“How will you construct a pathway system?”: Microanalysis of teacher-child conversations during an inquiry unit

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Question-asking is an integral way through which children construct their own knowledge. During the preschool years, children begin asking more information-seeking, causal questions that demand more sophisticated responses from adult learning partners that in turn support children’s early science learning (Chouinard et al., 2007, Corriveau & Kurkul, 2014; Harris et al., 2018). The majority of research on these question-explanation exchanges has focused on parent-child interactions, but such interactions are also crucial in more formal learning settings such as preschool.
In the current study, we explore teacher-child interactions in naturalistic, classroom contexts over the course of a 1-month extended inquiry unit in a preschool classroom with an inquiry-learning philosophy. Inquiry-based learning conceptualizes the idea that children learn and construct knowledge through asking questions, experimenting, and shaping their own insight (Edson, 2013). Given the inquiry-based nature of this classroom, we hypothesized that teachers and children would ask a large amount of questions and that information-seeking questions (causal, e.g. “How will you construct a pathway?” and fact-based, e.g. “Which marble do you need?”) would be particularly prominent.
Videos (N = 18; approx.14 hours) were collected over the course of a month-long inquiry unit on forces and motion, which were transcribed in CLAN-CHILDES software at the utterance level (11,476 utterances total). Utterances were coded for delivery (question vs. statement) and content (e.g., fact-based, causal, directing actions). Preliminary analysis revealed that only 18% of all utterances were questions. Further analyses indicated that teachers were more likely to ask questions than children (B = -1.115, (SE) = .053, p < .000). When looking at the content of questions teachers and children are asking, we find that a slight majority are information-seeking questions (57%). Of these, teachers are asking the majority (73%), in addition they ask significantly more causal and fact-based questions compared to children (z = -11.21, p < .000; z = -16.21, p < .000). Of the non-information seeking questions (42% of total questions), teachers are asking 70% overall, primarily clarification (32%) and scaffolding questions (12%).
Taken together, these findings provide insight into how children’s and teacher’s questions and explanations develop over the course of an inquiry unit, further informing our understanding of early science learning. Even in an inquiry-learning environment that values teacher-children co-construction of knowledge, teachers guide the interactions and ask questions to support children’s learning. Such preliminary results are important for considering how science questions are naturally embedded in an inquiry-based learning classroom. Further analyses focusing on the interactional quality of these questions, examining the explanations and responses to them, as well as the longitudinal nature of these interactions over the course of the inquiry, will be available by the time of the conference. By examining these natural interactions in an inquiry-based learning classroom, we hope to add to the literature on questions and explanations and provide guidance for future research on the role of adult language in supporting children’s STEM knowledge acquisition.

Authors

• Hannah Puttre, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Amanda S Haber, Fairfield University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nikita Joshi, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathleen H. Corriveau, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author