an innovative approach

solve with those helpers. The collaborative conversations occurring during the
challenging tasks enable them learn to think and behave in ways that reflect their
community culture. The strategies used are embedded in them to guide their own
actions and accomplish skills on their own (Berk and Winsler, 1995). In Vygotskian
terms, the zone of proximal development (ZPD) was recognized as a general law of a
cognitive developmental state for teaching, especially understanding how students
acquired scientific knowledge. ZPD was defined as “the distance between the actual
developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of
potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or
in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1978: 86). An active
collaboration between teacher and child and among children themselves with teacher
assistance and also using appropriate suggestions and comments or other features of
the learning environment, were the social context which played the role of scaffolding
the students. They could progress further than would be possible without this support
(Linn and Burbules, 1993; Hodson and Hodson, 1998).
The constructivist perspective also was considered by Solomon (1987 cited in
Geelan, 1997) and Cobern (1993). Solomon believed that although scientific ideas
are held by a person, the social interaction in modifying the ideas is the single most
important factor in science learning and attitudes to science. However, without
awareness of the social nature of science learning, the scientific knowledge in a
student’s mind could be accumulated separately. The students acquire the knowledge
in separate ways, as scientific knowledge from school and from everyday experience.
Taking this point, Cobern (1993, 1998) noted that exploration and understanding of
the relationship between the culture of science and the culture of students are needed
for learning science. The social interactions, thus, could not give the entire context
for children’s cognition. The cultural context is the central force in the development
and organization of student ideas. Therefore, both the culture of science and science
education, and the culture of children’s science and science education should be
identified to supply that social perspective.
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