Development of science process skills in the early childhood years

Abstract

The developmental trajectory of learning to do science is long. Though some mechanisms of science learning like curiosity, asking questions, and exploration seem to develop spontaneously in children, all science process skills require support, scaffolding, and instruction to mature into the sophisticated process skills seen in scientifically literate adults and trained scientists. Using the first dimension of newly published science education standards as a guide, this chapter focuses on three specific process skills: asking questions, conducting investigations, and interpreting and using evidence. Our discussion of these skills is motivated by the idea that young children are “naturally curious”and tha uncertainty is one of the factors that prompts curiosity, as well as a driving force of the scientific process. As such, we begin the discussion with what is known about children’s curiosity. Second, we focus on dealing with uncertainty or the process skill of asking questions. Next, we review process skills aimed at investigating uncertainty what young children understand about investigation by examining what they know about using experiments and how they interpret patterns of data and use evidence. Finally, we consider some educational interventions designed for preschool and young elementary children that incorporate some or all of these process skills, and link these skills to the more sophisticated processes observed in later scientific thinking.