Scientific Thinking in Young Children: Theoretical Advances, Empirical Research, and Policy Implications

Kindergarten Scientists Becoming a scientist takes many years of training … or so it seems. It requires learning how to acquire data, to incorporate it into hypotheses, and then to test those hypotheses against newly acquired data; it requires learning how to think critically and to apply statistical analysis. Gopnik (p. 1623) reviews recent cognitive development findings that demonstrate how preschoolers act as young scientists in refining their intuitive representations of the world as they explore reality. New theoretical ideas and empirical research show that very young children’s learning and thinking are strikingly similar to much learning and thinking in science. Preschoolers test hypotheses against data and make causal inferences; they learn from statistics and informal experimentation, and from watching and listening to others. The mathematical framework of probabilistic models and Bayesian inference can describe this learning in precise ways. These discoveries have implications for early childhood education and policy. In particular, they suggest both that early childhood experience is extremely important and that the trend toward more structured and academic early childhood programs is misguided.

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