Relations between children's exploration in a children's museum and their reflections about their exploration.

Abstract

We examined 6- to 9-year-olds' (N=60, 35 girls, 34% White, 23% Hispanic, 2% Black/African American, 2% Asian/Asian American, 22% Mixed Ethnicity/Race, 17% Unavailable, collected April-September 2019 in Providence, RI, USA) first-person perspectives on their exploration of museum exhibits. We coded goal setting, goal completion, and behaviors that reflected changes to how goals were accomplished. Whether children played collaboratively related to how often they revised behaviors to accomplish goals (OR=2.14). When asked to reflect on their play, older children related talk about goals with behavioral revisions, demonstrating that children develop the ability to reflect on their goals when they watch their behaviors change (OR=1.23). We discuss how these results inform the development of metacognitive reflection on learning through exploration.