Maureen Callanan - US grants

Young children learning language are faced with an enormous problem of induction. When an adult points to an object and labels it with an unfamiliar word, there are an indefinite number of possible interpretations for the new world. Yet children seem to learn words very quickly with the limited experience of having heard them used as object labels. This suggests that children have expectations about the meanings of words that constrain the range of possible interpretations of a newword. For example, children may expect that object labels refer to taxonomic categories with perceptually similar members (e.g., chair, dog). These categories, which have been called basic level categories, are in fact the first learned by children. However, if a "basic level constraint" exists, then we are faced with another puzzle. How do children eventually learn that there are also categories at other hierarchical levels, both more general (e.g., furniture, animal), and more specific (e.g., rocking chair, collie). Parents' labelling routines may structure the environment in ways that help children to determine the hierarchical level of category terms. In previous research, I have found systematic strategies that parents use to teach categories at different levels. In the proposed studies, I plan to explore the relationship between the constraints on children's expectations about word meanings and the category information presented to children by parents. More specifically, do parents' strategies for introducing non-basic category labels alter children's expectation that object labels refer to basic level categories?

The proposed work integrates two approaches to understanding how children learn meanings of words and develop theories about the world: a focus on the individual-child and a focus on the sociocultural context of development. Children's understanding of names for objects, emotions, and physical changes of state are explored by examining how word meanings are negotiated in conversations with parents and siblings. Similarly- children's causal theories about emotion and change of state are explored by examining explanations that are constructed within conversations Finally, the social and cultural context of this work is expanded by including families of Mexican descent in addition to families of European descent. Children's understanding of these concepts and theories in spontaneous conversations are an important foundation for later social competence and scientific thinking.

The Children's Museum of San Jose, in collaboration with developmental psychology researchers at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) and science and education staff of the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), is conducting a 48-month long project that focuses on children's use of evidence to construct scientific explanations. Key deliverables are: a 2,300 square-foot paleontology exhibit with an Evidence Central area three "evidence hubs" at the Children's Museum of San Jose, an educational Web
site developed by UCMP, research on children's use of evidence conducted by Maureen Callanan's research group at UCSC, a "state of the children's museum field" study on varieties of perspectives on "science" and "evidence," and professional development experiences for staff at children's museums. Additional partners include the children's museums in Austin, TX, Madison, WI, and Providence, RI and local Vietnamese and Latino organizations in the museum's neighborhood. Randi Korn & Associates will conduct the program summative evaluation process and the "state of the field" study.

The project identifies and will work to address two specific needs in the field: (a) a clearer sense of the developmental progression of children's understanding of evidence, and (b) a rigorous and systematic investigation of children's open-ended reasoning about evidence in a rich content domain (paleontology). The strategic impact goal is to build capacity in children's museums, enabling them to offer more evidence-based science learning experiences for their visitors.

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) and its collaborators are conducting a set of research and development activities focusing on early childhood astronomy in the first field-wide effort to increase the capacity of informal science education (ISE) institutions to effectively engage their youngest visitors (ages 3 - 5) in astronomy. Leading the project is an Action Research Group comprised of the ASP; experts in cognitive development, early childhood, and astronomy learning progressions from UC Santa Cruz, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Penn State; and the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, Children?s Discovery Museum of San Jose, and San Luis Obispo Children?s Museum as sites for research, field testing, and implementation.

The project will identify critical areas of focus for early childhood astronomy and will test the hypothesis that early astronomy learning is not only possible but may contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of the domain. A key question is: How can the ISE field scaffold children's early curiosity and ideas about astronomy to position them for greater understanding and interest in the topic? The results of the research and the materials that are created for educators will receive broad distribution nationally.

In order to improve science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM) learning, it is crucial to better understand the informal experiences that young children have that prepare them for formal science education. Young children are naturally curious about the world around them, and research in developmental psychology shows that families often support children in exploring and seeking explanations for scientific phenomena. It is less clear how to link children's natural curiosity and everyday parent-child interaction with more formal STEM learning. This collaborative project will team researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of Texas, and Brown University with informal learning practitioners at the Children's Discovery Museum, The Thinkery, and the Providence Children's Museum in order to investigate how family interaction relates to children's causal learning, as well as how modifications to museum exhibit design and facilitation by museum staff influence families' styles of interaction and increase children's causal learning. This project is funded by the Research on Education and Learning (REAL) program which supports fundamental research by investigators from a range of disciplines in order to deepen what is known about STEM learning.

The project team will examine how ethnically and linguistically diverse samples of parents and children engage in collaborative scientific learning in three children's museums across the U.S. The research will combine observational studies of parent-child interaction in a real-world setting with experimental measures of children's causal learning. The investigators will examine how children explore and derive explanations for museum exhibits about mechanical gear function and fluid dynamics. In this way, the researchers will investigate the relation between styles of parent-child interaction and children's causal learning. The team will also investigate novel ways of presenting material within the exhibits to facilitate exploration and explanation. They will explore how signage, conversations with museum staff, parents' attitudes towards learning in museum settings, and parents' own prior knowledge about the exhibits can influence the parent-child interaction and subsequent causal learning. The project will advance the basic research goal of advancing what is known about what affects children's science content learning. It will also advance the practice-oriented goal of developing new strategies for the design of science museum exhibits and make recommendations for how parents can better talk to their children about scientific phenomena.