Poster #69 - “Google it”: Exploring Young Children’s Epistemic Reasoning in Scientific Inquiry

• In Event: 2-002 - Special Poster Session 05 with Continental Breakfast Reception
  In Poster Session: PS 05 - Interdisciplinary Section

Integrative Statement

This project investigated young children’s (ages 5-6) epistemic reasoning during group scientific inquiry: What practical epistemologies (PEs) do young children demonstrate while engaging in their own scientific inquiry? What are the roles of individual, peer and teacher actions on children’s demonstrated PEs?
Developing epistemic beliefs (EBs)-- understanding of the nature of knowledge and knowing (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997)-- influences children’s academic and social lives; for example, children who view knowledge as absolutely right or wrong have more difficulty understanding and synthesizing conflicting views, and taking others’ perspectives (Kuhn & Weinstock, 2002; Pillow, 2002). Unfortunately, we know little about the origins of epistemological awareness or its early development (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997). To overcome the theoretical and methodological challenges in studying young children’s EBs (Kuhn, 1997), we adapt Sandoval’s (2005) practical epistemologies (PEs) framework. Unlike theoretical frameworks that view epistemology as explicit, coherent, and stable cognitive structures, PEs focus on beliefs that guide and justify students’ epistemic decisions during scientific inquiry, either implicitly or explicitly. Methodologically, this framework advocates focusing on students’ inquiry discourse and artifacts, and interviewing them to explore their reasoning behind epistemologically salient decisions; thus, it avoids using questionnaires or pen-paper interviews that are largely unsuitable for young children.
This project was conducted in a kindergarten class where the teacher implemented a 12-week long scientific inquiry project (Life Cycle). Scaffolded by the teacher, groups of 4-5 students investigated their own questions by following the inquiry cycle (Bruce & Davison, 1996; Katz & Chard, 2000). Data sources included videos, artifacts, and student interviews. Qualitatively we identified salient epistemic events during the inquiry sessions, and coded the interview along 6 categories: (1) general understanding of inquiry; (2) science content; (3) source of knowledge; (4) justification of knowledge; (5) certainty of knowledge; and (6) simplicity of knowledge. Quantitatively, we use statistical discourse analysis (SDA, Chiu & Khoo, 2005) to analyze connections among an individual’s actions, his/her peers’ actions, teachers’ actions during the scientific inquiry and children’s PEs.
Our preliminary results show that kindergarteners’ emerging understanding of knowledge and knowing are uneven across different dimensions of EBs in the context of scientific inquiry. Most of the children identified multiple sources of knowledge for their scientific inquiry, and some triangulated different data sources. However, they did not justify their knowing process by going beyond authoritative data sources (“Google it!” “go to the library,” teachers). Some students acknowledged the uncertainty of knowledge (e.g., “Sometimes the Internet doesn't know everything”), but few could name alternative ways to improve the certainty of their findings. SDA analyses suggest that teacher’s explicit guiding on EBs related reflection was positively related to PEs outcomes. Peer’s actions such as questioning and disagreement, and subsequent discussion of solving the disagreement were also affecting factors.
This study illuminates the early development of epistemic reasoning in the context of scientific inquiry. It addresses theoretical and methodological challenges in studying young children’s EBs (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997; Metz, 1995). Practically, the study can inform possible ways to facilitate the development of scientific reasoning and improve motivation for scientific inquiry (Kuhn, 2000).

Author

• X. Christine Wang, SUNY at Buffalo
  Presenting Author