Abstract
Causal learning development in young children has been explored extensively through quantitative studies. However, to date no studies have qualitatively examined young children’s causal learning development. The current study aims to fill this lacuna in the literature with a qualitative investigation of young children’s causal learning development in an informal learning setting. Two small groups of participants composed of three preschool children and their teacher were videotaped during three sessions over a one week time period. During these sessions, the groups were introduced to novel games selected to elicit causal learning. The resulting video data was examined using microethnography methods of data analysis. Findings revealed a microgenetic development of causal learning in the children as they collaboratively constructed causal knowledge with their teacher. This causal learning was displayed through three types of interventions: a) expected interventions, b) novel interventions, and c) counterintuitive interventions. This collaborative causal learning constructed over time through participants’ sharing of context, linguistic resources, and knowledge provides a new lens of examination to the body of literature on causal learning development in preschool children.