Fostering Children’s Reasoning about Disagreements through an Inquiry-based Curriculum

ABSTRACT

We investigated how young children evaluate disagreements between two people and whether formal education affects this capacity. We compared 120 first graders tested during the 2014–2015 academic year, who received a direct instruction-based curriculum, with 112 first graders tested in the same school system during the 2016–2017 academic year, who received an inquiry-based curriculum. All children were given a belief reasoning task that tested their ability to evaluate disagreements about matters of fact, matters of interpretation, and matters of preference. Children’s evaluations of disagreements about interpretations or preferences did not differ depending on curriculum. Children who received an inquiry-based curriculum were more likely to resolve disagreements concerning facts correctly than children who received a direct instruction-based curriculum. When asked to justify their responses to disagreements about facts, children who received the inquiry-based curriculum relied more on an examination of the state of the world. We suggest that an inquiry-based curriculum fosters a greater appreciation for how first-hand experiences can create knowledge.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by NSF DRL-1660655 (to DSW) and NSF DRL-1661068 (to DMS). We would like to thank all of the children who participated in this study, as well as their parents, school staff at data collection sites and high school student volunteers who assisted with running the study. Thanks also to the members of the Cognition & Development Lab for their assistance with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [DRL-1660655,DRL-1661068].