Investigating Science Together: Structuring Pedagogical Approaches to Promote Scientific Learning During Parent-Child Interactions

• In Event: Tailoring Pedagogy to Suit the Learner: Examining the Impacts of Different Pedagogical Approaches

Abstract

Although parents play a vital role in their children’s early science education (e.g., Crowley, Callanan, Tenenbaum, & Allen, 2001), they vary in the extent to which they are able or willing to provide scientifically accurate explanations to their children (e.g, Shtulman & Checa, 2012). Here, we explore the effectiveness of a short intervention in enhancing the quality of verbal content provided by parents to their children during a science activity. Forty-six parent-child dyads in the Museum of Science in Boston played with science toys across three phases (baseline, training, post-test). After a baseline phase, an experimenter utilized and modeled either a lecture-based, non-adaptive or an inquiry-based, adaptive pedagogical approach for the parent to observe. The lecture-based approach consisted of a series of facts and concepts that were conveyed to the child before interaction with the science toy, whereas the inquiry-based approach guided the child through the process of a “science investigation”, allowing the child to collaboratively select a question to explore and examine the results of their own experimentation. In the post-test, parents were invited to explore an additional toy with an information sheet as a guide. Initial analyses of twenty parent-child interactions in the post-test phase indicate differences in the number of statements that parents and children provide by approach, χ2(1) = 37.18, p<.0001. Parents used more statements (137 vs 61) when trained in the lecture-based approach but more questions (129 vs 78) in the inquiry-based approach. Children also show more verbal engagement in the inquiry condition (70 vs. 25, statements). Initial coding has suggested differences in the type of content provided (information seeking/providing or procedural) between the two conditions, with parents in the inquiry condition favoring information-based questions and parents in the lecture condition favoring procedural statements. We discuss the role of pedagogical content in collaborative science learning settings, and the implications for the child’s own learning outcomes.

Authors

• Ian L. Campbell, Boston University

• Katie Leech, Boston University

• Gabrielle R. Direnzo, Boston University

• Kathleen H. Corriveau, Boston University