teaching preschoolers about inheritance

Abstract

This study aimed to promote advanced reasoning about biological inheritance in four-and fi ve-year-olds. A total of 78 preschoolers (Experimental n = 40; Comparison n = 38) completed pre-and post-test versions of two biological reasoning tasks. The Experimental condition received 15 lessons on biological inheritance, whereas the Comparison condition received regular story time activities. The results showed that the Experimental group outperformed the Comparison group at posttest. Overall, the results are an encouraging indication that an increased understanding of biological inheritance can be effectively supported in preschool years.

Gender differences in preschoolers’ understanding of the concept of life

“…The goal of the present study was to examine the emergence of gender differences in science with a specific focus on the biological reasoning of preschoolers. A scant amount of research has examined gender differences at such an early age, but between the ages of four and six, a large amount of foundational knowledge about biology is established (Carey, 1985;Schroeder et al, 2007;Wellman and Gelman, 1998). As children mature, they assimilate new information into these foundational knowledge frameworks and organize the information for further learning (Carey and Spelke, 1994;Case, 1985;Piaget and Inhelder, 1969).…”