“What’s an alpaca?”: An observational examination of parent-child conversations during informal learning

• In Event: Children’s exploration in informal learning environments

Abstract

Experimental and observational studies on informal learning in museums demonstrate that children’s understanding and recollection of information depends importantly upon conversations with their parents who scaffold learning by directing attention, posing questions, making connections, and providing explanations (Benjamin et al., 2010; Crowley et al., 2001; Willard et al., 2019). Although this research provides valuable insights into informal learning processes, most of this work has focused on the parent’s contributions to conversations and thus may underestimate children’s active role in these exchanges. Accordingly, this naturalistic, observational study investigated the mutual contributions of parents and children to conversations in two science center exhibits using a detailed coding system that assessed both content (i.e., type of information conveyed) and delivery (i.e., how information is conveyed).
Fifty parents and their 3- to 9-year-old children (M = 5.22 years, SD = 1.82 years, 30 females) were observed and audio recorded at either an indoor, technology-based exhibit or an outdoor, nature-based exhibit. Two trained researchers reliably coded the content and delivery in parent-child conversations from verbatim transcripts of the audio recordings (see Table 1). Conversation coding units were parsed by unique subject and verb (e.g., Benjamin et al., 2010), assigned both a content and delivery code (e.g., 1A for a declarative animal statement), and summed to calculate composites for each classification.
A series of 12 repeated measures ANOVAs with Exhibit (Indoor, Outdoor) as a between-subjects factor and Speaker (Parent, Child) as within-subjects were analyzed separately for Content and Delivery. Reflecting respective exhibit designs, conversation content significantly differed by exhibit with more discussion of animals outdoors and technology indoors, F(1,45) = 38.94, p < .001, η² = .46, but parent and child delivery did not systematically differ across exhibits, ps > .20. Accordingly, results for Bonferroni corrected pairwise comparisons of conversation content and delivery by speaker are presented in Figure 1 combined across exhibit.
Consistent with previous research, we found that parents provided more coded content and used higher level language than children (i.e., less declarative and more explanatory or directive statements and questions). Although we found significant differences between parents and children’s language, our results indicated high synchronicity in conversation content. Both parents and children discussed animals most, followed by technology and pretend, but only infrequently mentioned the environment or numbers. Prior work indicates that parents scaffold children’s learning through explanatory talk and fostering connections (Benjamin et al., 2010; Callahan et al., 2017; Jant et al., 2014), but the relative infrequency of these statements in observed naturalistic parent-child conversations suggest that the role of explanatory talk in children’s learning in informal contexts may be overestimated. Overall, these findings demonstrate the importance of examining naturalistic, spontaneous language delivery in parent-child conversations, as well as the unique roles that parents and children play.

Authors

• Kathleen Bettencourt, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Courtney Leighann Ball, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica Stark Caporaso, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kimberly Marble, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Janet J Boseovski, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stuart Marcovitch, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author