Scientific Thinking
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What is Scientific Thinking and How Does it Develop?
Deanna Kuhn Teachers College Columbia University
In U. Goswami (Ed.), Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development (Blackwell) (2nd ed., 2010)
Author address: Box 119 Teachers College Columbia University New York NY 10027 dk100@columbia.edu
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What does it mean to think scientifically? We might label a preschooler’s curious question, a high school student’s answer on a physics exam, and scientists’ progress in mapping the human genome as instances of scientific thinking. But if we are to classify such disparate phenomena under a single heading, it is essential that we specify what it is that they have in common. Alternatively, we might define scientific thinking narrowly, as a specific reasoning strategy (such as the control of variables strategy that has dominated research on the development of scientific thinking), or as the thinking characteristic of a narrow population (scientific thinking is what scientists do). But to do so is to seriously limit the interest and significance the phenomenon holds. This chapter begins, then, with an attempt to define scientific thinking in an inclusive way that encompasses not only the preceding examples, but numerous other instances of thinking, including many not typically associated with science. WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC THINKING? Scientific thinking as knowledge seeking Is scientific thinking of any relevance outside of science? In this chapter I answer this question with an emphatic yes and portray scientific thinking as a human activity engaged in by most people, rather than a rarefied few. As such, it connects to other forms of thinking studied by cognitive psychologists, such as inference and problem-solving. In particular, I highlight its connection to argumentive thinking (Kuhn, 1991) and characterize its goals and purposes as more closely aligned with argument than with experimentation (Kuhn, 1993; Lehrer, Schauble, & Petrosino, 2001). Scientific
What is Scientific Thinking and How Does it Develop?
Deanna Kuhn Teachers College Columbia University
In U. Goswami (Ed.), Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development (Blackwell) (2nd ed., 2010)
Author address: Box 119 Teachers College Columbia University New York NY 10027 dk100@columbia.edu
2
What does it mean to think scientifically? We might label a preschooler’s curious question, a high school student’s answer on a physics exam, and scientists’ progress in mapping the human genome as instances of scientific thinking. But if we are to classify such disparate phenomena under a single heading, it is essential that we specify what it is that they have in common. Alternatively, we might define scientific thinking narrowly, as a specific reasoning strategy (such as the control of variables strategy that has dominated research on the development of scientific thinking), or as the thinking characteristic of a narrow population (scientific thinking is what scientists do). But to do so is to seriously limit the interest and significance the phenomenon holds. This chapter begins, then, with an attempt to define scientific thinking in an inclusive way that encompasses not only the preceding examples, but numerous other instances of thinking, including many not typically associated with science. WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC THINKING? Scientific thinking as knowledge seeking Is scientific thinking of any relevance outside of science? In this chapter I answer this question with an emphatic yes and portray scientific thinking as a human activity engaged in by most people, rather than a rarefied few. As such, it connects to other forms of thinking studied by cognitive psychologists, such as inference and problem-solving. In particular, I highlight its connection to argumentive thinking (Kuhn, 1991) and characterize its goals and purposes as more closely aligned with argument than with experimentation (Kuhn, 1993; Lehrer, Schauble, & Petrosino, 2001). Scientific