U.S. Department of Education: Promoting Educational Excellence for all Americans

A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

How can laboratory research in cognitive and developmental psychology contribute to science education.(and vice versa)?

 
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Slide 6

What has research on children’s scientific thinking revealed?

  1. Children develop “theories” about the natural world long before they enter school.

  2. Deeply entrenched misconceptions:
  • Momentum and Force
  • Heat & Temperature
  • Mass & Density
  • Solar system
  • Animacy (What’s alive?)
  • Theory of Mind (how other’s think)