Preschoolers´ learning about buoyancy: Does it help to give away the answer?

How to teach science to young children? Despite extensive research on the importance of direct instruction, the general recommendation is to provide children with an opportunity to explore a domain on their own. However, it is not clear how self-guided explorations could help children overcome misconceptions. The current paper pursues this question within the domain of sinking objects - a domain in which children often hold misconceptions. An open-exploration teaching approach was contrasted with a teaching approach in which children were provided with a simplified rule about buoyancy. In particular, preschoolers were taught to focus on the amount of empty space inside a sinking object: the less empty space the faster it would sink. Results of two experiments show some benefit of the direct-instruction approach. Although performance was not at ceiling, giving away the answer nevertheless improved performance. It might have allowed children to circumvent their misconceptions, setting the stage for further learning. Implications for science of learning in humans and robotics are discussed.