Children as Researchers

We believe that children are researchers by nature and that they engage in research in some of the following ways:

Children’s curiosity leads to action that is research. They respond to their own spoken or unspoken questions, engaging with these questions at length or sometimes briefly. What is this thing before me? What will happen if I act upon it? Will the same thing happen every time I act upon it?

Children observe carefully and test their theories by interacting with the world.
Children engage in research with anything around them: people and relationships, family roles, friendships, their bodies and senses, objects in their world, the natural environment, animals, physical phenomena, how things work, etc.

Resources

Links

Seeing Children - a multi-year Minnesota Initiative

Documentation and Articles

One Seed, One Child
Documentation by Patti Rose Loftus
Key Words: Image of the Child, Nature, Reflection, Pre-K, Documentation, Learning Story, Children as researchers, Teachers as researches

Arts 25 Research
Work by Saint Paul Public Schools
Key Words: Collaboration, Public Schools, Community, Image of the child, Project Work, Civic Engagement, Pre-K, Diversity, Documentation, Hundred languages/Arts, Place Matters, Nature and Science, Math, Literacy, Learning Story, Children as researchers, Teachers as researchers

The Butterfly Study
Documentation by Michele Walsh and Lani Shapiro
Key Words: Project Work, Pre-K, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Hundred Languages/Arts, Transformations, Nature and Science, Literacy, Diversity, Public Schools, Co-Construction of curriculum, Learning Story

Field Trip Reflections
Documentation of a fall visit to Wolsfeld Woods by Patti Rose Loftus
Key Words: Pre-K, Nature and Science, Transformation, Place Matters, Children in Groups, Hundred Languages/Arts, Project Work, Documentation, Learning Story

"Your Baby Is Smarter Than You Think"
A 2009 New York Times article by Alison Gopnik
Key Words: Infants, Brain, Research, Image of the Child, Video