Doing Experiments and Understanding Science: Development of Scientic Reasoning from Childhood to Adulthood

In this chapter, we address the development of scientic thinking from middle childhood to early adulthood. The application of the methods and principles of scientic inquiry to reasoning and problem-solving situations is of wide importance for knowledge acquisition in general (Zimmerman, 2007). We adopt a stance similar to that of Kuhn (2002), who broadly dened scientic thinking as intentional knowledge seeking that involves the ability to generate, test, and revise theories, and to reect on the process of knowledge acquisition and change (Kuhn & Franklin, 2006).