Cultural Variations in Question Asking During Collaborative Problem Solving in European-American and Chinese-Heritage Families

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

Parents ask children questions for various reasons: to get information from children, to give children direction, or to evaluate children’s knowledge (Heath, 1982; Shatz, 1979; Taggart et al., 2020). One purpose parents ask questions is to promote learning; these types of questions are called pedagogical questions (Yu et al., 2019). Pedagogical questions have been observed in schools and homes, but they may not be universally prevalent. Previous research suggests that pedagogical questions fit with broader cultural practices in middle-class European-American families. For example, a constant stream of questions serves children well in cultures where children are expected to be highly verbal and autonomous (Ochs & Kremer-Sadlik, 2015; Tobin et al., 1989). However, different cultural ideologies may privilege different practices. For example, Chinese-heritage parents have been shown to readily engage in directive guidance with children—a culturally unique pattern of learning that is not shared by European-American parents (Zhang et al., 2020). With directive guidance, parents offer children clear modeling of right behavior and engage children in collaborative learning. Thus, question asking may take different forms and serve different purposes in Chinese-heritage homes. This study explored cultural patterns in parental use of pedagogical questions with 3-year-old children.

We compared the questions asked by European-American mothers and Chinese immigrant mothers when they helped their 3-year-olds solve a series of spatial-reasoning puzzles. A coding scheme was developed based on past research, including four types of questions: many-possible-answers, one-right-answer, directive, and transient questions (Table 1). The results so far indicated cultural differences and similarities. Chinese immigrant parents asked a higher proportion of directive questions than European-American parents, t(14.998) = -2.22, p = .042, 95% CI [- .187, .004]. European-American parents asked a higher proportion of transient questions, t(14.197) = 2.79, p = .014, 95% CI [.030, .227]. The two groups asked a similar proportion of one-right-answer and many-possible-answers questions.

These findings are in line with existing research on how cultural practices shape parental guidance (Miller, 2014). First, the difference in the proportion of directive questions suggests that question asking is influenced by cultural ideologies of learning endorsed by Chinese-heritage families, such as the emphasis on parental modeling and the promotion of children’s effort (Zhang et al., 2020). Second, the frequent use of transient questions may be derived from a desire among European-American parents to engage conversationally with children (Rogoff et al., 1993). Finally, similarities in the use of one-right-answer and many-possible-answers questions suggest that parents in both cultural groups routinely used close-ended questions to guide their young children toward a goal. The frequent use of these types of questions, which mirror classroom talk in the U.S., may also point to the influential role of schooling in parents’ collaboration with children (Rogoff et al., 2015). Thus, the findings allow us to appreciate the roles of cultural ideologies and educational systems in shaping diverse ways parents promote learning with their preschool-aged children.

Authors

• Samantha Basch, University of California - Santa Cruz
  Presenting Author

• Su-hua Wang, University of California - Santa Cruz
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yu Zhang, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author