Children’s Skepticism and Scientific Thinking Literacy By Ahmed Ghobashy, Aly Farag, Hanan Ashour, Naela Samaha, and Sandra Makar

Table of Contents: - Page

I. What is skepticism?..........................................................................................................2

II. Children’s Natural Skepticism .......................................................................................2

a. Skeptical Thinking at Various Ages ..................................................................3

III. What is scientific thinking?............................................................................................3

IV. Importance of Developing Scientific Thinking Strategies in Children ........................3

V. How Can We Introduce Children to Scientific thinking?...............................................4

a. At home ............................................................................................................4

b. At school .........................................................................................................5

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Children’s Skepticism and Scientific Thinking Literacy

What is Skepticism? At many times, we

accept claims told to us because they agree with our beliefs, because we hear them so often that we assume it is real, or because we would just wish to be true. In such cases, claims aren’t investigated properly and could be false. On the other hand, there are others that just dismiss a claim without considering it as it doesn’t coincide with their belief system when, in this case, claims could in fact be true. This is where skepticism becomes a valuable skill in determining true from false (Jackson).

It is an approach to new information or even long held beliefs in which the constant questioning of conclusions is admired so as to escape being deceived. Whether things look reasonable or not, they should be doubted but not immediately denied. By constructive doubt, one avoids hastily accepting false information and denying accurate information. One must consider evidence and counterarguments to reach proper judgments.

Some might consider skepticism to be a trait of those who are bull-headed and unwilling to change, but this is not the case. In fact, skepticism, as a part of scientific thinking, serves to force those provided with sufficient evidences to accept an alternative view as well as forcing one to question one’s own reasons for a certain belief (Schafersman).

Children’s Natural Skepticism

Children usually believe what they are told by adults in many different matters from Santa Clause to the unseen liver. But as it turns out, they don’t merely take information for granted but are very curious to know what, how, where, when and why things happen. Why should a crawling baby believe his name is Jim instead of Jack? Why should a three year old believe that he lives in a place called Egypt and that the four legged creature that licks him is called a ‘dog’? Or that the three cornered shape they are holding is known as a triangle?

Children seem to have a natural need to gain knowledge. If you’ve ever been around small children, you’d know this. They question everything, from “Why is the sky blue?” to “Where do babies come from?” This seeking to know about the world around us, which comes naturally at such a young age, is extremely crucial as we develop understanding of the sciences and even social interactions.

Vikram Jaswal, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, made an experiment to test children’s skepticism. He told the children that a sticker was in one of two cups and pointed an arrow at the empty one telling them that it is there. The children kept searching in the empty cup but then when they didn’t find it, they looked in the other cup and found it. When he repeated the experiment again the children didn’t believe him when he pointed at a cup, but instead looked in the other (Jaswal).

Skeptical thinking was found to be in children even when they are 16 months old. For instance, in an experiment, when an adult referred to a dog as a ball, the baby shook his head in a puzzled, doubtful manner as if to say, “No.”

Thus, skeptical thinking is present in children from an alarmingly young age,

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even though it seems that they believe whatever is told to them. However, like most things, levels of skepticism vary from child to child, and parents can always help promote and adapt children’s skeptical thinking abilities. Skeptical Thinking at Various Ages

Children in different age groups have their own way of thinking and interpret things with their own thoughts and beliefs that are developed by answering their skeptical questions. If we proposed to divide children into age groups of 3 to 7 and 8 to 15 this identification helps us to know more about the youth’s discovery of their minds and their interaction with the environment.

Every human’s skeptical thinking evolves and the group from the age of 3 to 7 years old is very significant, because they are more likely to face the nature which leads them to cooperate with in order to be compatible and familiar with it. Skeptical questions are built up around their five senses, for example they smell flowers, they touch their body, they hear animal sounds, they taste food and they watch human interactions. All of these examples broaden children’s understanding as they try their best to produce their own opinions.

On the other hand, nowadays, science innovates and creates new technological techniques that, from our point of view, bring us to a neutral idea which is lack or development of our skeptical thinking; this means that scientific advances can be beneficial for some people’s thinking and not for others. This is important when thinking about children between 10 to 15 years old especially, who have enough knowledge and understanding of how the earth works, because a common problem that occurs is that they know more things about this technology which creates a lack of asking questions. For example if a student at the age of 14 years old has a certain research assignment, he will use the internet which is the easiest to access and, debatably,

most valid source of answers on all topics without exerting effort while it leaves no space for questioning. At this age group, it is common to take information for granted, while children between 3 to 7 years old are thinking manually.

What is scientific thinking?

To understand the meaning of

scientific thinking, we must first understand critical thinking. Critical thinking is a way of thinking for one’s self that will lead one to the most accurate and suitable solutions. Scientific thinking, in relation, is the application of this in the fields of science and our natural world. It is, in the words of Steven D. Schafersman, “based on three things: using empirical evidence (empiricism), practicing logical reasoning (rationalism), and possessing a skeptical attitude (skepticism) about presumed knowledge that leads to self-questioning, holding tentative conclusions, and being undogmatic (willingness to change one's beliefs)” (Schafersman).

