CAREER: Curiosity, exploratory play, and the foundations of scientific inquiry

提议的项目调查了一个广泛的说法，即幼儿通过探索性游戏学习因果关系，为早期科学教育提供基础。这项工作对教育研究和材料开发具有重要意义，因为它涉及基于探究的教学和博物馆展品设计的核心假设。研究者认为，探索性游戏与因果学习的正式原则是一致的。她预测，儿童（4-9岁）有选择地参与这样的游戏，a)当观察到的证据为多个看似合理的假设提供了同样的支持，b)当观察到的证据为一个假设提供了强有力的支持，而这个假设在儿童的情况下是不可信的？S naïve理论。PI表明，这两种探索条件由一个共同的学习机制（由贝叶斯推理模型捕获）联合起来。她将对儿童进行10项研究，包括建模和随机对照实验。学生对探索歧义的兴趣，以及他们设计信息干预的能力。研究的具体原因大致属于机械工程和直觉物理领域，因为孩子们探索齿轮和开关的工作以及质量与平衡的关系，但这项工作对STEM领域更广泛的因果关系的理解具有影响。拟议的研究将与波士顿儿童基金会合作进行。s博物馆和科学博物馆。

The proposed project investigates the broad claim that it is through exploratory play that young children learn causal relationships that provide a foundation for early science education. The work has important implications for education research and materials develop because it engages central assumptions underlying inquiry-based instruction and the design of museum exhibits. The investigator suggests that exploratory play is consistent with formal principles of causal learning. She predicts that children (ages 4-9 years) selectively engage in such play a) when observed evidence provides equal support for more than one plausible hypothesis, and b) when observed evidence provides strong support for a hypothesis that is implausible given the child?s naïve theories. The PI suggests that these two conditions of exploration are united by a common learning mechanism (captured by Bayesian inference models). She will conduct 10 studies, including modeling and randomized controlled experiments, looking at children?s interest in exploring ambiguity and at their abilities to design informative interventions. The specific causes investigated fall roughly within the domains of mechanical engineering and intuitive physics, as the children explore the working of gears and switches and the relation of mass to balance, but the work has implications for the understanding of causation in STEM fields more broadly. The proposed research will be conducted in collaboration with the Boston Children?s Museum and the Museum of Science.