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Exploring Teaching Regimes to Change Preschoolers' Mistaken Beliefs about Sinking Objects

Baker, Heather R
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384333966

Abstract Details

2013, MA, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Psychology.
In the last two decades, research on children's cognitive development has provided valuable insight into barriers that may prohibit children from scientific learning. Two main barriers include identifying an optimal teaching regime to teach young children complex science, and mistaken beliefs that young children hold, which can contend with new factual information. The goal of the current study was to identify a teaching regime which would aide preschoolers in challenging their mistaken beliefs of sinking objects. In an initial experiment three separate teaching regimes were administered between pre-post density assessments. Results indicated that neither teaching regime showed significant differences between pre and post assessment performance. A second experiment was conducted to investigate these unexpected findings. An expanded version of a teaching regime from Experiment I provided an explicit link between training and testing objects. Results indicated a significant difference between assessment performance, however only on certain trial types. A final experiment was conducted to determine whether re-testing could have contributed to the significant findings of the second experiment. A non-density related filler task was administered between assessments. Results showed no significant differences between assessments. Further investigation of Experiment II indicated that the differences in children's overall performance could have been driven by the substitution of one mistaken belief with another rather than from actual learning. Individual patterns of performance across condition revealed that a majority of children either held an initial mistaken belief at the pretest, or performed at chance. Approximately half of these children changed their pattern of performance from pre to posttest. Most interestingly, the inquiry condition revealed the largest percentage of change from one pattern of belief to another. While most training did not cause change to occur in a positive direction, change still occurred, indicating a certain level of malleability in the mistaken beliefs of preschool aged children.
Adelheid Kloos, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Victoria Carr, Ed.D. (Committee Member)
Chung-Yiu Chiu, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
49 p.
Cognitive Therapy
Preschoolers; Misconception; Conceptual Change; Science Learning; Belief Revision; Density

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Baker, H. R. (2013). Exploring Teaching Regimes to Change Preschoolers' Mistaken Beliefs about Sinking Objects [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384333966

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Baker, Heather. Exploring Teaching Regimes to Change Preschoolers' Mistaken Beliefs about Sinking Objects. 2013. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384333966.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Baker, Heather. "Exploring Teaching Regimes to Change Preschoolers' Mistaken Beliefs about Sinking Objects." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384333966

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1384333966
469
© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.