Students' understanding of the co-ordination of theory and evidence in science

Claims have been made that younger students do not hold knowledge claims se parately from evidence that might support or refute them. This paper report s on findings from a study on the ways in which UK students aged 9-16 attem pt what are essentially logical problems of the co-ordination of theory and evidence when the theories in question are scientific. Most students in th e sample made some reference to evidence in selecting and using their expla nations, although a significant number of 9 year olds did not refer to evid ence at all or treated instances of successful prediction as proof of an ex planation. However, such students do indeed seem able to hold theory and ev idence separately; their problem is in appreciating the 'rules of the game' of the task of theory evaluation in science.