Young Children’s Recognition of the Intentionality of Teaching (original) (raw)
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Teaching as a natural cognition and its relations to preschoolers’ developing theory of mind
Cognitive Development, 2002
Teaching is an important aspect in people's lives and cultures. We explore it from a cognitive-developmental perspective. Teaching may be a natural cognition that, despite its complexity, is learned at an early age without any apparent instruction. We propose that theory of mind may be an important cognitive prerequisite for teaching. We briefly describe a study that tested relations between children's developing theory of mind and actual teaching. Children at the ages of 3-and 5-years were presented new theory of mind tasks about teaching and then were observed teaching peers a game they had just learned. We found corresponding age-related differences in children's understanding of teaching as manifested in their performance on the teaching-theory of mind tasks and in their teaching strategies. It is suggested that theory and research on theory of mind might need to be expanded to include on-line, interactive situations such as teaching.
Children's understanding of teaching: The role of knowledge and belief
Cognitive Development, 2004
The relation between preschoolers' concept of teaching and theory of mind was explored to determine if there is a developmental change in understanding how teaching depends on knowledge and belief. The study tested whether 3-to 6-year-olds thought the awareness of a knowledge difference is necessary for teaching. The 3-and 4-year-olds understood teaching stories with clear knowledge differences and could correctly use that information to specify the teacher and learner. The 5-and 6-year-olds, who performed well on a standard false belief task, further understood that it was the teacher's belief about the knowledge difference that would actually govern teaching. The conceptual link to teaching suggests that theory of mind is critical for understanding other forms of knowledge acquisition besides perceptual access.
High and low theory-of-mind scores of child-teachers: Which teaching strategies are efficient?
Cognitive Development, 2020
While some authors investigating teaching in children suggest that teaching strategies are more efficient in terms of learners' performances when child-teachers have achieved false-belief understanding, others argue that even before they reach this point, children already use efficient teaching strategies. To test these two hypotheses, we investigated the efficiency of teaching strategies adopted by child-teachers who had either succeeded or failed on false-belief (FB) tasks. A total of 26 5-year-old child-teachers were divided into two groups according to their FB score (FB + vs. FB-) and paired with 3-year-old learners who had not yet acquired FB understanding. The learners were asked to perform a jigsaw task. Teaching strategies displayed by the childteachers included conveying information, giving verbal explanations coupled with demonstrations, and engaging in nonverbal demonstration/modelling. FB understanding was measured with classic FB tasks, and a composite verbal score was calculated as a control measure. Results showed that child-teachers who successfully performed the FB tasks above all used conveying information and verbal explanation coupled with demonstrations strategies. However, correlations revealed that conveying information, which was more frequently used in the FB + group, was significantly and positively correlated with learners' performances in both groups. This finding lessens the impact of child-teachers' FB understanding in the tutoring situation.
Teaching and Teacher Education
Little is known about how and when preschoolers master the concept of teaching, particularly in relation to the acquisition of theory of mind (ToM). We investigated the relationship between the two in children aged 3e6 years old. One hundred and seventeen French preschool pupils answered questions about different teaching situations illustrated in ten stories involving knowledge differences and/or false belief. Four change-of-location ToM stories were also administered. Our results indicate a developmental progression from understanding teaching situations to grasping the notion of knowledge gaps. Moreover, they confirm that ToM seems to be involved in understanding more complex teaching situations.
Frontiers in psychology, 2017
Children's understanding of the concepts of teaching and learning is closely associated with their theory of mind (ToM) ability and vital for school readiness. This study aimed to develop and validate a Preschool Teaching and Learning Comprehension Index (PTLCI) across cultures and examine the causal relationship between children's comprehension of teaching and learning and their mental state understanding. Two hundred and twelve children from 3 to 6 years of age from Hong Kong and the United States participated in study. The results suggested strong construct validity of the PTLCI, and its measurement and structural equivalence within and across cultures. ToM and PTLCI were significantly correlated with a medium effect size, even after controlling for age, and language ability. Hong Kong children outperformed their American counterparts in both ToM and PTLCI. Competing structural equation models suggested that children's performance on the PTLCI causally predicted their...
Journal of Educational and Social Research, 2015
Children who have just reached 2 years old do engage in activities with symbolic elements. Developmental psychologist argue that this is a cognitive developmental feature connected to mind processes development. Some of them discuss about using indented/pretended activities as fact of child' understanding. The research involved 20 children 18 to 25 months old and 25 children 25-36 months old. Children were applied the behavioral protocol of imaginary and intentional behavior. Children's reactions to these actions is observed, measured and assessed using behavioral protocol activities. The purpose of this study is to explore the ability of children 20 to 36 months to understand the intentional actions against symbolic/pretended actions. This study is theoretically based on cognitive development theories in early childhood, focusing on the use of symbolic functions that enable children involvement in the play. Certain elements of the study were stimulated by new theories on the cognitive functioning of representative schemes, ToM and comprehension skills during early childhood. The results of the study show a tendency of children to understand the purpose of the two behavioral structures answered in accordance with the typology behavior: after the demonstration of intentional models children react intentionally and after the demonstration of pretend actions children reacted with imaginative / symbolic actions. The results over the ability to distinguish intention from pretend is then discussed in the Theory of Mind perspective.
Children’s Teaching Skills: The Role of Theory of Mind and Executive Function
Mind, Brain, and Education, 2008
ABSTRACT— Teaching others effectively may rely on knowledge about the mind as well as self-control processes. The goal of this investigation was to explore the role of theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF) in children’s developing teaching skills. Children 3.5–5.5 years of age (N = 82) were asked to teach a confederate learner how to play a board game and were administered multitask batteries of ToM and EF with mental age, sex, and memory capacity as controls. There was a developmental increase in children’s teaching skills (e.g., older children taught longer, explained more rules, and used more strategies when teaching). Examined separately, both ToM and EF explained unique variance in teaching skills over and above controls. Taken together, EF was a significant predictor of teaching efficacy over and above ToM and controls, whereas the same did not hold true for ToM. These results suggest that ToM may be a necessary prerequisite for teaching to occur; however, EF skills appear to play a vital role in children’s teaching efficacy.
Precursors of a theory of mind: A longitudinal study
British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2008
The study examined whether the pointing gesture and intentional understanding abilities at 12 and 15 months of age predict the later understanding of perception and intention, as wella st he ability to explain others' actions in ap sychological waya t3 9 months of age.T hirty-fivei nfants (18 girls) wereadministered pointing and intentionunderstanding tasks at the age of 12 and 15 months. Children wereagain evaluated at the age of 39 months with perception and intention tasks, and ap sychological explanation task. Results showed that only 12-month-olds' comprehension of the pointing gesture with an imperative motive contributed to the prediction of later understanding of perception and mentalistic explanations of actions. Moreover,t he ability of 12-and 15-month-olds to understand intentions contributed to the prediction of later preschool understanding of perceptions and intentions. These results indicate that ad evelopmental trajectoryi nc hildren'su nderstanding of mental states from infancy to childhood is present, but depends on the level of engagement and communication that are required to perform these tasks.
… the human developmental sciences: essays in …, 2007
This review begins with a brief history from Piagetian perspective-taking development, through metacognitive development, and into the past and present field of theory-of-mind development. This field has included research on what infants and children know about a variety of mental states, on possible causes and consequences of mentalistic knowledge, and on similarities and differences in this knowledge across individuals, cultures, and primate species. The article concludes with some speculations about the future of the field.