Investigating science together: inquiry-based training promotes scientific conversations in parent-child interactions
Date
2020
Authors
Chandler-Campbell, Ian L.
Leech, Kathryn A.
Corriveau, Kathleen H.
Version
Published version
OA Version
Citation
Ian L Chandler-Campbell, Kathryn A Leech, Kathleen H Corriveau. 2020. "Investigating Science Together: Inquiry-Based Training Promotes Scientific Conversations in Parent-Child Interactions.." Front Psychol, Volume 11, pp. 1934 - ?. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01934
Abstract
This study examined the effects of two pedagogical training approaches on parent-child dyads' discussion of scientific content in an informal museum setting. Forty-seven children (mean age = 5.43) and their parents were randomly assigned to training conditions where an experimenter modeled one of two different pedagogical approaches when interacting with the child and a science-based activity: (1) a scientific inquiry-based process or (2) a scientific statement-sharing method. Both approaches provided the same information about scientific mechanisms but differed in the process through which that content was delivered. Immediately following the training, parents were invited to model the same approach with their child with a novel science-based activity. Results indicated significant differences in the process through which parents prompted discussion of the targeted information content: when talking about causal scientific concepts, parents in the scientific inquiry condition were significantly more likely to pose questions to their child than parents in the scientific statements condition. Moreover, children in the scientific inquiry condition were marginally more responsive to parental causal talk and provided significantly more scientific content in response. These findings provide initial evidence that training parents to guide their children using scientific inquiry-based approaches in informal learning settings can encourage children to participate in more joint scientific conversations.
Description
License
Copyright © 2020 Chandler-Campbell, Leech and Corriveau. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.