The Dynamics Between Exploration and Explanation at a Children’s Museum Exhibit

• In Event: 3-081 - The Emergence of Causal Reasoning and Causal Explanations in Childhood: Diverse Definitions and Methodologies

Integrative Statement

This project describes how the processes of exploring and explaining interact during family visits to children’s museums. Children’s museums provide an ideal setting for studying how these processes foster learning and reasoning because they are designed both to encourage spontaneous exploration (e.g., Gaskins, 2008; Van Schijndel, Franse, & Raijmakers, 2010) and to foster parent-child explanatory conversations (e.g., Callanan & Jipson, 2001).
Children between the age of 3-6 (n=336) and a caregiver played at a gear exhibit in one of three museum settings across the US. After dyads finished, children participated in a set of follow-up tasks designed to investigate their causal reasoning and understanding of the nature of science. Caregivers were given questionnaires about their attitudes towards science (Szetcher & Carey, 2008) and demographic information.
We noted two kinds of systematic exploration in children: (1) Connecting of gears and spinning of the constructed gear machine, which related to children’s age (older children were more likely to engage in this behavior). (2) Problem-solving behaviors, in which children attempted to connect or spin a particular set of gears, and persisted to ultimately do so, as opposed to moving on to another behavior, which was observed with equal frequency across all ages in the sample.
We coded parents’ and children’s utterances for causal language, among other types of utterances. The amount of causal language generated by the parent predicted the amount of causal language generated by children, independent of age. Further, parents with more positive views about science generated more causal language (although this finding was mediated by education level). Neither the causal language generated by parents or children, however, predicted children’s systematic exploration. These systematic exploratory behaviors were related to children’s ability to define science in terms of general principles related to learning.
We then examined the dynamics between exploration and explanation by looking at what language was generated when children made systematic exploratory behaviors. Parents of older children were more likely to generate causal language in response to such behaviors when interacting with their children, and the frequency of these behaviors also was related to parents’ education level.
Overall, these data suggest that children and parents both come to an informal learning environment with beliefs about learning and how their actions relate to learning. For children, understanding that science can be an everyday general learning activity potentially relates to the amount of systematicity in their exploration. For adults, their education level and everyday views about science might relate to their responsiveness to children’s systematicity in their play through their generation of causal language. We discuss this work in light of ongoing analyses and studies that look at potential interventions for facilitating parent-child interaction during play and promoting its benefit for children’s learning and problem-solving.

Authors

• David Sobel, Brown University
  Presenting Author

• Susan M Letourneau, New York Hall of Science
  Non-Presenting Author

• Aiyana K. Willard, Brunell University London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Garrett Jaeger, University of California, Santa Cruz
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cristine H Legare, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maureen Callanan, University of California, Santa Cruz
  Non-Presenting Author