Primary education in many countries enables children to learn the scientific reasoning skills of hypothesizing, experimenting, interpreting data and drawing conclusions. Research has shown that these component skills develop at a different pace and with substantial variation among same-age children. How these differences play out in the short term is less well known. This study used Latent Transition Analysis of the worksheets filled out by 166 fifth-graders during five science lessons to explore whether different proficiency profiles can be identified, and if so, how children transition between these profiles. The results distinguished four distinct profiles, which were labelled as high achievers, low achievers, experimenters and theorists. Children transitioned regularly among these profiles and two possible pathways toward becoming a high achiever emerged: from low achievers via experimenters or via theorists. Awareness of these individual differences can help teachers differentiate their science lessons.

许多国家的初等教育使儿童能够学习假设、实验、解释数据和得出结论的科学推理技能。研究表明，这些组成部分技能的发展速度不同，同龄儿童之间也存在很大差异。这些差异如何在短期内发挥作用鲜为人知。本研究对 166 名五年级学生在五节科学课上填写的工作表使用潜在转换分析来探索是否可以识别不同的熟练程度，如果可以，儿童如何在这些情况之间转换。结果区分了四种不同的特征，它们被标记为高成就者、低成就者、实验者和理论家。孩子们在这些情况之间定期转换，并且出现了两种可能成为高成就者的途径：从低成就者到实验者或通过理论家。意识到这些个体差异可以帮助教师区分他们的科学课程。