Mind the gap: How incomplete explanations influence children’s interest and learning behaviors

Danovitch, Judith H.; Mills, Candice M.; Sands, Kaitlin R.; Williams, Allison J.

doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2021.101421

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Children completed a number of measures as a part of a battery for a larger project supported by the National Science Foundation (Danovitch et al, 2021 ). Of particular interest for this study, children completed a biological knowledge measure ( N = 148) and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test—Second Edition (KBIT‐2; N = 71).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Why do dogs pant?”: Characteristics of parental explanations about science predict children's knowledge

et al. 2021

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Using a new method for examining parental explanations in a laboratory setting, the prompted explanation task, this study examines how characteristics of parental explanations about biology relate to children's knowledge. Parents (N = 148; M age = 38; 84% female, 16% male; 67% having completed college) of children ages 7-10 (M age = 8.92; 47% female, 53% male; 58% White, 9.5% Black, 9.5% Asian) provided answers to eight how and why questions about biology. Parents used a number of different approaches to address the questions, including providing more mechanistic responses to how questions and more teleological responses to why questions. The characteristics of parental explanations-most notably, how frequently parents provided correct responses-predicted children's performance on measures of verbal intelligence and biological knowledge. Additional exploratory analyses and implications for children's learning are discussed.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Why do dogs pant?”: Characteristics of parental explanations about science predict children's knowledge

et al. 2021

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“…Evidence suggests associations between curiosity and achievement at school entry ( Shah et al, 2018 ) and that curiosity supports academic performance, even when controlling for students’ effort and ability ( von Stumm et al, 2011 ). Despite this evidence, most prior research on the development of curiosity or on promoting curiosity has been conducted in lab settings with individual children (e.g., Cook et al, 2011 ; Gweon et al, 2014 ; Shneidman et al, 2016 ; Danovitch et al, 2021 among others), rather than in school settings. In research that did look at promoting curiosity in an educational context, researchers test specific manipulations with researchers administering the lesson to promote curiosity in schools (e.g., Lamnina and Chase, 2019 ) or parents in a museum setting (e.g., Willard et al, 2019 ), or observed children’s exploration without studying instruction or promotion of curiosity (e.g., van Schijndel et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Testing of the Curiosity in Classrooms Framework and Coding Protocol

et al. 2022

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Curiosity is widely acknowledged as a crucial aspect of children’s development and as an important part of the learning process, with prior research showing associations between curiosity and achievement. Despite this evidence, there is little research on the development of curiosity or on promoting curiosity in school settings, and measures of curiosity promotion in the classroom are absent from the published literature. This article introduces the Curiosity in Classrooms (CiC) Framework coding protocol, a tool for observing and coding instructional practices that support the promotion of curiosity. We describe the development of the framework and observation instrument and the results of a feasibility study using the protocol, which gives a descriptive overview of curiosity-promoting instruction in 35 elementary-level math lessons. Our discussion includes lessons learned from this work and suggestions for future research using the developed observation tool.

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“…For instance, prompting children to explain observations in a novel domain leads them to ask more informative questions and thus solve a causal learning task in that domain with greater efficiency (Ruggeri et al, 2019). In receiving explanations, young children favor informants who provide noncircular explanations (Corriveau & Kurkul, 2014) and are more likely to seek more information following an unsatisfying or incomplete explanation (Danovitch et al, 2021; Mills et al, 2017), suggesting that explanatory phenomenology directs how and when inquiry is pursued.…”

Section: Indirect Benefits Of Explanatory Selectivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Explanation Is Effective Because It Is Selective

Lombrozo

Liquin

2023

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

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Humans are avid explainers: We ask “why?” and derive satisfaction from a good answer. But humans are also selective explainers: Only some observations prompt us to ask “why?” and only some answers are satisfying. This article reviews recent work on selectivity in explanation-seeking curiosity and explanatory satisfaction, with a focus on how this selectivity makes us effective learners in a complex world. Research finds that curiosity about the answer to a “why” question is stronger when it is expected to yield useful learning and that explanations are judged more satisfying when they are perceived to support useful learning. Although such perceptions are imperfect, there is nonetheless evidence that seeking and evaluating explanations—in the selective way humans do—can play an important role in learning.

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Mind the gap: How incomplete explanations influence children’s interest and learning behaviors

Cited by 16 publications

References 58 publications

“Why do dogs pant?”: Characteristics of parental explanations about science predict children's knowledge

“Why do dogs pant?”: Characteristics of parental explanations about science predict children's knowledge

Development and Testing of the Curiosity in Classrooms Framework and Coding Protocol

Explanation Is Effective Because It Is Selective

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