How does a switch work? The relation between adult mechanistic language and children's learning

Autor: Eleanor Castine, Kathleen H. Corriveau, Kathryn A. Leech, Katelyn E. Kurkul
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 72:101221
ISSN: 0193-3973
DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101221
Popis: Two studies explore how explanations that contain mechanistic information can influence 4- and 5-year-old children's subsequent learning. In Study 1 (N = 56) children participated in a science task with their parents across five phases: (a) exploration phase, (b) parent explanation questions, (c) familiar phase, (d) novel extension phase, and (e) child recall. Parents' use of explations containing mechanistic information predicted children's ability to appropriately place more pieces in both the familiar and novel phases. In Study 2 (N = 64) children worked with an unfamiliar experimenter and were either exposed to explanations that did or did not include mechanistic information. Children who were exposed to mechanistic information were more likely to appropriately generalize the underlying concept in all phases. Together these studies indicate that exposure to mechanistic language helps children acquire knowledge of novel concepts.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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