Learning how to clarify complex concepts for children through naturalistic inquiry: moving beyond simplification

The authors infer that pre-adolescents don’t perform to their intellectual potential, because they aren’t taught how to think and research independently. Teaching to the curriculum has become a requirement and this imposes restrictions on what can be achieved. The contention of this chapter is that a child can formulate effective thought independently through naturalistic inquiry. The question is posed - How do we teach a complex concept to a 6 year old child? The authors hypothesise an experiment thus: given an academic paper, is it possible to explain, without ambiguity, the essence of that paper to a child? The ideas encapsulated in this chapter can be extrapolated for returning adult learners and are particularly relevant to second language acquisition.