Facilitating Child Investigation

08/14/2014

Facilitating Child Investigation

You see things, and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were, and I say, "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw

In their article "Beyond Nature Hikes and Butterflies," which is part of the new Exchange Essentials, Taking Play Outdoors, Kelly K. Twibell and Diane Harkins note...

"Some parents and early childhood educators avoid science because they think they need to have all the answers to children’s questions. Perhaps they also think children are incapable of comprehending scientific phenomena. Both assumptions are incorrect.... New attention is now being drawn to the importance of wondering alongside children. In particular, older preschoolers are eager to engage in inquiry, often referring to such experiments as ‘real science.’

"When children observe a pattern of outcomes or experience disorder in a perceived pattern, adults can encourage them to form a hypothesis about what they observe to be true and then prompt them to test their idea.... It is important for adults to facilitate, rather than direct, a child’s investigations; quality science experiences develop out of a child’s own interests, not the agenda of an adult."

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