>Very early on in each session, both groups started talking about the people moving on Vasa's deck as the reason for the ship being wrecked. In Episode 2, Sofia directly related their participation in the bodily-based illustration of the stability test, when they ran "to the first teacher ... and then to the other" [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref80">42</reflink>], to the sinking of Vasa. From this, it would seem that she drew the conclusion that people's "runnin' <emph>rooound</emph> and <emph>rooound</emph>" [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref81">54</reflink>] on Vasa's upper deck caused the ship to "wobble" [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref82">38</reflink>] and "drown" [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref83">49</reflink>]. When the teacher attempted to place the running as a part of Vasa's stability test [42–47] Sofia remained to this notion. However, when the teacher corrected the children's' use of the word "drown" about the ship into the more proper "sank" [49–51], this adjustment may be interpreted as an agreement of Sofia's ideas of what took place on Vasa.</p> <p>Nikki (in Episode 3) asserted that people "weren't still on the boat" [<reflink idref="bib62" id="ref84">62</reflink>]. This might be enhanced by the teacher's "oh yeah" [<reflink idref="bib63" id="ref85">63</reflink>]. Even though the teacher thereafter tried to remind Nikki that the running had to do with a test that the boat did not pass [<reflink idref="bib63" id="ref86">63</reflink>], Nikki clung to her initial idea that the ship sank because people "did not sit still" [<reflink idref="bib64" id="ref87">64</reflink>]. Based on our analysis of the follow-up at the preschool, it would seem reasonable to conclude that the children connected Vasa's sinking to the stability test in which they had participated, and not to the fact that the test showed Vasa as unstable.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-11">Discussion</hd> <p>Two research questions were posed. The first concerned how the different communicational resources used in the multimodal illustrations worked together to explain the concept of stability. According to Engebretsen ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref88">9</reflink>]), this relationship can be described in terms of cohesion and tension between modes. Although Engebretsen states that no multimodal grammar regulates how modes should be combined, he advocates for a balance between multimodal cohesion and tension. He stresses that all modes in use need to work together to shape a "universe where all elements fit in" (p. 146), in order to create extended and successful learning situations.</p> <p>Certainly, such patterns of cohesions were present in the Vasa theme, and at first sight, the modes used in the multimodal illustration seemed to "tell the same story". The guide used telling gestures, a varied voice, clarifying pictures etc. Furthermore, she engaged the children to participate with their whole bodies and referred to their previous experiences. In total, this design allowed the children to meet the concept of stability in an enjoyable way. Such early, playful encounters may be important for retaining a positive attitude towards science (cf. Areljung, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref89">3</reflink>]; Frejd, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref90">15</reflink>]).</p> <p>However, our results showed also instances of a lack of sufficient cohesion, as well as modes being combined in ways that generated unfortunate tension. The disrupted story line, which caused a semantic discontinuity in the drama, was a clear example of tensions hindering the shaping of a cohesive "universe" for meaning making. The theme's designers seemed to have taken it for granted that the children would be able to bridge both wide and deep gaps. In other words, they were supposed to keep track of the times and the places in the moves between the past and the present, as well as between the historic event and everyday life. The tension between the stability test simulated by the children and the actual cause of Vasa's sinking was another feature that turned out to be of considerable importance for the children's meaning making.</p> <p>Furthermore, as is evident from the analysis, the children thought that the Vasa ship sank because people ran on her deck, not because it had not been stably built. This seems as a quite logical conclusion as the guide had reminded them of the importance of being seated when on board a small boat in a very close connection to their own running in the drama play. Thus, the most unbridgeable gap for the children was to understand that this running illustrated rolling sea in the stability test. Even though they drew the abovementioned conclusion about Vasa's foundering, it still indicates some understanding of the scientific explanation of stability and cause–effect relationships.</p> <p>Hadzigeorgiou's ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref91">19</reflink>]) found that not only appropriate activities involving children's actions on objects but also immediate reactions from these objects and scaffolding strategies were helpful for preschool children when they attempted to develop a concept of mechanical stability. In the present study, we could observe insufficient scaffolding strategies from the guides as well as from the teacher. Applying Hadzigeorgiou's results to the realm of multimodality based on the outcome of our study, we would argue that to work well, illustrations of abstract scientific concepts (like stability) could not be built solely upon children's bodily-based interactions but need to be complemented by well-chosen support. Remarkably, the children in our study were not assisted in coming to grips with a concept that was highly advanced for their age-group. Undoubtedly, on several occasions, a few probing questions in accordance with Engebretsen's approach ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref92">9</reflink>]) would have been very helpful as an enhancement of the verbal mode, in order to create better cohesion as well as bridgeable tensions suitable for preschool children (cf. Fleer & Pramling, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref93">12</reflink>]; Fleer & Raban, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref94">13</reflink>]; Hedegaard & Chaiklin, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref95">20</reflink>]).