Imagination and Fantasy: Correlates of Preschoolers’ Science Relevant Inquisitiveness

Abstract

One early manifestation of science inquiry skills may be inquisitiveness; that is, children’s tendency to ask questions about science relevant information. Little is known about individual differences in inquisitiveness, despite its fundamental role in emerging science inquiry skills. Prior research hints at potential predictors of inquisitiveness, including children’s imagination and curiosity through children’s exploration and play. Hence, this study examines potential correlates of inquisitiveness: children’s fantasy orientation and curiosity. Thirty-four ethnically diverse 4- to 5-year-old children (58.8% female) self-reported imaginary companion status, fantasy orientation, engagement in pretend role-play, and drew imaginative pictures. Children participated in two tasks, one that measures preference for uncertainty (curiosity) and one that measures inquisitiveness about science relevant content. MANOVA indicated differences in inquisitiveness by imaginary companion status and regression indicated that fantasy orientation made an independent contribution to inquisitiveness. Our results suggest that educators can enhance children’s science education in early childhood classrooms by providing opportunities for children to engage in imaginative play and experience stories and games with fantasy content.

Students' Inquisitive Questions Predict Their Understanding of Mathematics Texts

“…Meanwhile, the investigation of inquisitive questions in learning situations is still limited. Several studies investigate inquisitiveness through the characteristics of the students' questions but are limited to the context of early childhood learning (Fusaro & Smith, 2018;Smith & Fusaro, 2020), the effect of giving examples of teacher questions toward encouraging student inquisitiveness questions (Watson, 2019), in the context of management teamwork (Bardone & Secchi, 2017), and related to inquisitiveness about oneself (Miscevic, 2018;Robinson & Demetre, 2017). These studies are not sufficient explanations for inquisitive questions in understanding mathematics texts.…”

“…Informative questions ask for surface-level information, while inquisitive questions ask for more in-depth information. Inquisitiveness in learning has been possessed by students from an early age (Fusaro & Smith, 2018;Smith & Fusaro, 2020). Humans naturally have the ability to construct meaningful inquisitive questions that arise from knowledge gaps (Ko et al, 2020).…”