‘Mindreading’ from primary science: using concept cartoons to develop theory of mind in 5–6-year-olds – a pilot study

ABSTRACT

Building on Woolman’s [2017. ‘Developing 5–6 Year olds’ Social Competence using Concept Cartoons: A Neurocognitive Approach.’ Journal of Applied Psychology and Social Science 3 (2): 90–123. Retrieved from http://194.81.189.19/ojs/index.php/apass/article/viewFile/437/557] findings of Concept Cartoons (CCs) positively affecting aspects of social competence, I explore the effects of CCs in primary Science lessons by teachers who have no experience with CCs on Theory of Mind (ToM) development in 5–6-year-olds. Two Year 1 teachers took part in a mixed methods pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental design with twenty 5–6-year-olds taking part in a metacognition and false-belief tasks and teachers taking part in semi-structured interviews. Significant findings were found in response latencies in favour of the experimental group. Future research would benefit from a longitudinal study on the effects of CCs on ToM development in young children.

KEYWORDS:

• Concept cartoons
• theory of mind
• cognitive conflict
• primary science

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Callum Woolman http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8712-5807