Experimental appraisal of personal beliefs in science: Constraints on performance in the 9 to 14 age group

Background. Recent curricula initiatives have promoted experimentation as a means by which relatively young children can appraise their personal belie fs and thereby modify these beliefs towards received scientific ideas. Howe ver, key psychological theories signal problems, and the enterprise is not in any event securely grounded in empirical research. Aims. As a consequence, the study reported here aimed to provide comprehens ive information about children's abilities to use experimentation to apprai se their beliefs, while allowing full exploration of theorised constraints. Samples. The study involved 24 children at each of three age levels within the 9 to 14 range. Methods. The children were first interviewed to establish their beliefs abo ut influences on outcome in four educationally significant topic areas: flo tation, pressure, motion and shadows. Subsequently, they were asked to cond uct investigations to determine whether selected beliefs were correct. Results. The results showed that, regardless of age or topic, very few chil dren appreciated that to explore whether some variable is influencing outco me it is necessary to manipulate that variable experimentally and that vari able only. There was a strong tendency to manipulate other variables, a ten dency attributed to the intrusion of everyday reasoning practices into the experimental context. Once extraneous variables had been introduced, the ch ildren experienced great difficulties with subsequent stages in the experim ental process, e.g., predicting, observing and drawing conclusions. Conclusions. It is concluded that experimentation as a means of appraising beliefs is not straightforward in the 9 to 14 age group, and that the patte rn of difficulties has psychological significance given the background theo ries. Nevertheless, while not straightforward, experimental appraisal remai ns possible given appropriate teacher support, and proposals are made as to the form which the support should take.