UC Santa Cruz

Children often discuss science and nature topics in their everyday conversations with their parents; however, these conversations are not always scientifically accurate. Some researchers argue that these scientifically incorrect conversations interfere with children’s learning by reinforcing children’s misconceptions (Shtulman, 2017). Others argue that factually incorrect conversations may still support children’s learning by giving them opportunities to discuss science in meaningful and contextually relevant ways (Hammer, 1996). This study explores how parents view and approach science misconceptions, comparing high-stakes topics like health and safety versus low-stakes general science topics. I also consider how parents’ reported and observed approaches to science misconceptions might vary with child age, parents’ attitude towards science or failure mindset, and parent or child gender. Parent-child dyads (N = 107) participated in this study (55 girls, 52 boys, M = 63.09 months, SD = 10.41 months, Range: 48-83 months; 69 mothers, 38 fathers). Parents discussed their views about science misconceptions in a brief interview, and reported they respond to misconceptions by (1) correcting, (2) scaffolding, or (3) exploring their children’s science misconceptions. Parents most often reported an approach to misconceptions that was in line with a goal to correct their children’s science misconceptions. More positive views of failure predicted a greater likelihood of parents reporting a scaffolding compared to a correcting or exploring approach. In a prompted conversation activity, parents were observed approaching misconceptions by (a) providing the correct answer, (b) scaffolding, (c) mixed (scaffolding / correct answer), or (d) exploring. Parents were more likely to correct children’s misconceptions about health and safety than general science topics. Parents’ observed approaches to misconceptions also varied based on their mindset about failure and their gender. Their reported approach and observed approaches were generally aligned. Parent talk during the conversation activity was also coded at the utterance level for accuracy talk; fathers used more frequent accuracy talk than mothers, but there was no difference in the proportion of accuracy talk for mothers and fathers. Altogether the present study illuminates how parents and children engage with misconceptions and provides new insights into better understanding children’s science learning in real-world contexts.