TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring Children’s Reasoning About Continuous Causal Processes Through Visual Cues and Non-Verbal Assessment in Science Education
T2 - A Case Study of Chinese Primary School Children
AU - Duan, Jinruo
AU - Yan, Rong
AU - Zare, Samad
AU - Qin, Jike
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Jinruo Duan et al.
PY - 2024/6/4
Y1 - 2024/6/4
N2 - Causal reasoning is important to children's cognition and academic development. However, there is a dearth of empirical studies on the impact of visual cues and non-verbal scaffolding on children's reasoning in continuous causal processes. Hence, the present study aims to explore how causal reasoning in continuous processes is facilitated by visual mind maps and multiple-choice questions through science experiments. By randomly selecting 136 children aged 9-13, the following results were obtained : (1) children provided with the mind map containing visual causal cues performed significantly better than the non-cue group on the explanation task regardless of age differences; (2) children assessed by non-verbal multiple-choice questions scored significantly higher in explaining causal relationships than those using only verbal reports, suggesting that identification and explanation need to be differentiated for a more accurate evaluation of causal reasoning ability. The above results have valuable implications for science curriculum and pedagogy at primary schools.
AB - Causal reasoning is important to children's cognition and academic development. However, there is a dearth of empirical studies on the impact of visual cues and non-verbal scaffolding on children's reasoning in continuous causal processes. Hence, the present study aims to explore how causal reasoning in continuous processes is facilitated by visual mind maps and multiple-choice questions through science experiments. By randomly selecting 136 children aged 9-13, the following results were obtained : (1) children provided with the mind map containing visual causal cues performed significantly better than the non-cue group on the explanation task regardless of age differences; (2) children assessed by non-verbal multiple-choice questions scored significantly higher in explaining causal relationships than those using only verbal reports, suggesting that identification and explanation need to be differentiated for a more accurate evaluation of causal reasoning ability. The above results have valuable implications for science curriculum and pedagogy at primary schools.
KW - causal reasoning
KW - continuous causal processes
KW - mind map
KW - non-verbal assessment
KW - science education
KW - visual cues
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85195490349&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/23641177-bja10076
DO - 10.1163/23641177-bja10076
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85195490349
SN - 2364-1177
VL - 10
SP - 1
EP - 27
JO - Asia-Pacific Science Education
JF - Asia-Pacific Science Education
IS - 1
M1 - 10.1163/23641177-bja10076
ER -