by Luis Zendrera & Gonzalo Oyarzun
39th IBBY World Congress Trieste, Italy

Reading picture books is essential in the early stages of learning. Images seem to attract the attention of children because of their exciting and inspiring narrative framework. Picture books are often used as pedagogical materials in education because pictures and narrative often interact and support each other, helping children to maintain their attention and anticipate upcoming events.

Decoding the meaning of a story is often closely related to the aesthetic and literary abilities of its readers. We hardly find here a relationship between science and literature. However, it is there.

Educational environments

Many researchers have highlighted the potential of picture books to facilitate early education by engaging students and fostering different aspects of their development. The combination of pictures and text in these books can motivate students to acquire knowledge, stimulate cognitive growth, provide emotional resonance, and encourage creative imagination. These kinds of books are particularly suitable for promoting learning, reading habits and cognitive development in young children.

In mathematics education, the integration of reading offers several advantages. Picture books can combine integrated learning with storytelling, teaching numerical, geometric, or algebraic concepts in a narrative context. This approach promotes mathematical thinking, fosters positive attitudes towards mathematics, improves students’ ability to communicate mathematically and links mathematical ideas to real-world contexts. In science education, picture books create meaningful learning environments by embedding concepts and process skills in narratives that encourage observation, questioning and evidence-based conclusions. Using picture books to present scientific ideas is a familiar and effective teaching strategy for educators.

There is a growing consensus among researchers that these books can significantly improve children’s learning outcomes in both science and mathematics. For example, studies have shown that first graders who read ecology picture books develop greater ecological literacy, extend their learning to everyday life, and deepen their understanding of the water cycle. Picture books also improve reading comprehension and conceptual understanding of insects, create an engaging learning environment, and encourage shared reading between teachers and children.

Picture books and mathematical development

A simple activity such as reading a picture book can become a rich educational experience that fosters mathematical interest and reasoning in young children. The key is how the materials are designed and how teachers interact with children during reading.

– The Taiwanese case

According to a study in Taiwan, this type of book improves first-grade students’ scientific thinking, including scientific reasoning and creativity. Thanks to the picture books, girls and boys can better focus on the scientific knowledge and methods proposed to them, thus increasing their scientific creativity. The model used s a teaching methodology that includes five stages: engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. Each stage is designed to engage students, allow them to explore concepts, explain their ideas, elaborate their knowledge, and finally evaluate their understanding.

In this way: teachers stimulated students’ motivation and interest by reading picture books that related to their previous experiences (engagement); students had the opportunity to explore scientific concepts by asking questions about the stories they read (exploration); students presented their scientific ideas and concepts based on the stories while their teachers supplemented with explanations to deepen their understanding (explanation); these students applied the concepts they learned to new situations to deepen and broaden their knowledge (elaboration); finally, teachers assessed students’ progress at each stage to ensure that they were achieving the educational objectives (evaluation).

The analysis showed that students in the research group showed a significant improvement in their scientific thinking and creativity compared to those who did not participate in the research. For example, after the lessons, all students in the experimental group were able to solve complex mathematical problems, whereas only 52% of the non-participating students were able to do so.

The results suggest that the use of picture books could be an effective strategy for improving science education in the early years of schooling.

A simple activity such as reading a picture book can become a rich educational experience that stimulates interest and mathematical thinking in young children. The key is how the materials are designed and how teachers interact with children during reading.

– The Swedish case

In Sweden, a study was developed to understand how preschool children direct their attention to numbers in picture books and what kind of numerical reasoning emerges during reading. In this case, teachers interacted more actively with the children, asking open-ended questions, and encouraging discussion about the numbers and other mathematical content in the pictures. This approach is known as the ‘common pedagogical fashion’ in Swedish preschools. In this way, girls’ and boys’ mathematical relationships doubled compared to children who were not exposed to such interactions. Both girls and boys showed increased attention to different aspects of number, such as cardinality (how many elements there are), ordinality (the order of numbers) and part-whole relationships (how a whole is made up of its parts).

This study shows that picture books can be effective tools for introducing children to the world of mathematics, provided that appropriate teaching techniques are used to promote attention and numerical reasoning.

– The Dutch case

A study in the Netherlands found that picture books significantly improved the mathematical understanding of kindergarten children.

The study aimed to investigate how reading picture books affects the mathematical performance of pre-school children in the Netherlands. The main aim was to assess whether this activity could be effective in improving their mathematical skills. The researchers divided the preschoolers into two groups: an experimental group that received the picture books reading intervention and a control group that did not.

The results were astonishing. In the initial assessment of the two groups, there were no significant differences in their mathematics skills. However, at the final assessment, the children in the picture books reading group showed a significant improvement in their maths scores compared to the other group. Modelling analyses showed that the effect of the intervention was significant, representing a 27% increase in their mathematics skills compared to the group who did not have access to the books.

