Designing a Package of Scientific Thinking Training and Its ‘Effect on Problem-Solving Skill in Preschool Children

Scientific thinking is a type of knowledge seeking involving intentional information seeking, including asking questions, testing hypotheses, making observations, recognizing patterns, and making inferences. The purpose of this research was designing a package of scientific thinking training and its ‘effect on problem-solving skill in preschool children. For this purpose, a study was designed in two steps. At first time, based on Kuhn theory and by reviewing and analysing available resources, the scientific thinking training package was designed. This teaching package includes discussions between the researchers and the child about stories with topics related to children's environment that they may not have encountered in everyday situations in the form of questions. At second step, in order to determine the effect of scientific thinking training on problem-solving, 30 children aged 5 to 6 (15 girls-15 boys) with a moderate score in Raven intelligence test was chosen from three primary schools. Subjects were trained individually in scientific thinking for 8 sessions. Data were analysed using repeated measures analysis of variance. Findings showed that teaching scientific thinking significantly improves problem solving skills (p <005) and this effect is stable over time. The results of this study show that preschool education and interaction with teacher is an opportunity to provide stimulus situations appropriate to children's abilities, and provide conditions for improving problem-solving.