Fostering Scientific Thinking in Primary Education through Chemistry: Addressing Misconceptions with Experimental Learning

Abstract

Early science education plays an important role in shaping children’s engagement with natural phenomena and in making their intuitive explanations visible before they become more resistant to revision. Beyond the educational findings, the study provides a set of classroom-tested chemistry activities that may support primary teachers in addressing common misconceptions through experimental learning. The research was carried out through a collaborative partnership between university researchers and primary school teachers in an Italian second-grade classroom with pupils aged 7–8. Four experimental modules were developed around everyday phenomena: color mixing, gas mass, air pressure, and water properties. These topics were selected for their relevance to early chemistry education and for their potential to reveal children’s alternative conceptions. Pupils’ written responses, collected through pre- and postactivity reflective worksheets, were analyzed through qualitative content and thematic analysis. The findings suggest that the laboratory activities offered opportunities to mobilize pupils’ prior knowledge, foster engagement with chemical phenomena, and support the emergence of preliminary forms of scientific reasoning, such as making predictions, describing observations, and comparing initial ideas with observable events. However, the results also show that conceptual development was uneven across the four laboratories. In particular, the activity on water properties proved difficult for pupils, whose responses often remained generic or linked to prior intuitive explanations. Therefore, the study does not provide evidence of stable conceptual change but rather highlights the educational potential of guided laboratory experiences for eliciting and discussing children’s naïve ideas in early chemistry education. The results also point to the importance of developmentally appropriate design, reflective scaffolding, and interdisciplinary collaboration among chemistry experts, pedagogical researchers, and primary school teachers.