Constructing Science: Connecting Causal Reasoning to Scientific Thinking in Young Children

387 Pages·2022·20.674 MB·English

by  Deena Skolnick Weisberg, David M. Sobel

Constructing Science

Constructing Science
Connecting Causal Reasoning to Scientific Thinking in Young Children
Deena Skolnick Weisberg and David M. Sobel
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2022 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This work is subject to a Creative Commons CC-BY-ND license. Subject to such
license, all rights are reserved.
The MIT Press would like to thank the anonymous peer reviewers who provided
comments on drafts of this book. The generous work of academic experts is essential
for establishing the authority and quality of our publications. We acknowledge with
gratitude the contributions of these otherwise uncredited readers.
This book was set in Stone Serif and Stone Sans by Westchester Publishing Services.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Weisberg, Deena Skolnick, author. | Sobel, David M., author.
Title: Constructing science : connecting causal reasoning to scientific thinking
in young children / Deena Skolnick Weisberg and David M. Sobel.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2022] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021045987 | ISBN 9780262044684 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Science—Methodology. | Reasoning in children. | Scientific ability. |
Science—Study and teaching—Psychological aspects. | Constructivism (Education)
Classification: LCC Q175.32.R45 W45 2022 | DDC 501—dc23/eng/20211214
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021045987
For Michael— D.S.W.
For Lisa, Paulina, and Nate— D.M.S.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
I The Foundations of Scientific Thinking
1 How Do We Develop the Capacity to Think Scientifically? 3
2 The Evolution of Rational Constructivism 21
3 Beyond Rational Constructivism 61
4 Variables Relating Causal Reasoning to Scientific Thinking 93
II Bridging Causal Reasoning to Scientific Thinking
5 A New Blicket Detector Task 125
6 Contextualization in Causal Reasoning and Scientific
Thinking 135
7 Causal Reasoning and the Development of Metacognitive
Thinking: Cross-S ectional and Longitudinal Investigations 153
III Children’s Explicit Definitions of Abstract Concepts
8 Children’s Definitions of “Science” 177
9 Children’s Definitions of “Learning” and “Teaching” 219
10 Children’s Definitions of “Pretending” 239
IV Conclusion
11 What Does It Mean to Engage in Scientific Thinking? 271
Notes 289
References 307
Index 359

Acknowledgments
Dave and Deena met at the 2007 meeting of the Society for Research in
Child Development. We immediately skipped a bunch of talks in favor of
arguing for three hours about Superman. This led to a collaboration on a
set of projects on children’s understanding of fiction and fantasy worlds.
When the fantasy papers became reality, we started a new collaboration on
children’s causal reasoning and scientific thinking. This led to a funded col-
laborative grant, which led to collecting a lot of data, which in turn led to
writing this book.
We would first like to acknowledge that much of the empirical work
described in this book was supported by that collaborative grant from the
National Science Foundation (Young children’s beliefs about causal systems:
Learning about belief revision in the lab and in museums, grants 1661068 to Dave
and 1929935 to Deena). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recom-
mendations expressed in this material are those of Dave and Deena and do
not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Some of
the work described in this book was the result of an earlier grant that Dave
received from the National Science Foundation (Explaining, exploring, and sci-
entific reasoning in museum settings, grant 1420548). Dave was also supported
by NSF grants 1917639 and 2033368 during the process of writing this book,
and Deena received additional support for this book’s completion from Vil-
lanova University’s Subvention of Publication Program.
Both Deena and Dave have collaborators, students, and staff who were
instrumental in making a lot of this research happen. At the top of the list are
a set of postdoctoral researchers (many of whom are now in faculty positions),
graduate students (many of whom are now postdoctoral researchers, faculty,
or successful members of the private sector), and staff who collaborated on