ABSTRACT Early scientific thinking in kindergarten (6-year-olds) was investigated in a large study involving 227 participants. We investigated (1) whether individual differences across 3 scientific-thinking components (experimentation, data interpretation, and understanding the nature of science) are stable across children, (2) whether children’s increased information-processing skills (intelligence, language abilities) and their development of an advanced theory of mind (AToM) are potential mechanisms that bring about individual differences in scientific thinking, and (3) whether individual differences in scientific thinking predict individual differences in science content knowledge. Using a newly developed instrument with 30 items (the Science-K inventory), we found that a one-dimensional Rasch model provides a good fit to the data, showing that kindergarteners’ scientific thinking goes beyond competencies in single tasks. Individual differences across the diverse scientific-thinking tasks were stable, and children’s scientific thinking was correlated with their intelligence and their language abilities. AToM was an important precursor for scientific thinking, predicting it independently from the influences of information-processing skills. Children’s science content knowledge was predicted by their score on the Science-K inventory. This finding points to a specific relation between these 2 components of scientific literacy, and it supports the view that scientific-thinking skills help to better test and revise (wrong) beliefs and misconceptions about science. Our study is the first to reveal substantial individual differences in scientific thinking in children as young as kindergarteners, and it shows that scientific thinking is important for a successful learning of science concepts, even before children enter formal schooling and begin science education.

中文翻译：

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早期科学思维的个体差异：评估、认知影响及其与科学学习的相关性

摘要 在一项涉及 227 名参与者的大型研究中，对幼儿园（6 岁儿童）的早期科学思维进行了调查。我们调查了 (1) 3 个科学思维组成部分（实验、数据解释和对科学本质的理解）的个体差异在儿童中是否稳定，（2）儿童的信息处理技能（智力、语言能力）和他们的高级心理理论（AToM）的发展是导致科学思维个体差异的潜在机制，以及（3）科学思维的个体差异是否预示着科学内容知识的个体差异。使用具有 30 个项目的新开发工具（Science-K 清单），我们发现一维 Rasch 模型对数据提供了很好的拟合，表明幼儿园儿童的科学思维超越了单一任务的能力。不同科学思维任务的个体差异是稳定的，儿童的科学思维与他们的智力和语言能力相关。AToM 是科学思维的重要先驱，它独立于信息处理技能的影响进行预测。儿童的科学内容知识是通过他们在 Science-K 清单上的分数来预测的。这一发现指出了科学素养的这两个组成部分之间的特定关系，它支持科学思维技能有助于更好地测试和修正（错误的）对科学的信念和误解的观点。