Strategies of Knowledge Acquisition (Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development)

What happens when a child's or adult's existing theories come into contact with new evidence? The authors examine these fundamental processes of knowledge acquisition, using a microgenetic method in which the coordination of theory and evidence is followed in sessions over several months. Working on problems in physical and social domains, both children and adults show progress in the level of strategies used—progress that was maintained when new problems were introduced. The authors identify multiple forms of competence—strategic, metastrategic, and metacognitive—involved in the process of developmental change, and they relate their work to issues in the study of conceptual change, causal and scientific reasoning, and the development of thinking skills.