Christopher Osterhaus, Susanne Koerber
The personal epistemology of parents predicts the development of scientific reasoning in children aged 6-10 years
Developmental science
social cognition epistemological understanding promote elementary school childrens experimentation skills investigate question 402 children ages 8 9 10 2nd 3rd 4th grades assessed experimentation skills social cognition advanced theory mind atom epistemological understanding understanding nature science general informationprocessing skills inhibition intelligence language abilities wholeclass testing procedure multiple indicators multiple causes model revealed significant influence social cognition atom epistemological understanding mcnemar test suggested childrens development atom important precursor emergence advanced mature epistemological understanding childrens epistemological understanding turn predicted experimentation skills importantly relation independent common influences general information processing significant relations experimentation skills inhibition epistemological understanding intelligence language abilities emerged suggesting general information processing contributes conceptual development involved scientific thinking model scientific thinking tested study social cognition epistemological understanding promote experimentation skills fitted data significantly better 2 alternative models assumed nonspecific equally strong relations constructs investigation results support conclusion social cognition plays foundational role emergence childrens epistemological understanding turn closely related development experimentation skills findings significant implications teaching scientific thinking elementary school stress importance childrens epistemological understanding scientificthinking processes psycinfo database record