Chinese Journal of Science Education

Abstract

Aiming at the exploration of the naive dynamics of young children, this study examines their initial thinking of motion and their interpretation of the related mechanisms. Based on the relevant forms of gravity (free fall, pendulum and slope of motion), the researcher tried to investigate young children’s reasoning about the cause and the trajectory of motion, and to map out the ways in which they explain the physical causality. Results show that young children (1) attribute the motion to the rules of force and support and can use the two rules to account for the inverted form of motion; and (2) employ the intuitive approach to the trajectory of motion, such as beliefs of weight-orientation, straight-down and slope-speed. Different from the older children’s notions, they employ causal reasoning depending on the contexts, such as the actor of the motion or the direction of movement. Although their reasoning is constrained by the context-dependence, they have their own plausibility and not at random. Besides, such inference implies an internal coherence and structure, which provides insights into the thinking of young children.

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