| This study examines how adults interact with 30-month-old children during joint problem-solving activities, and how adult patterns of conversation and non-verbal cues may influence a child's learning.; Thirty-six mother-child pairs were videotaped during a puzzle task. All verbal and significant non-verbal information exchanged between the mother and child was coded in detail, along with the amount of time spent conversing about the task before beginning, the number of pieces placed correctly, the number of trials spent in joint focus on the same piece, and the degree to which the child versus the mother was responsible for introducing and placing the pieces.; As in research on other Western samples, the subjects exhibited a reciprocal, dialogue-like style of communication in which the child was allowed to engage in substantial verbal and non-verbal activity. Mothers used a style of speaking that helped structure the child's learning by organizing the child's attention, motivation, and involvement (see Rogoff, et al., 1993). Despite across-group similarities, however, strong individual variations in maternal behaviors were observed. The results from this sample showed an orthogonal relationship between two distinct styles of approaching the task. At one extreme, the adult and child remained focused on the same piece for significantly longer periods of time, the child took a more dominant role in introducing and placing the pieces, the mother manipulated pieces less and talked less but issued a significantly higher amount of praise, and the pairs spent more time reflecting on the task before commencing activity. At the other extreme, the inverse of these relationships characterized the interaction. In particular, the data suggest that certain maternal approaches may be associated with variations in maternal exposure to higher levels of education. Results from a limited set of similar data collected on children in Namibia, Southern Africa, illustrate that the same approach-to-task variables may be measured across cultures comparatively, and that the teaching and learning styles of different cultural groups and subgroups tend to reflect varying alternative combinations of these behaviors, which may in turn be tied to the cultural setting in which the adult and child are operating. |
