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¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Children in the question-asking condition had significantly higher willingness-to-pay for science information than children in the listening condition. → 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

q3 · i? · causal · r3

Preregistered randomized experiment with 103 children (52 question-asking, 51 listening) in eight one-on-one virtual science lessons. Quantile regression controlling for age and race showed the question-asking group valued science knowledge more (QA Mdn = 7 vs L Mdn = 5, t = 3.19, p = .002, pFDR = .010). The article reports "Wilcoxon r = .23" in the abstract only, so no effect size is carried here from the Results section.

"Children in the question-asking condition had a significantly higher willingness-to-pay score than children in the listening condition, indicating that they valued science knowledge more"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Baseline science knowledge moderates the question-asking benefit on willingness-to-pay: children with lower background knowledge gain more — related
• Children encouraged to ask questions increase the number of relevant questions they ask over the course of training, but non-linearly — related
• Five-year-olds select the more informative question under both uniform and skewed hypothesis distributions despite weak question generation — related
• Children aged 7 to 10 adapt their question-asking strategy to the likelihood distribution of hypotheses as promptly as adults — related
• No significant main effect of question-asking practice on science learning (p = .12 after FDR correction) — related
• Question-asking practice changes children's response to a pedagogical exploration cue: the listening group opened more cued envelopes in the first minute of play — related