This being said, scientific thinking is the only way to acquire rational and reliable knowledge as it removes any bias and emotional reasoning from the equation.

Importance of Developing Scientific Thinking Strategies in Children Instead of letting this great skill of skepticism wane over time, children should be introduced to scientific thinking at a young age, in order to harness this ability to think on their feet and be able to apply it in daily life. The more children question their surroundings, the more they discover the riches of the world they live in. They will learn to think for themselves and discover the intricacies of our diverse environments such as the marine world, the biotic and abiotic, or even the psychological world. Our role is to provide them with healthy ways to think for

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themselves and in turn they can decide later on what to believe.

The theories and facts that we provide children are very important to them. It will help them in many situations in their later life. For instance, when they understand the concepts of forces, they will know that they should apply a force to pull or push an object and change its strength. Thus, this information needs to be transmitted to children as much as possible.

When introduced early, critical thinking skills, and later scientific thinking will help children later in life; later education will be easier to grasp, they will more easily evaluate their circumstances, and they will have the ability to contribute thoughtfully to the community. How Can We Introduce Children to Scientific Thinking?

It is important that science should not be taught to be the presentation of undeniable facts, but an ever-evolving source of reliability. This will promote the questioning and providing of evidence that is essential for scientific thinking.

The two main areas that can help children in their understanding and use of scientific thinking are the school and home environments. Both of these environments supply a child with different perspectives and have different means of presenting information. At Home

We must remember that school is not the only source of knowledge, especially for children. The home environment can also be a source, as it is the very first introduction a child has to the emotional, familial, and academic aspects of life. Every parent has a different child-rearing strategy, but they all should strive to integrate their kids with critical thinking concepts. Parents can be the ones to help initiate critical thinking with their children through the many measures.

Parents can start by asking their children questions that might produce multiple answers (Shaunessy). In this way, children learn to view multiple solutions to a problem. And as a demonstration of critical thinking, parents can share with their children the critical thinking they employed in solving their own problem.

To get younger children interested in learning, parents can introduce them to educational books. There are many scientific books geared towards children, their questions, and interests.

Educational shows are also a great tool. Sesame Street and Barney are educational shows directed at younger children that can really make a difference and facilitate higher levels of thinking.

So as we see, home is a main factor in promoting scientific thinking with children, and this environment contributes greatly in the development of personality of the child. Thus said, parents cannot assume that such subjects can solely be dealt with at school or outside the home as they are the primary source of knowledge for young children.

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So what should parents do at home? How cold they encourage critical thinking at home? They could read with them books to help them get interested in reading and learning. hey could also ask them open ended questions to increase their curiosity about things such as : • What do you think? • Tell me about it. • How would you describe…? • What do you think happened? Other than that, they could let them watch programs such as Sesame Street and Barney that are specifically for children’s growth. The media has helped with that. They made all sorts of cartoons that are helpful for teaching children and they tried these shows interesting to an extent that children get attached, and would like to watch them more play their games. This is all helpful for children’s critical thinking growth. Below are some games and videos that could enhance children’s thinking skills.

Videos for children Games for children At School

In pre-school and school, children can be taught theories and can apply them through experiments and even with games. For preschool children, choosing the right activities is important as it will help look

after your child’s interest in the sciences. Don't force it and don't lecture. Preschoolers process information more slowly and burn more energy while they do it. Force young kids to sit still for lectures, and you risk destroying their natural enthusiasm for science. They learn best through activities so teach them through maximizing hand-on activities and minimizing simple lecturing.

Teachers should create a supportive environment that encourages young children to test and revise their original theories. This environment should have many interesting materials for the children to explore and investigate; elasticity with regards to time in order not to rush children’s thought processes and development; and positive regard towards questioning and experimentation rather than the “correct answer” (Wilson).

Schools should be able to apply experiments in children’s daily lives to give the kid the opportunity to interact with the environment. For example, they can propose questions that would take precedence outside the classroom as well like, “What is ice made of,” and other skeptical questions. When posed at the right time, these questions are critical for children’s understanding and evolving thinking methods. Productive questions bring a child “forward in his or her thinking; they enable a teacher to provide scaffolding for students beginning to build their own understandings” (Martens).Experiments don’t have to be at school only, they can be everywhere for instance, one can give his child a bowl of ice cubes and see what he does with it. He could rub or use them as building blocks Watch them as they discover new things and ask them questions such as: What do you think made the ice melt? To know more about children’s experiments, check

http://www.green-planet-solar-energy.com/childrens-science-experiments.html http://www.kids-science-experiments.com/

6 Works cited

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<http://primary.naace.co.uk/curriculum/science/science1.htm> Schafersman, Steven. “An Introduction to Science: Scientific Thinking and the Scientific

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