U of I researcher earns $1.4 million grant to study children’s metacognition and science learning

MOSCOW, Idaho — Sept. 30, 2025 — The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a University of Idaho researcher a five-year, $1.4 million grant to explore young children’s developing metacognition — the ability to think about and regulate their own cognitive processes — and its role in science learning.

Shiyi Chen, an associate professor within the Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences, recently received a prestigious NSF Early Career Development Program grant, which supports outstanding pre-tenure faculty. Chen’s research investigates how children build these thinking skills and will translate her findings into teaching practices that strengthen early science learning.

Chen will lead three interconnected research projects aimed at exploring preschool and kindergarten children’s metacognition development and science learning and identifying effective teaching strategies that help teachers support those skills.

“Young children’s metacognition is still developing,” Chen said. “That can limit their ability to reflect on their thinking and draw conclusions from science activities, which shows why teachers play such an important role.”

Early childhood teachers often spend less time teaching science than other subjects, though exposure to science at a young age strongly correlates with better performance and stronger interest in science later in life.

The grant will support two graduate students, a postdoctoral researcher and a project coordinator throughout the five years. U of I will also fund a postdoctoral researcher for the first two years.

The first study is underway, assessing current science instruction in early childhood classrooms that are malleable by collecting data from 60 teachers and 330 children, including classroom observations, teacher-child verbal interactions and child science assessments. The study will identify features of classroom environments that support or hinder children’s thinking and science learning.

“The purpose of the first study is to identify factors in early childhood classrooms that are malleable,” Chen said. “In studies two and three, we will focus on those factors and test ways to change them to improve early science learning.”

Study two will include 121 children and will evaluate how different kinds of feedback — focused on performance or on helping children reflect on their thought processes — given either during or after science activities affect their metacognition.

Study three will design and test a yearlong professional development program for 25 teachers, incorporating online modules, curriculum implementation and in-person coaching. The research team will gather classroom observations, teacher and child surveys and interview responses to evaluate changes in teaching practices and children’s learning.

Together, the studies will identify effective ways to support teachers’ understanding of metacognition, as well as how they can use language and feedback to support young children’s metacognitive growth in science.

The studies will build upon the earlier work of Chen’s laboratory. Her team has found a link between children’s metacognition and learning outcomes. They’ve also created a curriculum focused on teaching plant science with locally sourced produce, called Farm to Early Care and Education. The program, offered in collaboration with UI Extension, is in its fourth year and has gathered data from about 30 teachers and 200 students per year.

“This program has a positive impact on children’s scientific inquiry skills and self-regulated learning skills,” Chen said. “At the teacher level, this curriculum has increased how confident teachers feel about conducting science activities. It also has enhanced teachers’ science teaching practices and positive attitudes toward teaching young children science.”

Media contact

Shiyi Chen
Associate professor of child development
208-885-8682
shiyic@uidaho.edu

John O’Connell
Assistant director of communications, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
208-530-5959
joconnell@uidaho.edu