Scientific reasoning in elementary school children: Assessment and relations with cognitive abilities

Diagrams support revision of prior belief in primary-school children

“…Most five-year-olds successfully attributed a belief revision to the protagonist when the relation presented in the data was straightforward (perfect covariation), showing that they are able to successfully interpret simple patterns of data without any distortions and to incorporate this new evidence into their theories (see also Piekny & Maehler, 2013;van der Graaf, Segers, & Verhoeven, 2016, for a replication of these findings). These confirmatory findings of early data interpretation skills are in line with a growing literature on early preschool and primary school scientific thinking, which shows that already young children possess a basic understanding of the distinction between hypothesis and evidence (Mayer, Koerber, Sodian & Schwippert, 2014;Sandoval, Sodian, Koerber, & Wong, 2014). The discovery of increasingly mature scientific thinking skills in this young age group suggests that children, in principle, should be able to use data and evidence to update and revise their initially held beliefs.…”

Improved Application of the Control-of-Variables Strategy as a Collateral Benefit of Inquiry-Based Physics Education in Elementary School

“…It specifies that causal data inferences obtained in an experiment can only be drawn if only one variable has been manipulated at a time (Strand-Cary & Klahr, 2008;Tschirgi, 1980). Understanding the CVS is necessary to generate and test causal hypotheses; that is, to design conclusive and valid experiments and to critically evaluate the outcomes of experiments (D. Mayer, Sodian, Koerber, & Schwippert, 2014;National Research Council, 2012;Zimmerman, 2007). A first grasp of the CVS gradually emerges during childhood as a consequence of cognitive development and learning opportunities provided in school (Osterhaus, Koerber, & Sodian, 2017;Sandoval et al, 2014).…”

Kutatási készségek online mérése a 8–11. évfolyamon

“…Például a változók kontrollját és annak összefüggését a feladatok, adatok típusával (Zhou, Han, Koenig, Raplinger, Pi, Li, Xiao, Fu és Bao, 2015), a tudomány természetének ismeretét, az elméletek megértését, kísérletek tervezését, eredmények interpretálását és azok összefüggését az intelligenciával, szövegértéssel, problémamegoldással, térbeli képességekkel (Mayer, Sodian, Koerber és Schwippert, 2014). Számos tapasztalat gyűlt össze a kutatásalapú tanulás hatékonyságának értékelési lehetőségeiről is (lásd pl.…”