</p> <p>The second research question concerned how the multimodal illustration seemed to affect the children's explanations and meaning making. From our analysis, it became obvious that the identification of the relations among the different elements and modes of the illustration was a complicated task for the children in the present study. We would argue that due to coherence deficiencies, the children met difficulties handling the story of Vasa while simultaneously making meaning of the concept of stability (cf., Sikorski & Hammer, [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref96">41</reflink>], on the need of cohesion in science curricula).</p> <p>Engebretsen ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref97">9</reflink>]) points out the importance of consciously shaping <emph>bridgeable</emph> gaps when designing multimodal occasions for learning, in order to support individuals in their shaping of meaningful wholes (p. 150). We found instances when it might be assumed that the tensions were too strong, and the bridging thus turned out to be problematic. This happened, for instance, when the children's previous everyday experiences were used in a way that turned out to be misleading for them in their scientific meaning-making process.</p> <p>Despite the ambitious purposes of the science centre, we argue that the support for the children's meaning making was unsatisfactory as to why certain events happened and how these were related to the concept of stability. This issue is important, since according to several scholars (e.g., Fleer & Pramling, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref98">12</reflink>]; Wells, [<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref99">53</reflink>]), children's active exploration is necessary but insufficient when it comes to dealing with complicated matters. Children need to be properly supported in their formation of scientific concepts by linking these to their everyday experiences (Fleer, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref100">11</reflink>]; Fleer & Pramling, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref101">12</reflink>]; Fleer & Raban, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref102">13</reflink>]; Vygotsky, [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref103">52</reflink>]/[<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref104">52</reflink>]).</p> <p> <emph>Final reflections.</emph> Our study is based on a small number of participants and on a single visit to a particular science centre. Consequently, there are inevitable limitations with such an <emph>in-situ</emph> investigation. However, our conclusions have been drawn not only from the present results but also from previous research on primary and preschool children's dealing with multimodal information in science education, as well as our theoretical assumptions, and should be read with these considerations in mind.</p> <p>Our belief is that the present research contributes to emergent science education in a unique way. The pitfalls and stumbling blocks when designing and conducting teaching and learning situations were analysed from a theoretical stance using Engebretsen's ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref105">9</reflink>]) alternative approach to study semiotic complexity. To our knowledge, analyses of young children's encounters with illustrations in science education have not previously been based upon the notions of cohesion and tension within and between modes. In addition, there is a relatively small body of research on multimodal illustrations in science education for young children in general and on bodily-based recourses in such illustrations in particular.</p> <p>It has previously been documented and seems indisputable that the transparency of illustrations cannot be taken for granted: not even when they appear simple and self-explanatory and the need for guidance is explicitly pointed out (e.g., Åberg-Bengtsson, Beach, et al., [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref106">1</reflink>]; Bergnell Karlsson, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref107">5</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref108">6</reflink>]; Ljung-Djärf et al., [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref109">33</reflink>]; von Zeipel, [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref110">51</reflink>]; Westman & Karlsson, [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref111">54</reflink>]). Our results are in accordance with these statements. In addition, we stress the importance of educators' awareness of the fallacy of overlooking unintended tensions in multimodal illustrations and also that children may have their own alternative, unexpected interpretations of the scientific illustrations presented to them.</p> <p>Bodily-based illustrations do not appear to be exceptions from these findings, even though they might be assumed to be easier to develop adequate meanings from. Although some previous research has suggested that these kinds of illustrations could work well (Bergnell Karlsson, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref112">6</reflink>]; Siry et al., [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref113">44</reflink>]), the present study shows that teachers must be aware of the need to ensure that bodily-based elements of multimodal illustrations function as intended. Furthermore, they should support the children in the bridging of gaps between and within modes. Even if the multimodal illustration used at the science centre did not work as intended, it obviously made a strong and lasting impression to the children, which advocates the use of such illustrations for learning.</p> <p>Even though our study emanates from a visit to a science centre, the results should not only be seen as advice as to how the Vasa exhibit could benefit from changes in design and execution. Instead, an activity similar to the one presented in this article could very well has been carried out in preschool or primary science education. Thus, we would advise educators and designers of learning activities in general to carefully consider the balance between cohesion and tension in multimodal contexts (cf. Engebretsen, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref114">9</reflink>]) and be observant regarding children's need of assistance in building bridges between elements in multimodal illustrations. Our study also highlights the importance of bearing in mind that children may not by themselves develop the intended meanings of difficult scientific concepts, such as stability. Instead, in order to lay a foundation for concept formation, teachers should consider children's need for well-reasoned guidance when linking their everyday experiences to scientific phenomena. In doing so, they should still pay attention to the importance of providing children with rich, meaningful and enjoyable opportunities to make meaning of the world around them.