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Changing Your Mind with Evidence

META
Science›Scientific Inquiry|Ages 6—8|ID: mt_obF-6VYRya

Be willing to change your mind when evidence doesn't support your prediction — a result that surprises you is more valuable than one that confirms what you already thought

Mastery Evidence

  • belief revision in children research (PMC 2020)
  • hypothesis testing and argumentation from evidence in young children

Assessment Prompt

“If [child] predicts what will happen in an experiment and gets a different result, do they accept the evidence rather than deciding the experiment must have gone wrong?”

Prerequisites2

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  • Observation vs Interpretation hard

    Being willing to revise a hypothesis requires first distinguishing observation from interpretation — you can only update your interpretation if you recognise it as separate from the data

    • Feeling of not understanding soft

      Noticing the observation/interpretation distinction requires monitoring your own thinking — the universal comprehension-monitoring habit applied to scientific reasoning

      • Asking for Help hard

        Noticing confusion and acting on it requires already knowing that asking for help is a valid response to being stuck

  • Learning from Mistakes soft

    Changing your mind when evidence contradicts your prediction is the science form of the universal error-analysis habit — treating surprises as information rather than failures

    • Checking Your Own Work soft

      Investigating why something was wrong grows from the earlier habit of checking whether an answer seems right

    • Trying a New Approach hard

      Error analysis requires the habit of trying different approaches — you need to have tried something before you can analyse what went wrong

      • Feeling of not understanding hard

        Strategy switching is triggered by noticing the current approach isn't working — requires comprehension monitoring

        • Asking for Help hard

          Noticing confusion and acting on it requires already knowing that asking for help is a valid response to being stuck

      • Planning a Task hard

        Switching strategy requires first having made a plan — you can only switch away from something you chose deliberately

        • Checking Your Own Work hard

          Planning before a task grows from the habit of checking back after finishing — both are self-regulatory bookends

Unlocks1