Detailed analysis showed that factors such as the language spoken at home and previous maths scores also influenced the final assessment results. This suggests that reading these kinds of books not only benefits children in general but can have specific effects depending on the context and individual characteristics of each child.

The implications of these findings are huge. For educators, integrating picture book reading into the preschool curriculum could be an effective strategy for improving children’s mathematical skills, among other things. Parents can also play a crucial role in reading picture books at home, creating an enriching and enjoyable learning environment.

Science and amazement

The amazement on our faces is normal when we read picture books. Another study carried out in New Zealand reports that this amazement is significantly greater when these books are biographies of scientists. A total of 120 picture books were analyzed: 60 biographies of scientists and 60 biographies of non-scientists. Through the illustrations and stories, children not only learn facts, but also experience emotions that can influence their cognitive and social development. And the results were surprising.

Amazement is a particularly valuable emotion in science communication. Not only does it make science more accessible and engaging, but it also fosters an emotional connection to knowledge. Awe has the power to create respect for scientific objects, to entertain people and to create a sense of connection with the environment.

Picture books about the lives of scientists contain a higher frequency and centrality of awe-related content, both in images and text, than books about non-scientists. It is as if every page is designed to amaze and arouse the curiosity of young readers about the world of science. These stories present scientists not only as intelligent, hard-working people, but also as individuals who are deeply moved and curious about the world around them.

Science surprises, and wonder is the key to discovering it.

The impact of the information book

A study by Ohio State University examined the impact of informational picture books as powerful tools that can positively influence early education. According to the study, teachers can use these books to enrich children’s vocabulary, connect science to their everyday lives, and foster a desire to learn more. With the right support, children not only learn science, but also develop important literacy skills that will serve them throughout their lives.

Information picture books are designed to convey knowledge without necessarily being forced to follow a timeline. These books do not focus on characters, but on specific themes that provide cohesion and continuity. They use technical terms that are not usually found in children’s everyday conversations but are essential to understanding science.

As well as expanding children’s technical vocabulary, science picture books provide opportunities for children to review letters and sounds. For example, while reading a science book, one teacher reviewed the meaning of ‘dissolve’ and another engaged the children in a discussion about ‘motion’ and ‘gravity’.

Informational books allow children to relate science to their own experiences. For example, they can talk about evaporation at home or in class, relating this phenomenon to their personal experiences and using the technical vocabulary they have learnt in a picture book to discuss the topic. These connections make science relevant and exciting for young learners.

The support and guidance of parents and teachers is essential to encourage dialogue around this literature and to facilitate children’s cognitive and affective engagement with science and literacy. Conversations and encouraging questions allow for a better understanding of children’s interpretations and meanings as they read.

This study concludes that exposure to informational picture books in the early years of schooling can increase children’s interest and understanding in areas such as science.

Close

Picture books, with their combination of images and narrative, capture children’s attention and help them to anticipate events, thus facilitating the decoding of stories and developing not only aesthetic and literary skills, but also scientific ones.

These books are effective tools for teaching mathematical and scientific concepts in a narrative context, encouraging critical thinking, observation, and creativity. Similarly, reading biographies of scientists in picture books format inspires wonder and an emotional connection to science, making learning more engaging and accessible.

In addition, informational picture books enrich technical vocabulary and connect science to personal experiences, encouraging dialogue and children’s cognitive and affective engagement with science learning.

Galileo said that philosophy is written in mathematical language in this great book that is continually open before our eyes. Although he may not have known it, he was undoubtedly referring to the picture books.

Bibliograpy

Björklund, C., & Palmér, H. (2020). Preschoolers’ reasoning about numbers in picture books. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 22(3), 195-213. https://doi.org/10.1080/10986065.2020.1741334

Hsieh, F.P., Chen, Y.A., Wu, H.J., & Tsai, C.Y. (2023). Promoting first graders’ scientific thinking through picture books with the 5E model. The Journal of Educational Research, 116(3), 147-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2023.2219635

Mantzicopoulos, P., & Patrick, H. (2011). Reading Picture Books and Learning Science: Engaging Young Children With Informational Text. Theory Into Practice, 50(4), 269–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2011.607372

Silva Luna, D., Bering, J. M., & Halberstadt, J.B. (2022). The Value and Distinctiveness of Awe in Science Communication: Comparing the incidence and content of ‘awesome’ representations in science and non-science picture books. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 12(2), 143-156. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2022.2048119

Van den Heuvel–Panhuizen, M., Elia, Ι., & Robitzsch, A. (2014). Effects of reading picture books on Kindergartners’ mathematics performance. Educational Psychology, 36(2), 323-346. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2014.963029