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

美国国家科学院和美国科学促进会最近发布的课程文件都将科学教育置于核心地位。然而，K-3科学课程的建议反映出与这一理想的距离相当远，这是对小学儿童发展需求的假设的结果。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、以目标为重点的科学研究事业。幸运的是，我们有理由怀疑，这种以儿童科学推理为上限的推理方式可能严重低估了他们的能力。正如美国科学促进会(AAAS)(1993)所指出的那样，“发展研究更多地是关于学生在今天的学校里没有学到的东西，而不是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是特别重要的，因为强有力的研究发现，一个人对一个领域的知识的强度强烈地影响一个人在该领域的推理的充分性。这项拟议的研究从给予更有效的指导的可能性的角度，重新审视了幼儿在科学探究方面的能力和局限性这一关键问题。具体地说，这项研究调查了：*在给予有效和底层脚手架的情况下，K-3儿童可以接触到哪些形式的科学探究？*教师需要做出什么妥协，才能让K-3儿童能够接触到科学探究？*什么形式的教学支架可以增强K-3儿童的科学探究能力，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；以及(C)假设-演绎思维。对为什么科学研究需要推迟到小学高年级或以后的解释通常是以儿童在这些领域内的理解不足为依据的。鉴于态度和兴趣对学术参与和成功的重要性，我们也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。系统变化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。这些条件包括拥有深入专业支持的优秀教师，从根本上改变科学课程及其与数学课程的接口的自由度，可获得支持儿童发展该领域知识的最佳技术资源，他们的数据收集和数据分析等。在对这一教学模式进行持续分析和改进的基础上，教师/研究团队将分析对其有效性至关重要的教师知识。他们的目标将是抽象教学模式的基本要素，并随后以两个课程“替代单元”(一个是植物学，一个是动物行为学)和一个辅助教师专业发展计划的形式来说明和解释这一教学方法。这些单元与专业发展计划一起，将作为战略性教学修改模式发挥作用。我们将通过研究其对K-3教师及其学生的两个语篇的影响来测试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，可以为从根本上改进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