How Questions Drive Teaching and Learning in European-American and Chinese-American Parent-Child Interactions

• In Event: Learning Through Parent-Child Conversations in Diverse Contexts

Abstract

Young children acquire knowledge through interactions with the physical and social world (Vygotsky, 1978). Parents’ questions are a type of discourse particularly supportive of cognitive development (Yu et al., 2017). Children’s questions directed toward caregivers also serve as a powerful learning mechanism (Ronfard et al., 2018). However, extant studies predominantly focus on information-seeking questions about the physical world, despite preliminary evidence suggesting that questions also convey important social and cultural messages (Gauvain et al., 2013). Moreover, our understanding of whether and how parent-child questions differ across ethnocultural groups remains limited.

To achieve a more nuanced understanding of how questions drive knowledge transmission in each ethnocultural group, the current study will delineate inter-group similarities and differences in parents’ and children’s questions in European American (EA) and Chinese American (CA) families. Fifty-seven EA and fifty-six CA families with 4-year-olds were visited in their home. Experimenters provided age-appropriate toys (a doctor kit, Legos, and a fishing puzzle) and asked families to play as they normally would. The interactions were recorded and reliably coded for linguistic forms and social pragmatic functions (for the dual-dimension coding scheme, see Table 1 and 2), Cohen’s Kappas > 0.7.

Wilcox tests first indicated that across ethnocultural groups, questions naturally played an integral role in the semi-structured play interactions but differed in frequency and density. Compared to their EA counterparts, CA parents asked more questions (M_CA_parent = 6.93/minute, M_EA_parent = 5.57/minute, p = 0.002), whereas CA children asked fewer questions (M_CA_child = 0.87/minute, M_EA_child = 1.26/minute, p = 0.007). In the context of linguistic form, CA parents used more open-ended questions, rhetorical questions, and empty prompts (questions nudging children to respond to a previously unanswered question), whereas EA parents used more and proportionally more mirroring questions (reframing children’s statements as questions, encouraging children to carry on with the conversation), all ps < .001. EA children used more open-ended and closed-ended questions than CA children, ps < .05. With regard to social functions, EA parents asked more information-seeking questions encouraging children to freely express their perceptions, opinions, and goals. CA parents asked more pedagogical questions through which they quizzically and engagingly invited children to partake in the mutual construction of knowledge, ps < .05. Moreover, CA parents used twice as many harmonization questions relative to EA parents (questions establishing shared points of view on social norms and relations), ps < .05. Overall, the distribution of children’s questions across functional categories mirrors the cultural patterns observed in their parents. Ongoing analyses explore correlations between questions and cognitive outcomes.

We argue that the inter-group differences in parents’ and children’s questions may reflect differing cultural beliefs and socialization goals. Through questioning, parents model culturally constructed approaches to soliciting information and/or consensus and direct children’s attention to aspects of the physical and social world worthy of linguistic rendering. Our findings also represent a strength-based approach to understanding how CA children utilize questions to achieve diverse social goals and may inform early childhood educators’ efforts to support CA children’s learning in US educational settings.

Authors

• Ran Wei, Harvard Medical School
  Presenting Author

• Jin Li, Brown University

• Megan Mengyuan Wang, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Yoko Yamamoto, Brown University