University of Idaho researcher Shiyi Chen received a five-year $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study children’s developing metacognition—the ability to think about their own cognitive processes—and its role in science learning.
Chen will lead three interconnected research projects on 451 preschool and kindergarten aged children and 75 teachers that aim to identify effective teaching strategies.
Early childhood teachers often spend less time teaching science than other subjects, though exposure to science at a young age strongly correlates with better performance and stronger interest in science later in life, Chen said in a UI press release
The grant will support two graduate students, a postdoctoral researcher and a project coordinator throughout the five years. UI will also fund a postdoctoral researcher for the first two years. The first study is already underway.
“The purpose of the first study is to identify factors in early childhood classrooms that are malleable,” Chen said press release. “In studies two and three, we will focus on those factors and test ways to change them to improve early science learning.”
Joshua Reisenfeld can be reached at [email protected].