Promoting of Scientific Thinking in Preschool Children: Designing a Training Package Based on Empirical Approach

The aim of this study was to explore scientific thinking beyond the literature of scientific thinking and to study its enhancement in preschool children. Scientific thinking is a kind of thinking related to cognitive psychology and it often occurs in people's mind rather than being a phenomenon in the environment. Given the significant impact of preschool period on children's thinking development and subsequent academic achievement, it is important to consider teaching scientific thinking in preschool education. Based on investigating available resources, the educational package for the improvement of scientific thinking was designed. The method for teaching thinking was planned in the form of semi-experimental study and single subject intervention sessions. Accordingly, as a pilot study, a sample including 4 subjects (2 girls and 2 boys) was selected through convenience sampling and trained in scientific thinking during eight sessions. Children were actively involved in the learning process and their response to each training session was evaluated individually. The results of this study indicated that teaching the scientific thinking can help learners to resolve the issues through scientific thinking. It is suggested that in order to validate the designed package of scientific thinking education, its effectiveness on other cognitive skills of preschool children be examined.