2. 3 False Views
1. Elementary schoolchildren think in concrete as
opposed to abstract terms.
2. Elementary schoolchildren can make sense of their
world primarily in terms of ordering and classifying
objects and relations and not in terms of explanatory
understanding or building of intuitive theories.
Elementary schoolchildren cannot use experimentation to
develop their ideas
3. Major Findings
Children are no longer considered concrete and simplistic
thinkers.
Children entering school already have substantial
knowledge of the natural world.
By the end of preschool, children can reason in ways that
provide helpful starting points for developing scientific
reasoning.
5. Young Children’s Understanding
of Knowledge and of Science
Understanding Ideas, Beliefs, and Knowledge
Understanding Sources of Knowledge
Understanding Scientific Knowledge
6. The notion:
young children are undermined as hopeless concrete and
incapable of abstract thought is undermined by their early
emerging abilities to track all sorts of highly abstract
relations in the world around them.
