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Supporting Young Children’s Early Learning in Science

Leslie Rupert Herrenkohl, Ph.D.

University of Washington

Conference on Early Learning

University of Washington

September 2007

 

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Presentation OutlineResearch literature relevant to early learning in science

Children’s developing theories of mind

Children’s early science learning in free-choice learning settings

Teaching science to young children in school settings

What we know and how we teach are out of alignment

Principles to realign early science teaching with what we know about early science learning

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Children’s Developing Theories of Mind

1970’s 1980’s

Piaget’s Legacy Underestimating Children’s ability to

children’s cognitive conceptualize others

abilities (Donaldson as having “minds” with

and others) intentions, beliefs, desires

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What research tells us about children’s TOMEarly preschool - beginning perspective-taking

- understand that people feel good when they get what they want and that they will persist if at first they don’t find something they want

- appearance reality distinction is manipulated (pretending).

Late preschool - level two perspective-taking

- understand that people may expect something that isn’t the case (false belief)

- causal reasoning

Early school age through middle childhood

- more capable and articulate reporters of their own thinking

- thinking is influence by prior beliefs and biases

- minds as active interpreting processors

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Children’s informal learning in science- Research in free choice learning situations demonstrate that young children have remarkable abilities to learn about the natural world. Observing, questioning, predicting, and explaining are spontaneous practices observed in these settings.

- Bell’s work with the UW LIFE Center - suggests that there is a mismatch between how kids take up their interests in science out of school and how they are directed in school. By late elementary school, some students did not see what they were doing out of school as “science.”

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Teaching science in the early years

Children are concrete thinkers who are incapable of abstract thinking

One time experiences rather than sustained inquiry over time

Offering up activities that build skills such as observation and prediction, little emphasis on explanation and theorizing

Guidance offered by NSTA and NARST about early learning in science is limited, especially in the preschool years; NAEYC is a good resource for preschool but often science is seen as a vehicle for encouraging language and literacy skills

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Out of Alignment

Why? Requires communication and collaboration across disciplinary and institutional lines– developmental psychologists, learning scientists, science educators, and early childhood practitioners, curriculum designers, and policy makers

Empirical Question: How do children’s developing theories of mind impact developing theories about other domains?

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Why is this so urgent?Are we failing our children?

Percentage of Bachelor's Degrees Awarded in Engineering by Ethnicity and Gender

ETHNICITY 2000 2005African-American 5.6% 5.3%Hispanic 5.8% 5.8%Other 8.5% 8.6%Asian American 13.1% 14.1%Caucasian 67.0% 66.2%

GENDER 2000 2005Female 20.8% 19.5%Male 79.2% 80.5%

Data source: American Society for Engineering Education.

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Guidelines and principles for thinking about early learning in science

(1) Asking meaningful questions as the starting point for sustained inquiry

(2) Asking Why and How? Theorizing, not just predicting and observing

(3) Theory revision and change

(4) Representing and communicating theories in multiple modalities

(5) Serendipitous science

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Sustained Inquiry

Potential distraction became object of intensive investigation and learning

Revisiting theories about growth, height, and age for short bursts over extended periods

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Asking why and how? Theorizing not just predicting and observing

Moving from

predicting theorizing to theorizing

predicting

Design-test-redesign

Multiple theories

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“God came along with a special paint and put a tiny dot of paint on the leaf.”

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“It came from the sky, out of the clouds. The color inside the cloud pushed hard on the clouds and then it came outside of the cloud, down down down. If a leaf was

hanging out, it came on the edge and moved quickly along the whole leaf. It only happens if a leaf is hanging out.”

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“It came from the tree. I don’t know how.”

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“First when it was fall, they were all green. Then just a teeny bit of color—a dot of color came on the

edge. It moved slowly around the leaf. It very quietly tiptoed into

the middle.

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Theory Revision and Change

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Representing and Communicating Theories in Multiple Modalities

Circle Time/Reporting Out

Student 1: “In fall, the trees begin to get naked, because the leaves fall off and the leaves are like clothes.”

Student 2: “It’s cold in fall. You can wear short sleeves in summer and long sleeves in fall.”

Student 3: “It’s cloudy and it gets rainy.”

Student 1: “There’s storms and lots of grey clouds and hard rain.”

Teacher: “So in fall it’s cold, and dark early, and windy and cloudy and rainy and stormy. What do you think is the connection between these things and why leaves change color?”

Student 3: “More things are happening to leaves, so they’re changing. The leaves would have to comfort themselves. God puts coats on the leaves, because it gets colder.”

Student 1: “I don’t agree. Color doesn’t do anything. It just decorates the leaves. It just makes things pretty.”

Teacher: “It’s a curious question to think about: What is the job of the color? What does color do for leaves?”

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Representing and Communicating Theories in Multiple Modalities

Free Choice/Centers

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Representing and Communicating in Multiple Modalities

Keepers Table

Dialogue Journals

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Serendipitous Science

Study of

Guinea Pig Behavior

I found out that Andy Goldsworthy’s sculptures require balance

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Are you a scientist?

“Scientists and children belong together… They think, draw conclusions, make

predictions, look for explanations, and even do experiments. Scientists and

children belong together because they are the best learners in the universe. And

that means that ordinary adults also have more powerful learning abilities than we

might have thought. Grown-ups, after all, are all ex-children and potential

scientists.”

Gopnik, Meltzoff, & Kuhl (1999) The Scientist in the Crib

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For further informationAstington, J. W. (1993) The child’s discovery of the mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.) (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Dierking, L.D. & Falk, J.H. (2002). Lessons without limit: How free-choice learning is transforming education. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press (Roman & Littlefield).

Flavell, J. H. (2000). Development of children's knowledge about the mental world. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24(1), 15-23.

Gopnik, Meltzoff, & Kuhl (1999). The Scientist in the Crib. New York, NY: William Morrow & Co., Inc.

National Research Council (2001). Eager to learn: Educating our preschoolers. Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy. Bowman, B.T., Donovan, M.S. & Burns, M.S. (Eds.). Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Metz, K. (1995). Reassessment of developmental constraints on children's science instruction. Review of Educational Research, 65(2), 93-127.

Pelo, A. (2007). Take time to see through children’s eyes. Seattle, WA: Harvest Resources.

Reddy, M., Jacobs, P., McCrohon, C. & Herrenkohl, L.R. (1998). Creating scientific communities in the elementary school: Perspectives from a teacher-researcher collaboration. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.