Scientific Thinking in Young Children: Theoretical Advances, Empirical Research, and Policy Implications

Abstract

Kindergarten Scientists Becoming a scientist takes many years of training … or so it seems. It requires learning how to acquire data, to incorporate it into hypotheses, and then to test those hypotheses against newly acquired data; it requires learning how to think critically and to apply statistical analysis. Gopnik (p. 1623 ) reviews recent cognitive development findings that demonstrate how preschoolers act as young scientists in refining their intuitive representations of the world as they explore reality.