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Supporting Young Children’s Early Learning in
Science
Leslie Rupert Herrenkohl, Ph.D.
University of Washington
Conference on Early Learning
University of Washington
September 2007

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Presentation Outline
Research literature relevant to early learning
in science
Children’s developing theories of mind
Children’s early science learning in
free-choice learning settings
Teaching science to young children in
school settings
What we know and how we teach are out of
alignment
Principles to realign early science teaching
with what we know about early science
learning

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Children’s Developing Theories of Mind
1970’s 1980’s
Piaget’s Legacy Underestimating Children’s ability to
children’s cognitive conceptualize others
abilities (Donaldson as having “minds” with
and others) intentions, beliefs, desires

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What research tells us about children’s TOM
Early preschool
- beginning perspective-taking
- understand that people feel good when they get what they want and
that they will persist if at first they don’t find something they want
- appearance reality distinction is manipulated (pretending).
Late preschool
- level two perspective-taking
- understand that people may expect something that isn’t the case
(false belief)
- causal reasoning
Early school age through middle childhood
- more capable and articulate reporters of their own thinking
- thinking is influence by prior beliefs and biases
- minds as active interpreting processors

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Children’s informal learning in science
- Research in free choice learning situations
demonstrate that young children have remarkable
abilities to learn about the natural world. Observing,
questioning, predicting, and explaining are
spontaneous practices observed in these settings.
- Bell’s work with the UW LIFE Center - suggests
that there is a mismatch between how kids take up
their interests in science out of school and how they
are directed in school. By late elementary school,
some students did not see what they were doing out
of school as “science.”

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Teaching science in the early years
Children are concrete thinkers who are incapable of
abstract thinking
One time experiences rather than sustained inquiry over
time
Offering up activities that build skills such as observation
and prediction, little emphasis on explanation and theorizing
Guidance offered by NSTA and NARST about early
learning in science is limited, especially in the preschool
years; NAEYC is a good resource for preschool but often
science is seen as a vehicle for encouraging language and
literacy skills

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Out of Alignment
Why? Requires communication and collaboration across
disciplinary and institutional lines– developmental
psychologists, learning scientists, science educators, and
early childhood practitioners, curriculum designers, and
policy makers
Empirical Question: How do children’s developing
theories of mind impact developing theories about other
domains?

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Why is this so urgent?
Are we failing our children?
Percentage of Bachelor's Degrees Awarded in Engineering by Ethnicity and Gender
ETHNICITY 2000 2005
African-American 5.6% 5.3%
Hispanic 5.8% 5.8%
Other 8.5% 8.6%
Asian American 13.1% 14.1%
Caucasian 67.0% 66.2%
GENDER 2000 2005
Female 20.8% 19.5%
Male 79.2% 80.5%
Data source: American Society for Engineering Education.

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Guidelines and principles for thinking
about early learning in science
(1) Asking meaningful questions as the starting point
for sustained inquiry
(2) Asking Why and How? Theorizing, not just
predicting and observing
(3) Theory revision and change
(4) Representing and communicating theories in
multiple modalities
(5) Serendipitous science

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Sustained Inquiry
Potential distraction became
object of intensive investigation
and learning
Revisiting theories about
growth, height, and age for
short bursts over extended
periods

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Asking why and how? Theorizing
not just predicting and observing
Moving from
predicting →
theorizing to
theorizing →
predicting
Design-test-redesign
Multiple theories

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“God came along with a special paint
and put a tiny dot of paint on the leaf.”

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“It came from the sky, out of the clouds. The color inside the cloud
pushed hard on the clouds and then it came outside of the cloud,
down down down. If a leaf was hanging out, it came on the edge
and moved quickly along the whole leaf. It only happens if a leaf is
hanging out.”

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“It came from the tree. I don’t know how.”

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“First when it was fall, they were all green.
Then just a teeny bit of color—a dot of color came on the edge.
It moved slowly around the leaf. It very quietly tiptoed into the
middle.

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Theory Revision and Change

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Representing and Communicating
Theories in Multiple Modalities
Circle Time/Reporting Out
Student 1: “In fall, the trees begin to get naked, because the leaves fall off and the leaves
are like clothes.”
Student 2: “It’s cold in fall. You can wear short sleeves in summer and long sleeves in fall.”
Student 3: “It’s cloudy and it gets rainy.”
Student 1: “There’s storms and lots of grey clouds and hard rain.”
Teacher: “So in fall it’s cold, and dark early, and windy and cloudy and rainy and stormy. What
do you think is the connection between these things and why leaves change color?”
Student 3: “More things are happening to leaves, so they’re changing. The leaves would have
to comfort themselves. God puts coats on the leaves, because it gets colder.”
Student 1: “I don’t agree. Color doesn’t do anything. It just decorates the leaves. It just makes
things pretty.”
Teacher: “It’s a curious question to think about: What is the job of the color? What does color
do for leaves?”

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Representing and Communicating
Theories in Multiple Modalities
Free Choice/Centers

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Representing and Communicating in
Multiple Modalities
Keepers Table
Dialogue Journals

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Serendipitous Science
Study of
Guinea Pig Behavior
I found out that Andy
Goldsworthy’s
sculptures require
balance

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Are you a scientist?

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For further information
Astington, J. W. (1993) The child’s discovery of the mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.) (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind,
experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Dierking, L.D. & Falk, J.H. (2002). Lessons without limit: How free-choice learning is transforming
education. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press (Roman & Littlefield).
Flavell, J. H. (2000). Development of children's knowledge about the mental world.
International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24(1), 15-23.
Gopnik, Meltzoff, & Kuhl (1999). The Scientist in the Crib. New York, NY: William Morrow &
Co., Inc.
National Research Council (2001). Eager to learn: Educating our preschoolers. Committee on
Early Childhood Pedagogy. Bowman, B.T., Donovan, M.S. & Burns, M.S. (Eds.).
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: National
Academy Press.
Metz, K. (1995). Reassessment of developmental constraints on children's science
instruction. Review of Educational Research, 65(2), 93-127.
Pelo, A. (2007). Take time to see through children’s eyes. Seattle, WA: Harvest Resources.
Reddy, M., Jacobs, P., McCrohon, C. & Herrenkohl, L.R. (1998). Creating scientific communities
in the elementary school: Perspectives from a teacher-researcher collaboration. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.