What are the 'Developmental Needs' of Young Children in Science?: Revision of Developmental Constraints on K-3 Science Education

美国国家科学院（National Academy of Sciences）和美国科学促进会（American Association for the Advancement of Science）最近发布的课程文件都是科学教育的核心。然而，由于对小学阶段儿童发展需求的假设，K-3科学课程的建议与这一理想相差甚远。”科学教育者从认知发展阶段理论中得出了这些假设。这些限制导致课程不能很好地反映丰富的、以目标为中心的科学探究事业。幸运的是，我们有理由怀疑，这种推断儿童科学推理上限的方式可能严重低估了他们的能力。正如美国科学促进会（1993）所指出的那样，“发展研究更多地说明了学生……不要在今天的学校里学习，如果教学更有效的话，他们可能会学到什么。”考虑到教学对儿童推理能力的潜在影响尤为重要，因为有强有力的研究发现，一个人在一个领域的知识强度会强烈影响一个人在该领域的推理能力。提出的研究重新审视了幼儿在科学探究能力和局限性的关键问题，从什么是可能的角度，给予更有效的指导。具体来说，该研究调查了：*在给予有效和持续的脚手架的情况下，K-3儿童能够进行哪些形式的科学探究？*为了让K-3年级的孩子能够接触到科学探究，教师需要做出哪些妥协？*什么形式的教学脚手架可以增强K-3儿童的科学探究，同时培养他们对科学的兴趣？对儿童学习的分析将基于目前被视为小学一年级儿童科学认知的关键缺陷的认知发展参数：(a)理论/证据的区分；(b)研究设计和变量控制的逻辑；(c)假设-演绎思维。对于为什么科学探究需要推迟到小学高年级或更晚的时间的解释，通常是根据儿童在这些领域的理解能力差而制定的。鉴于态度和兴趣对学术参与和成功的重要性，我们还将评估教学干预对儿童对科学的态度和他们对科学课程的参与的影响。研究将在两种教学干预模式下进行。系统改变教学模式将在我们所能设计的最优学习条件下，检验儿童科学探究的力量和局限性。这些条件包括具有深入专业支持的杰出教师，从根本上改变科学课程及其与数学课程的接口的纬度，提供最好的技术资源来支持儿童在该领域的知识发展，他们的数据收集和数据分析等。在持续分析和改进教学模式的基础上，教师/研究者团队将分析对教学模式的有效性至关重要的教师知识。他们的目标将是抽象出教学模式的基本要素，随后以两个课程“替代单元”（一个植物学单元和一个动物行为学单元）和一个辅助教师专业发展计划的形式来说明和解释这种教学方法。这些单元与专业发展计划相结合，将作为一种战略性的教学修改模式。我们将通过研究其对K-3教师和学生的两种凝聚力的影响来检验该教学模式及其可扩展性。该项目及时重新评估儿童的科学推理能力，并制定新的教学原型，可以为从根本上改善K-3科学教育提供基础

Curricular documents recently published by both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science place at the core of science education. However, recommendations for K-3 science curricula reflect considerable distance from this ideal, as a result of assumptions about primary grade children's development needs." Science educators have derived these assumptions from cognitive developmental stage theory. These constraints have resulted in curricula that poorly reflect the rich, goal-focused enterprise of the scientific inquiry. Fortunately, we have grounds to suspect that this way of inferring ceilings on children's scientific reasoning may seriously underestimate their capabilities. As AAAS (1993) has noted, "the developmental studies say more about what students...do not learn in today's schools than about what they might possibly learn if instruction were more effective." Consideration of the potential impact of instruction on children's reasoning abilities is particularly important, given the robust research finding that the strength of one's knowledge of a domain strongly influences the adequacy of one's reasoning therein. The proposed research re-examines the key issue of young children's capabilities and limitations in scientific inquiry, from the perspective of what is possible given more effective instruction. Specifically, the research investigates: * What forms of scientific inquiry are within the reach of K-3 children, given effective and substained scaffolding? *What compromises do teachers need to make in order to bring scientific inquiry within reach of K-3 children? *What forms of instructional scaffolding can empower K-3 children's scientific inquiry, while simultaneously developing their interest in science? Analysis of the children's learning will be based on the cognitive developmental parameters currently viewed as critical shortcomings in primary grade children's scientific cognition: (a) the theory/evidence distinction; (b) the logic of research design and control of variables; and (c) hypothetical-deductive thought. Explanations for why scientific inquiry needs to be postponed until the upper elementary school years or later are typically framed in terms of children's poor understanding within these spheres. Given the importance of attitude and interest in academic engagement and success, we will also assess the impact of the instructional intervention on children's attitudes about science and their engagement in the science curriculum. Research will be conducted within two instructional intervention models. The systemic change instructional model will examine the power and limitations of children's scientific inquiry, under the most optimal learning conditions we can engineer. These conditions include exceptional teachers with in-depth professional support, the latitude of fundamentally change both the science curriculum and its interface with its interface with the mathematics curriculum, availability of the best technological resources to support the children's developing knowledge of the domain, their data collection and data analysis, etc.. On the basis of their ongoing analysis and refinement of this instructional model, the teacher/researcher team will analyze the teacher knowlege that is critical to its effectiveness. Their aim will be to abstract the essential elements of the instructional model and subsequently to illustrate and explain this instructional approach in the form of two curricular "replacement units" (one in botany and one in animal behavior) and a supporting teacher professional development program. These units, in conjunction with the professional development program, will function as a strategic instructional modification model. We will test the instructional model and its scalability by studying its impact on two coherts of K-3 teachers and their students. The project's timely re-assessment of children's scientifc reasoning capacities and elaboration of new instructional prototypes could provide the basis for fundamental improvements in K-3 science education