Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 29, 2026

Bridging the Technology Divide in the COVID-19 Era: Using Virtual Outreach to Expose Middle and High School Students to Imaging Technology
Published on: September 28, 2022
Social science as a tool in developing scientific thinking skills in underserved, low-achieving urban students
Elizabeth Jewett1, Deanna Kuhn1
1Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Abstract:
Engagement in purposeful problem solving involving social science content was sufficient to develop a key set of inquiry skills in low-performing middle school students from an academically and economically disadvantaged urban public school population, with this skill transferring to a more traditional written scientific thinking assessment instrument 3weeks later. Students only observing their peers' activity or not participating at all failed to show these gains. Implications are addressed with regard to the mastery of scientific thinking skills among academically disadvantaged students. Also addressed are the efficacy of problem-based learning and the limits of observational learning.
Related Concept Videos
Scientific Nature of Social Psychology
Defining Social Psychology
Psychology as a Science
The scientific method in psychology involves six critical steps: making observations, formulating hypotheses, conducting tests, analyzing...
Critical Thinking
Colleges and universities are...
Social Psychology and Individual Behavior
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other

