Preschool Problem Solvers

Children have a natural curiosity about the world around them. Beginning in infancy, children seek information through first-hand experiences like naive physics experiments (e.g., when they drop food from their height chairs) and from trusted adults such as caregivers and teachers. As with any personality trait, the amount of curiosity or innate inquisitiveness a child possess varies from child to child. Researchers at San Jose University are investigating the link between intrinsic curiosity and a child’s ability to solve novel problems.

In this study, 24 preschool-age children ages 4-5 years old were asked to generate solutions to novel problems. For example, children were told, “A strawberry is stuck frozen in an ice cube. What are ways to get the strawberry out?” The number of solutions a child proposed, as well as the quality of the solution, were measured (i.e., melting the cube, breaking the cube, asking a dragon to breathe fire on the cube). Researchers additionally showed children a series of pictures and asked them whether they had any questions or ideas about each picture. The number of questions or ideas a child expressed was used as a measure of general inquisitiveness.

Statistical analysis revealed that general inquisitiveness was positively correlated with effective problem-solving solutions. Overall, the majority of children were able to leverage their understanding of the physical and biological world to provide both realistic and imaginative solutions to novel tasks. Children who demonstrated higher innate inquisitiveness, as measured by their tendency to ask questions, however, provided more scientific solutions compared to less inquisitive peers. This difference persisted even when accounting for age and vocabulary differences, suggesting that individual-level curiosity plays a role in early science learning. Researchers suggest this might be due to a difference in the ability to generate novel ideas compared to less actively inquisitive peers.

What does this mean for the preschool classroom? Well, educators and parents should continue to provide rich environments for exploration and discovery.