Causal thinking in science education and the challenges it holds

One major goal of science education is to help students become scientifically literate. That is, enabling them to understand, evaluate, and use scientific information. Understanding the nature of scientific research and the ability to reason accordingly was indicated as essential to scientific literacy. Hence, the importance of promoting causal thinking, a central part of the scientific enterprise, was acknowledged in curriculums and standards. According to these standards, students should identify causal relationships, distinguish between correlation and causation, and provide mechanistic explanations for causal relationships. Science education research criticized school science for oversimplifying causality as a simple direct relationship between two entities and causal reasoning as the process of isolation and control of variables. Nonetheless, students encounter many difficulties once complex causal thinking is practiced in schools. In this chapter, I will focus on two major types of causal thinking addressed in science education research: pattern-seeking and reasoning about mechanisms. These were described as distinct epistemic activities aiming to find, evaluate, and explain causal relationships. I will discuss the challenges in pattern-seeking and mechanistic reasoning, how these challenges originate from the complex nature of scientific phenomena, and what solutions may be offered.