Poster #79 - Examining Parent-Child Conversation During a Scientific Storybook Interaction in Racial and Ethnic Minoritized Families

• In Event: Poster Session 08

Abstract

Children often rely on conversations with adults such as caregivers and teachers to understand more complex, unobservable scientific entities such COVID-19 or electricity (Authors, 2020; 2021; Harris et al., 2018). Such conversations create opportunities for adults to provide scientific explanations (highlighting mechanisms underlying a scientific entity) that foster children’s STEM learning (Kurkul et al., 2021). Drawing on a social interactionist theory of development, we investigate how language in a storybook may impact parent-child talk and shape children’s science learning (Vygotsky, 1978).

In the current study, we aim to build on the cultural practices of families who have often been underrepresented in research by investigating how scientific storybooks can be a strengths-based tool for scaffolding parent-child talk and children’s STEM learning. Parents are given accurate scientific information in the form of a storybook, which can be adapted to adhere to cultural practices (Gauvain, 2011; Authors, 2020; Rogoff, 2005). Understanding how scientific books can support parent-child conversation and learning among children of color (primarily preschoolers who have not yet started K-12 schooling) can inform future work aimed at creating interventions to foster science learning during early childhood.

In prior work (Authors, 2020), we found that embedding scientific explanations into a storybook about electricity led to greater scientific parent-child talk and fostered children’s STEM learning in a museum context. Here, we focus on how families from racial and ethnic minoritized groups (often excluded from research) engage in scientific conversations at home.

Four- to five-year-old children (N = 54, 27 female) and their parents from underrepresented minoritized families in STEM (Hispanic, Black, Native Hawaiian, American Indian or mixed race; adapted from NSF, 2021) participated from home on Zoom. During the storybook phase, dyads read a researcher-adapted storybook about electricity (Authors, 2020). Half of the dyads read a story that included mechanistic explanations about electricity (when the switch is off, there is a gap in the wires and the electricity can’t get to the wiper). Other dyads read stories containing non-mechanistic explanations (when the switch is off, it’s just like when the lights are off at home). For the dyadic activity, dyads worked together to build a circuit to make a lightbulb turn on. We transcribed parent-child talk and are utilizing a bottom-up approach to code language for content (e.g., scientific talk, personal connections) and interaction style (e.g., scaffolding, praise). During the learning phase, children answered two comprehension questions to assess their understanding of electricity.

Dyads who heard more mechanistic explanations in the storybook were more successful at completing the circuit (B = -0.27, p = .04) and answering questions (B=-0.35, p = 0.04). Regardless of storybook type, dyads used mechanistic language (e.g., the wires are connected in a loop, so electricity flows through) and made personal connections (there is a power station like this outside our house). Examining naturalistic conversations during parent-child scientific storybook interactions in families from racial and ethnic minoritized groups is a critical first step in understanding how we can design interventions to further support children’s science learning during early childhood.

Authors

• Amanda S Haber, Fairfield University
  Presenting Author

• Kathryn Anne Leech, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Kathleen H. Corriveau, Boston University