Scientific reasoning abilities in kindergarten: dynamic assessment of the control of variables strategy

Abstract

A dynamic assessment tool was developed and validated using Mokken scale analysis to assess the extent to which kindergartners are able to construct unconfounded experiments, an essential part of scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning is one of the learning processes happening within science education. A commonly used, hands-on, experimentation task was adapted to dynamically assess the use of the so-called control of variables strategy (CVS) by children 4 to 6 years of age. In this task, the children were challenged to design experiments using two ramps with up to four independent variables: weight of the ball, steepness of the slope, place of the starting gate, and surface texture of the slope. There were two scores of CVS use: experiment and variable correct score. The analysis showed it was possible to assess CVS use in a reliable and valid manner with the new assessment tool. Irrespective of the number of variables children were allowed to set, experiments validly measured CVS use. Given that the number of variables to be set increased the difficulty of the experiment, this can be used to scale children's CVS use. In other words, it is possible to differentiate between children on the basis of their CVS use. The children's use of CVS positively related to both their age and nonverbal reasoning ability. The present results thus show that it is feasible to evaluate the ability of kindergartners to construct unconfounded experiments using dynamic assessment. This means that kindergartners can use the CVS and might be seen as natural scientists, who can and will try to unravel the physical world around them. Their explorations appear to need sufficient guidance (i.e. within their zone of proximal development) to design multivariable experiments.

Discovering the laws of physics with a serious game in kindergarten

“…When kindergartners have to predict and explain what side of a balance beam would go down, their performance decreases when they have to incorporate distance (to the fulcrum), besides weight, in their predictions and explanations (Siegler, 1976). Another study on scientific reasoning of kindergartners found that children design fewer experiments correctly when the number of variables they have to set increases ( Van der Graaf, et al, 2015). The level of the game-play also related to game exploration.…”

“…Besides attentional control, nonverbal reasoning related to game efficiency. Many types of reasoning have been found to be involved in scientific thinking, such as nonverbal reasoning ( Van der Graaf, et al, 2015), syllogistic reasoning (Wagensveld, et al, 2015), and general fluid ability (Mayer, Sodian, Koerber, & Swippert, 2014). As Dunbar and Klahr (2012) have…”

“…However, many kindergartners are able to set variables correctly in order to investigate one of them. While performance decreased when the number of variables increased, many kindergartners turned out to be able to design multivariable experiments in a study by Van der Graaf, Segers, and Verhoeven (2015). It has also been shown that kindergartners can evaluate various types of evidence (Piekny & Maehler, 2013) which indicates that they have the ability to obtain domain-specific scientific knowledge themselves.…”

“…In the visual domain, Dunbar and Klahr (2012) proposed nonverbal reasoning to be involved, because it allows one to discover a rule that explains a series of events, or extrapolate from a rule to formulate theories and yet-to-be observed phenomena. Indeed, nonverbal reasoning was related to correct performance on experimentation in kindergarten ( Van der Graaf, et al, 2015). Efficient behavior when playing serious games may therefore be related to reasoning abilities.…”

“…Because vocabulary relates to (learning of) new concepts (Werker, et al, 2002) and these can aid exploration, game exploration may rely more on vocabulary. On the other hand, nonverbal reasoning has been shown to relate to performance in science ( Van der Graaf, et al, 2015), and thus game efficiency may rely more on nonverbal reasoning.…”