Do objects of different weight fall at the same time? Updating naive beliefs about free-falling objects from fictional and informational books in young children

ABSTRACT

This study examined whether children 4- and 5-years-old (N = 156) can revise a physical science misconception from different types of picture books. A realistic fiction book and informational book with identical images matched in word count and reading difficulty level were compared to a control book about plants. In the pretest and posttest, children were asked to make predictions about pairs of objects that either had the same or different weight. The pretest scores showed that many children began with the misconception that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. Posttest scores revealed that children revised this misconception after reading the realistic fiction and informational picture books but not after reading the control book. These findings provide evidence that children as young as age 4 can acquire physical science knowledge from picture books and that both realistic fiction and informational books can be used effectively to expose children to science concepts.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the children and parents in the Greater Toronto Area who participated in this research and the Ontario Science Centre for allowing us to conduct part of this study at their location. We thank Shelley He for her lovely picture book illustrations. We also thank Angela Nyhout, Ruth Lee and Begüm Özdemir for helpful feedback on an earlier version of this article.

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Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an Insight grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC 435-2017-0631) and the Early Researcher Award (ER13-09-151)) from the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science to P. Ganea.