title: Social science as a tool in developing scientific thinking skills in underserved, low-achieving urban students.
abstract: Engagement in purposeful problem solving involving social science content was sufficient to develop a key set of inquiry skills in low-performing middle school students from an academically and economically disadvantaged urban public school population, with this skill transferring to a more traditional written scientific thinking assessment instrument 3weeks later. Students only observing their peers' activity or not participating at all failed to show these gains. Implications are addressed with regard to the mastery of scientific thinking skills among academically disadvantaged students. Also addressed are the efficacy of problem-based learning and the limits of observational learning.
authors.affiliation: Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jewett
authors.affiliation: Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. Electronic address: dk100@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Deanna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kuhn
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D012586:Science; D012942:Social Sciences; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D014505:Urban Population; D014956:Writing
keywords: Disadvantaged students; Observational learning; Problem-based learning; Scientific thinking; Social science problem content; Underserved students