Questioning as an Epistemically Rich Parent-Child Practice

• In Event: Patterns of Questions and Explanations in Family Interactions: Tools Young Children Use for Acquiring Knowledge

Abstract

Previous research has examined how questions are asked and answered in science classrooms, where a triadic discourse pattern of initiate/questionrespondevaluate has long dominated (e.g. Mehan, 1982) but other patterns are also found (e.g. Chin, 2006; 2007), most of which cultivate and maintain teachers’ epistemic authority. In informal learning environments like museums, research has also explored the role of questions among family members experiencing exhibits and how questioning contributes to sense-making and learning (e.g. Ash, 2003; Gleason & Schauble, 1999; Zimmerman, Reeve, & Bell, 2010). However, museums, regardless of being called “informal learning environments,” also have a cultivated sense of epistemic authority that may influence visitors’ behaviors. In fact, research on explanatory parent-child conversations has found evidence that parents do talk differently with their children about the same subject matter in a museum versus at home (Tenenbaum et al, 2002). Are there differences in how parents and children engage in explanatory talk and questioning across different activities within their own homes?

The present research explores how everyday, informal parent/child interaction is an important locus for the development of critical epistemic practices that influence how children interpret what it means to know something, who has epistemic authority. We explore the interactive epistemic practice of questioning among parents and children ages 7-9 years old during two different but related activities in the context of their own homes. Nine families participated in the study, recording themselves working together in their gardens and also doing a science kit about analyzing garden soil. Twenty minutes of each video were analyzed for Question Units (QUs), which included a question, response, and response receipt. QUs (n=1,135) were analyzed for question form, question function, and response (Cohen’s Kappas of >0.84 were achieved for all coding categories).

The most common question form for both children and parents was polar (yes/no) in form (about 60% of questions). Polar questions are more difficult to formulate, but easier to answer than question-word questions (i.e. who, what, where, etc.) (Olsen-Fulero & Conti, 1983; van Hekken & Roelofsen, 1994; also this data set). Of the remaining 40% of questions, children used significantly more question-word questions than parents, placing a greater epistemic demand on parents. In analyses of question function, parents used significantly more eliciting-opinion questions than children, which decreased children’s epistemic burden by permitting responses with less certainty. Children, on the other hand, used significantly more information-seeking questions than parents, placing a higher epistemic burden on parents.

Few significant differences were found across the two activity contexts, but children did initiate significantly more QUs while gardening, and parents gave significantly more “other” kinds of responses (e.g. hedging, questions, non-answer responses) in the garden than in the science kit activity. Altogether, these results point to questioning as an epistemically-rich everyday family practice, and an important place to focus more research on how children are socialized epistemically with repercussions for how inquiry happens in both classrooms and informal learning environments.

Author

• Jessica Umphress, Northwestern University