Novel Perspectives on the Role of Adult Questions for Children’s Learning and Cognition

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Adult-child conversations are an important opportunity for children to learn new information. However, exposure to questions may be particularly important for children’s learning and academic outcomes as it provides children with an opportunity to express their knowledge and adults to provide additional information where knowledge may be lacking. To date, much of this work has focused on teachers’ and mothers’ language input and their role for children’s language and literacy skills. What remains understudied is how questioning affects other cognitive skills and to what extent other conversational partners and children themselves relate to children’s opportunities to learn from questions. This symposium explores different perspectives on the role of questioning in children’s learning and skills, beyond input quantity and language abilities. The first paper experimentally tests the effects of questioning on children’s learning of novel concepts. Preliminary results suggest that exposure to pedagogical questions may promote children’s exploratory learning. The second paper examines parent-child interactions at museum tinkering exhibits, underscoring the importance of parental questioning and children’s responses to children’s engineering learning. The third paper examines the complexity of parents’ questioning during structured home activities, suggesting that children’s responsiveness and math abilities shape what questions parents ask. The fourth paper investigates mothers’ and fathers’ language engagement strategies (i.e., conversational exchanges and questions) and children’s language and literacy skills, showing the importance of considering the role of both parents in promoting children’s academic outcomes. Overall, these talks highlight the diversity of contexts in which questioning supports children’s learning and academic skills.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Shirley Duong, University of Pittsburgh

Individual Presentations

• The Effect of Pedagogical Questioning on Young Children’s Exploratory Learning of Novel Concepts - Presenting Author: Yue Yu, Nanyang Technological University; Non-Presenting Author: Jallene Chua, National Institute of Education

• Parents’ Questions and Children’s Responses: Links to Engineering Learning during and after Museum Tinkering Activities - Presenting Author: Lauren C Pagano, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Krista Smith, Loyola University Chicago; Non-Presenting Author: Diana I Acosta, University of California - Santa Cruz; Non-Presenting Author: David H. Uttal, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Catherine A. Haden, Loyola University Chicago

• Parents' Sensitivity to Child-Level Factors and the Relation to Parental Questioning During Dyadic Interactions - Presenting Author: Shirley Duong, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Heather J. Bachman, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Melissa E Libertus, University of Pittsburgh

• Language Engagement and Children’s Language and Literacy Achievement in Rural, Two-Parent Families - Presenting Author: Elizabeth Reynolds, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill