A qualitative study examining children's development of scientific thinking

This study compares Piaget's (in Oates et al, 2005) and Vygotsky's (ibid.) respective theories on processes involved in children's cognitive development. Specifically, scientific thinking is examined using children's explanations for why things float or sink obtained via adaptation of procedures first used by Piaget in the 1930s. A simple experiment elicits children's explanations for coding and quantifying. An informal procedure allows exploration and challenging of participant's thinking. Discovery learning and scaffolding are used to examine the participants' abilities to develop and grasp abstract scientific concepts. Results show that children's scientific understandings and their ability to grasp new concepts vary dependant on age. Findings support Piaget's (ibid.) stage theory. However, scaffolding was more effective than discovery learning in effecting change in participants' scientific thinking. Questions about children's learning processes have elicited many theories. Behaviorists (c.f. Skinner) argue for a "tabula rasa" that is written on and changed by external events.