Examining how preschoolers’ scientific conversations with teachers and caregivers impact their early science learning and may mitigate disparities in STEM
Embargo Date
2025-05-16
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
In my dissertation, I broadly investigate how the language used in children’s scientific conversations with others impacts their early STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) learning in formal and informal learning environments during the early childhood years. My approach, which is drawn from growing literature exploring how children’s early learning is shaped by their conversations with others, includes both observations of teacher-child scientific conversations in the classroom (Paper 1) and systematic experiments (Papers 2 and 3) utilizing bookreading interventions as a mechanism for enhancing caregiver-child scientific discourse.
In Paper 1, I utilized observations of naturalistic classroom data from a preschool classroom (children ranged from 2.9 years – 5-year-old) emphasizing inquiry-based learning practices, to examine how scientific conversations (question-response-follow-up exchanges) initiated by children and teachers, prior to the onset of formal schooling, may shape children’s early STEM learning. The findings indicate that preschoolers’ information-seeking questions are aimed at obtaining scientific information in the classroom, with teachers supporting their learning by providing explanations or turning the question back to the child to construct their own knowledge. Additionally, teachers scaffold children’s learning by asking information-seeking questions (aimed at modeling question-asking behavior or fostering children’s knowledge acquisition). Teacher-initiated exchanges highlight the iterative process of science learning and create opportunities for children to engage in scientific practices as early as the preschool years.
In Papers 2 and 3, I focused on children’s informal learning environments by conducting experiments to examine how the language in scientific storybook interventions may impact caregiver-child discourse, which in turn, serves as a mechanism for fostering children’s science learning (Paper 2) and children’s beliefs about effort and intelligence in STEM as well as their persistence during a challenging task (Paper 3).
In Paper 2, I aimed to build on the practices of families who have often been underrepresented in research by exploring how scientific storybook about electricity (either containing mechanistic or non-mechanistic explanations) can be an effective, strengths-based tool for encouraging caregiver-child talk that can elicit children’s scientific thinking and understanding of STEM-related concepts and practices. Understanding how scientific books can support parent-child conversation and learning among children of color (primarily preschoolers) can inform future work aimed at creating interventions to foster science learning during early childhood. Here, I focused on how families from racial and ethnic minoritized groups (often excluded from research) engage in scientific conversations at home. Results indicate that regardless of storybook type, families used scientific, mechanistic language, and made personal connections; and caregivers scaffolded children’s science learning during the interactions. Further, families who heard more mechanistic explanations embedded within the storybook were more successful at completing a circuit task and children had better science learning outcomes.
Paper 3 explored how reading a storybook about a White or a Black female scientist who struggled on the way to achieving success (compared to a storybook that emphasizes achievement without any mention of failure) impacted caregiver-child talk and children’s beliefs about intelligence, effort, and their persistence during a challenging task. The findings demonstrate that exposing families to storybooks that highlight the challenges scientists face on the path to achieving success encourages children to endorse more of a growth mindset, attribute success in STEM to hard work rather than innate intelligence and increases persistence on a challenging task. Further, the data indicate that caregivers augment the specific language from their assigned scientific storybook when engaging with their children, shedding light on the importance of reading storybooks that specifically target language related to hard work, emotion, and making connections between the child and the story protagonist, especially in the domain of science.
Lastly, the final chapter of my dissertation addresses the significance and implications of the findings for the field of education. Understanding how the language used in children’s scientific conversations with teachers and caregivers fosters preschoolers’ engagement, interest, and understanding of intelligence and effort in STEM, will shape future intervention work, pedagogical approaches, and curriculum in formal and informal learning environments in early childhood.