Science Development

Children’s theories about the biological and physical worlds.

Children’s Theorists

• many developmental theorists suggest that children construct rather than absorb their knowledge be beliefs about physical and biological phenomena’s.

• one important step in early theory building is making a distinction between biological and non-biological entities.

Children’s theorists

• some are nativists=arguing that infants brains are neurologically “preprogrammed” itch the same basic knowledge of their world

• EX: infants between two and five months seem to know that an objects maintains its existence and shape as it moves , that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, and that one object can influence another object only when two objects come in contact with eachother.

Development through the ages

• 6-months– most infants have some awareness that people and other animals move in way that non living things do not.

• 3 or 4– children know that humans and other animals but not non living objects can move themselves and that living and non living entities “grow” in different ways

Cont.

• Age 4– children also realize that two living creatures in the same category even if they look quite different are apt to share many characteristics for instance Blackbirds are more like flamingos because ether are both birds whereas a blackbird and a bat don’t because they are only black

Cont.

• Middle elem. Years– children understand that both plants and animals are defined largely by the genetic heritage and the internal makeup

• EX: round reddish fruits that come from pear trees must be pears rather than apples

• A children grow older and gain more experience they develop fairly concrete theories about physical entites.

• Substance Schema= can be quite useful in explaining everyday events

• EX: holding a ball or touching a hot stone

• when children are taught about force most associate it with something that comes from a ball being pitched

Understanding Gravity

• at the age of 3 or 4 months, children have some understanding that objects fall down (never up) when there is nothing supporting the object.

If a rock is dropped into a hole near the equator into which of the two tunnels will it fall?

A

B

Cont.

• most middle school students say that the rock will fall into the “b” tunnel apparently thinking that gravity always pulls something down even if they are taught that gravity pulls objects towards the center of the earth.

• to some point the “set theories” children create reflects a limited ability to think about abstract ideas and helps show that although it does not always agree with science children want to make sense of their personal experiences.

Scientific Reasoning Skills

• even children in their first year of life children seem predisposed to identify cause-and-effect relationship thinking like a scientist comes later on in life.

• Scientific Reasoning= encompasses a number of cognitive processes.

Formulating Hypothesis

• changes with age: the ability to think abstract and potentially contrary to fact ideas.

• a knowledge base that can help a person generate a variety of ideas

• seems to depend partly on children's working memory

• they can control the variables to an experiment but have trouble controlling variables in their “own” experiments (requires them to keep track of several things at once)

Cont.

• Adolescents= better able to separate and control variables than elementary children occasionally they have difficulties

• Hypothesis testing= tend to focus on testing hypothesis that they think are correct and ignore the ones that in their minds are incorrect

• The “try to prove what I already believe” thinking this causes them to bias towards the hypotheses and interpreting and analyzing data

• they tend to overlook data that contradicts their favorite hypotheses

Cont.

• High school students do lab observations that contradict what they think or expect to happen they might complain

• “our equipment is not working right” or “I can never do science anyway”

• even high school grads and college students are apt to think in such “unscientific” ways.

Metacognition in science

• children must understand science is like a dynamic body of ideas that will continue to evolve over time as new data comes in

• Must be able to reflect on and critically evaluate their own beliefs and theories they must be willing to change their beliefs

• **such abilities emerge only gradually over childhood and adolescence

Cont.

• youngsters epistemological beliefs about the nature of science will effect the approaches they mentally take in science

• student who understand concepts in science as well as the principles will learn better than those who believe that science is memorization

Diversity in science development

• every age group differs greatly in certain areas of science

• Youngsters with sensory impairments are fairly limited when it comes to observing certain scientific phenomena's firsthand

Cont.

• visual spatial ability should have an easier time imagining and understanding interrelationships among objects in space

• people who can manipulate movement can understand and accept that idea that the moon revolves around the earth while at the same time revolves around the sun

Gender Differences

• math and science has traditionally been regarded as a “male” dominate generally because boys tend to like science more than girls do and are more likely to aspire to be scientists than girls

• on average girls tend to get higher grades in science than boys do but boys tend to come out slightly ahead on national science achievements especially in physical science

Cont.

• all girl science classes with a female teacher seem to enhance girls achievements and aspirations in science

• perhaps this is because it shows that science “is” for girls as much as it is for boys

Ethnic and cultural differences

• Japanese children are more likely than European American children to think of plants

• cultural differences in school may be influencing to youngsters epistemological beliefs

• For example in china’s schools they tend to encourage respect for authority figures and downplay differences of opinions among experts

Cont.

• when youngsters are creating their their theories of the world religion influences it

• some elementary kids are believing that a supernatural power (god, devil, witchcraft) causes illness and or natural disease

• adolescents either do or don’t accept Darwins theory of evolution is closely related to their religion

Promoting development in science

• Children's “science” education is usually limited to informal experiences

• In the elementary grades children's hypothetical and abstract variables are very limited

• in the elementary level it is probably counter productive to portray science as primarily a collection of facts

Cont.

• when students engage in simple science investigations, teachers convey the message that science is an ongoing process of unraveling the mysteries of our world

• At the middle school level increasing ability to think about abstract ideas

• Teacher may not want to introduce ideas completely removed from the students everyday life

• When students reach high school they are more likely to have acquired the scientific knowledge and reasoning skills they need to begin thinking in truly abstract ways about natural phenomena's

• Teachers should continue to engage students in frequent hands-on science activities

• secondary students in general, but especially females are more likely to achieve at higher levels when they are studying

• additional instructional strategies (may be helpful)

• Engage students regularly in authentic scientific investigations

• Lab(s) activities can certainly help make science phenomena's more concrete for students

• labs are less likely to engage youngsters in using their thinking process

• teachers should give many opportunities to conduct investigations

• youngsters usually need some form of scaffolding

• Providing age appropriate explanations for physical and biological phenomena's

• although youngsters learn a great deal through their own experiences they need to learn the concepts, principles and theories that scientists use to make sense of the world

• oftern teachers can make interrelationships concrete by presenting diagrams , flowcharts or 2-3 dimensional models

• Also helpful is asking student to organize wat they learned

• actively work to promote conceptual change • existing misconceptions probably interfere

with all ages of students developments in science

• many are apt to find information that confirms rather than contradicts what they believe

• Perhaps one of the effective approaches is to give students opportunities to discuss perspectives within a classroom environment that communicates the message

• “it’s okay to make errors and change our mind”