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Background: Further developing students' thinking about knowledge and knowing in science (epistemic beliefs) is considered a normative goal of science education in many countries around the world, even for elementary-school-aged children. Aims: The goal of the present study was to introduce and evaluate a new intervention in science education aimed at developing children's epistemic beliefs, epistemic curiosity, and investigative interests. The intervention included an inquiry-based learning approach as well as reflections on epistemic issues because these methods are currently seen as most promising for fostering students' epistemic beliefs. Sample: Data were collected from 65 elementary school children in Grades 3 and 4 (58.46% boys, age: M = 8.73, SD = 0.60) who participated in a voluntary extracurricular STEM enrichment programme in south-west Germany. Methods: We investigated the effectiveness of the intervention by applying a randomized block design with a treated control group and repeated measures. The effectiveness of the intervention was analysed via multiple linear regression analyses. Results: The results indicated that the children assigned to the intervention developed more sophisticated epistemic beliefs and a higher level of epistemic curiosity than the children assigned to the control condition. No intervention effects were found on investigative interests. Conclusions: The results provide initial evidence for the effectiveness of the intervention and demonstrate that it is possible to improve epistemic beliefs among elementary school children in Grades 3 and 4. The study provides a starting point for understanding how young children develop epistemic beliefs.

Laypeople are increasingly confronted with scientific controversies, as science concerns many aspects of everyday life. In the present study, we investigated how epistemic beliefs regarding the uncertainty of knowledge (i.e. uncertainty beliefs) and invested mental effort during task processing contribute to how individuals evaluate scientific controversies. Forty-four undergraduate university students completed a questionnaire targeting their uncertainty beliefs and a week later worked on a test that required the evaluation of five scientific controversies. Eye-tracking technology was used to measure participants' pupil dilation while reading the controversies as an indicator of individuals' invested mental effort. Results revealed that both uncertainty beliefs and mental effort were positive predictors of individuals' test performance (i.e. their proficient evaluation of the controversies). Furthermore, uncertainty beliefs predicted mental effort. Finally, a mediation analysis revealed that mental effort partially explained the relation between uncertainty beliefs and test performance. We discuss implications of how individuals' epistemic beliefs regarding the uncertainty of knowledge influence the evaluation of conflicting scientific information through mental effort, offering both theoretical clarification and practical recommendations.

Scientific reasoning abilities are already developing in elementary-school-aged children and enable them to understand the world around them. The goal of the current study was to develop a new instrument for 8- to 10-year-old children in Grades 3 and 4 to measure their understanding of the steps of the "scientific inquiry cycle" (SIC). Such an understanding is essential for scientific reasoning as well as for inquiry-based learning approaches and, above all, for scientific practice. We developed and applied 15 items in a sample of 878 third- and fourth-grade students (n = 434, Grade 3; n = 435, Grade 4). As confirmed by item response theory (IRT) modeling, the items produced reliable scale scores. Furthermore, we explored the relations between children's SIC performances, cognitive abilities, and epistemic beliefs. As expected, intelligence, text comprehension, experimentation strategies, and sophisticated epistemic beliefs were positively associated with children's SIC performance, a finding that helps to establish initial evidence for the construct validity of the SIC test scores.

Math achievement, math self-concept, and vocational interests are critical predictors of STEM careers and are closely linked to high school coursework. Young women are less likely to choose advanced math courses in high school, and encouraging young women to enroll in advanced math courses may therefore bring more women into STEM careers. We looked at a German statewide educational reform that required all students to take advanced math courses and examined differential effects of the reform on young men and women's math achievement, math self-concept, vocational interests, and field of study at university. We compared data from 4,730 students before the reform and 4,715 students after the reform. We specified multiple regression models and tested main effects of gender and cohort as well as the effect of the Cohort × Gender interaction on all outcomes. All outcomes showed clear gender differences favoring young men before the reform. However, the reform was associated with different effects for young men and women: Whereas gender differences in math achievement were smaller after the reform, differences between young men and women in math self-concept and realistic and investigative vocational interests were larger after the reform than before. Gender differences in the field of study at university did not differ between before and after the reform. Results suggest that reducing course choice options in high school does not automatically increase gender equality in STEM fields.