Children encouraged to ask questions increase the number of relevant questions they ask over the course of training, but non-linearly¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Relevant question asking rose significantly from the first to the last training session, but a slope analysis found no significant linear increase across sessions. → Park 2025

Evidence¶

Park 2025¶

Park, A.T., Colantonio, J., Delgado Reyes, L., Sharp, S.D.S., Koepp, A.E., Bonawitz, E., & Mackey, A.P. (2025). Question asking practice fosters aspects of curiosity in science content in young children. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00384-5

q2 · i? · causal · r3

Within-condition analysis of transcribed lessons: a 1-tailed paired t-test on first vs last lesson relevant questions (t(40) = 2.36, p = .001); a Poisson mixed-model slope analysis found no significant linear trend (b = 0.01, p = .395), suggesting non-linear improvement.

"Children in the question-asking condition asked an average of 5.51 relevant questions (SD = 3.68) during their first lesson and 7.43 questions during their last lesson (SD = 5.30), showing a significant increase"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Explicit training in constraint-seeking questions showed only moderate, non-generalizing benefits, whereas prompting explanation supports better question asking — related
• Domain-specific question-asking fluency, originality, and complexity significantly increased over a semester of domain knowledge acquisition — a broader claim this one bears on
• Students' question types shift from confusion-reporting toward procedural and task-oriented inquiry as tasks progress, though the session difference did not reach conventional significance — related
• Encouraging 5-7-year-olds to ask questions during science lessons increases how much they value new science information relative to a careful-listening control — related