The role of effective learning environments in preschool children’s understanding of the scientific inquiry cycle

科学素养包括两个核心知识组成部分：第一，概念组成部分，包括概念和理论知识；第二，程序性组成部分，描述有关获取科学知识的知识。后者包括对科学探究循环(SIC)的理解，该循环描述了从提问、假设生成到数据解释的步骤，强调了科学探究的累积性和循环性。对SIC的初步理解是早期科学教育的一个重要目标。有证据表明，仅应用SIC的个别步骤本身并不一定促进对调查过程的理解，这需要明确的指导本身。目前，对于支持幼儿初步理解SIC的有效学习环境的实际特征是什么，还没有很好的理解。根据文献中现有的研究结果，有效的学习环境需要高质量的教学支持，其中具有挑战性的互动，特别是比较过程的诱导等特征是关键组成部分。特别是，类比的形成和例子的比较对获得广义知识至关重要，因为它们允许跨上下文转移。然而，到目前为止，还不清楚例子之间的相似程度是促进还是阻碍了对对应和关系的识别。当前项目的主要问题是，在什么条件下，5至6岁的儿童将能够在各种实例和背景中识别和比较SIC的步骤，并初步了解SIC(不仅仅是孤立的步骤)。目前的项目试图为教学支持在理解SIC方面的作用提供因果证据，并另外确定在什么情况下进行这种学习最有效。为了实现这一目标，我们采用了准实验性干预研究，并对干预前后进行了评估。在第一步中，我们比较了具有高教学支持的学习环境与参加相同科学活动但没有教学支持的学习环境的控制组和没有干预的基线组。在第二步中，我们比较了两个干预组和教学支持组，后者在探索概念上相似的科学现象和探索概念上不同的现象方面存在差异。主要的因变量/目标结果是对SIC的第一次了解。建议项目的结果将从根本上帮助我们理解在早期科学教育中如何在程序性知识的背景下创造有效的学习环境。

Scientific literacy comprises two central knowledge components: First, a conceptual component that encompasses knowledge of concepts and theories and secondly, a procedural component that describes knowledge about the acquisition of scientific knowledge. The latter includes an understanding of the scientific inquiry cycle (SIC) which describes the steps from asking questions and hypothesis generation to data interpretation and emphasizes the cumulative and cyclic character of scientific inquiry. A first understanding of the SIC is an important goal in early science education. There is evidence that only applying the individual steps of the SIC does not necessarily promote understanding of the inquiry process on its own, which requires explicit instruction itself. Currently there is no good understanding of what actually characterizes effective learning environments that support a first understanding of the SIC for young children. Based on the existing findings in the literature, effective learning environments require high-quality instructional support, in which challenging interactions and in particular features such as the induction of comparison processes occur as critical components. In particular, the formation of analogies and comparisons of examples are crucial to the acquisition of generalized knowledge, because they enable transfer across contexts. So far, however, it is unknown whether the degree of similarity between examples facilitates or hinders recognizing the correspondences and relations. Main question of the current project is under what conditions children at the age of 5 to 6 years would be able to recognize and compare steps of the SIC across examples and contexts and develop a first understanding of the SIC (not only of the isolated steps). The current project seeks to provide causal evidence for the role of instructional support in understanding the SIC and additionally to identify circumstances under which such learning occurs most effectively. To achieve this objective, we employ a quasi-experimental intervention study with pre- and post-intervention assessments. In a first step we compare learning environments with high instructional support with a control group which participates in a learning environment with the same science activities but without instructional support and with a baseline group without intervention. In a second step we compare both intervention groups with instructional support which differ in regards to exploring conceptually similar scientific phenomena and exploring conceptually dissimilar phenomena. The main dependent variable/target outcome is a first understanding of the SIC. The results of the proposed project will fundamentally inform our understanding of creating effective learning environments in the context of procedural knowledge in early science education.