Children's Science Learning: A Core Skills Approach

Autor/inn/en	Tolmie, Andrew K.; Ghazali, Zayba; Morris, Suzanne
Titel	Children's Science Learning: A Core Skills Approach
Quelle	In: British Journal of Educational Psychology, 86 (2016) 3, S.481-497 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0007-0998
DOI	10.1111/bjep.12119
Schlagwörter	Children; Primary Education; Elementary School Science; Science Education; Science Process Skills; Emergent Literacy; Scientific Literacy; Knowledge Level; Comprehension; Accuracy; Observation; Abstract Reasoning; Executive Function + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Child; Kind; Kinder; Primarbereich; Naturwissenschaftliche Bildung; Frühleseunterricht; Wissensbasis; Verstehen; Verständnis; Beobachtung; Abstraktes Denken; Denken
Abstract	Background: Research has identified the core skills that predict success during primary school in reading and arithmetic, and this knowledge increasingly informs teaching. However, there has been no comparable work that pinpoints the core skills that underlie success in science. Aims and method: The present paper attempts to redress this by examining candidate skills and considering what is known about the way in which they emerge, how they relate to each other and to other abilities, how they change with age, and how their growth may vary between topic areas. Results: There is growing evidence that early-emerging tacit awareness of causal associations is initially separated from language-based causal knowledge, which is acquired in part from everyday conversation and shows inaccuracies not evident in tacit knowledge. Mapping of descriptive and explanatory language onto causal awareness appears therefore to be a key development, which promotes unified conceptual and procedural understanding. Conclusions: This account suggests that the core components of initial science learning are (1) accurate observation, (2) the ability to extract and reason explicitly about causal connections, and (3) knowledge of mechanisms that explain these connections. Observational ability is educationally inaccessible until integrated with verbal description and explanation, for instance, via collaborative group work tasks that require explicit reasoning with respect to joint observations. Descriptive ability and explanatory ability are further promoted by managed exposure to scientific vocabulary and use of scientific language. Scientific reasoning and hypothesis testing are later acquisitions that depend on this integration of systems and improved executive control. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01