Analysis and Description System for Children's Inquiry in a Multimedia Science Learning Environment

This article depicts a system of analysis and description which focuses on children's conceptual thinking and learning in regard to certain selected natural phenomena during spontaneous exploration in a learning environment where the children used the PICCO pictorial multimedia simulation program. The objective of the analysis and description system is to examine and depict the processes of conceptual thinking and learning multi-dimensionally in such a way that social and cognitive factors, as well as their interdependencies and interrelations, are taken into account. In connection with the construction and introduction of the analysis and description system, the system is also illustrated on the basis of research material compiled on three children.