Peculiarities of experimentation in second-graders working in a virtual laboratory

Context and relevance. Mastering experimentation skills is one of the key learning outcomes in elementary school. Studying the peculiarities of the process of independent mastering of experimentation by elementary school students and identifying an effective organization of instruction that contributes to the successful mastery of the relevant skills is an important problem for psychology and education. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study was the D.B. Elkonin–V.V. Davydov system of developmental education, within which the discovery of the simplest experimentation as a way of action and thinking serves as the main learning task of "The World Around Us" course. Objective. To determine whether second-graders are able to discover a method of simple experimentation on their own during individual, independent work in a digital lab, what difficulties they encounter during their research trials, and what influences the success of discovering a new method of acting. Hypothesis. Second-graders are able to discover a method of simple experimentation on their own during individual, independent work in a digital lab, without prior instruction in experimentation in the classroom. Additional hypothesis: posing an experimental task is more effective in facilitating the transition to experimentation than posing a practical task. Methods and materials. The study involved 50 second-graders enrolled in the D.B. Elkonin–V.V. Davydov system of education (ages 7–9, 54% female). The "Kolobok" digital lab was used to observe the second-graders' independent experimentation. A word problem involving experimentation served as the final diagnostic task. Results. The results showed that second-graders are unable to independently initiate experimentation in a digital lab setting without adult participation and support. Only a few attempts were made toward this discovery. Presenting children with an experimental task rather than a practical one facilitates the transition to experimentation. Conclusions. The results suggest that elementary school students can surely master simple experimentation with adult participation and support. The identified difficulties children encounter during task solving should be taken into account when organizing experimentation training and developing virtual learning programs.

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