Knowledge is not enough: How parental reflection before teaching shapes parent–child conversations and children's learning of counterintuitive science concepts

Abstract

Is accurate scientific knowledge of a counterintuitive concept enough to teach it? Coexistence accounts of conceptual change hold that scientific explanations coexist with, rather than replace, intuitive ones, so teaching well may demand not only knowledge but the inhibition of competing intuitions—something reflection can support. We asked three questions: whether parents' accurate knowledge alone is sufficient to teach natural selection, whether the form of reflection shapes how parents teach, and what children take from these conversations. In 2018, we recruited 100 parent–child dyads at a U.S. university laboratory (5- to 9-year-old children, 44 girls; parents 79% women, 94% college-educated, majority White, mixed ethnicities). Parents taught their child either with no preparation (control) or after reflecting on their understanding by answering questions, with or without also hearing an explanatory storybook. Children's understanding improved only when parents not only understood natural selection but had reflected beforehand. Answering questions prompted a more question-asking teaching style and storybook exposure a more expository one; both helped children generate accurate concepts, which predicted mechanistic learning. However, knowledge alone was not enough.