</p> <hd id="AN0182949491-12">Disclosure statement</hd> <p>No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).</p> <ref id="AN0182949491-13"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref3" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Åberg-Bengtsson, L., Beach, D., & Ljung-Djärf, A. (2017). Young primary students making sense of text and illustrations about how refuse can become soil. 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Vasa was raised from the sea in 1961 and preserved and is now shown at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> These images can be seen dimly in Picture 3(a,b,c).</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Anneli Bergnell and Lisbeth Åberg-Bengtsson</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib42" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib39" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib40" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib47" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib50" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref18"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref19"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref20"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib35" firstref="ref21"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref24"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref26"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib43" firstref="ref27"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref31"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib51" firstref="ref35"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib54" firstref="ref36"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref37"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl27" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref38"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl28" bibid="bib44" firstref="ref39"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl29" bibid="bib48" firstref="ref40"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl30" bibid="bib37" firstref="ref42"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl31" bibid="bib45" firstref="ref43"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl32" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref44"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl33" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref46"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl34" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref50"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl35" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref52"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl36" bibid="bib34" firstref="ref53"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl37" bibid="bib49" firstref="ref54"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl38" bibid="bib41" firstref="ref55"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl39" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref59"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl40" bibid="bib46" firstref="ref60"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl41" bibid="bib62" firstref="ref84"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl42" bibid="bib63" firstref="ref85"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl43" bibid="bib64" firstref="ref87"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl44" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref94"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl45" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref95"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl46" bibid="bib53" firstref="ref99"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl47" bibid="bib52" firstref="ref103"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl48" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref109"></nolink>
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  Data: 'And the Boat Started to Roll Like This': Preschool Children Struggling with a Bodily-Based Illustration of Stability
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Anneli+Bergnell%22">Anneli Bergnell</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1373-8429">0000-0003-1373-8429</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Lisbeth+Åberg-Bengtsson%22">Lisbeth Åberg-Bengtsson</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2691-9731">0000-0002-2691-9731</externalLink>)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Scandinavian+Journal+of+Educational+Research%22"><i>Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research</i></searchLink>. 2025 69(2):332-346.
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  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Preschool+Children%22">Preschool Children</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Early+Childhood+Education%22">Early Childhood Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Science+Education%22">Science Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Learning+Modalities%22">Learning Modalities</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Scientific+Concepts%22">Scientific Concepts</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Learning+Activities%22">Learning Activities</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Dramatic+Play%22">Dramatic Play</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink>
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  Data: 10.1080/00313831.2024.2308865
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  Data: This article is based on multimodal perspectives and contributes to research on how children deal with a multimodal illustration of scientific concepts used in emergent science (i.e., early years science) education. It presents a study of a group of 14 preschoolers observed when dealing with the concept of stability, as illustrated in a pedagogical drama during a visit to a science centre and follow-up sessions in the preschool. The results indicate the importance of educators paying attention to the balance between cohesion and tension among elements in multimodal illustrations (such as verbal language, images, gestures, etc.), when designing and presenting learning activities in emergent science education. Furthermore, it cannot be taken for granted that children by themselves are able to bridge gaps between modes. Educators should therefore be prepared to provide well-reasoned guidance for children's linking between everyday and scientific concepts.
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