Science Experiments & Demonstrations. Awesome Science Teacher Resources. Science Discrepant Events and Critical Thinking: Using Surprising Phenomena to Focus Students’ Attention in Science. Science discrepant events provide opportunities for students to witness scientific events which have unexpected outcomes.
This surprising phenomenon causes students to use critical thinking skills as they try to explain what happened. These events cause a contradiction in students way of thinking, due to cognitive disequilibrium. Using discrepant events invokes critical thinking in students as they hypothesize reasons for what they just witnessed. As teachers provide guidance, without telling them what happened at first, students are able to develop a plausible explanation of the event. Now they are able to establish cognitive equilibrium correct internalization of the science concept.
Discrepant Events.