This article examines how people learn by actively observing and “listening-in” on ongoing activities as they participate in shared endeavors. Keen observation and listening-in are especially valued and used in some cultural communities in which children are part of mature community activities. This intent participation also occurs in some settings (such as early language learning in the family) in communities that routinely segregate children from the full range of adult activities. However, in the past century some industrial societies have relied on a specialized form of instruction that seems to accompany segregation of children from adult settings, in which adults “transmit” information to children. We contrast these two traditions of organizing learning in terms of their participation structure, the roles of more- and less-experienced people, distinctions in motivation and purpose, sources of learning (observation in ongoing activity versus lessons), forms of communication, and the role of assessment.

Ethnographic literature indicates that in many cultural communities around the world, children have extensive opportunities to learn through observing and participating in their community’s work and other mature activities. We argue that in communities in which children are often segregated from adult work (as in middle-class European American communities), young children instead are often involved in specialised child-focused activities such as lessons, adult–child play (and scholastic play), and conversation with adults on child-related topics. We examine this argument with systematic time-sampled observations of the extent of 2- to 3-year-old children’s access to adult work compared to their involvement in specialised child-focused activities. Observations focused on 12 children in each of four communities: two middle-class European American communities (West Newton, Massachusetts and Sugarhouse, Utah), Efe foragers of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and indigenous Maya of San Pedro, Guatemala. West Newton and Sugarhouse children had less frequent access to work and were involved more often in specialised child-focused activities than Efe and San Pedro children. The results support the idea that the middle-class European American children’s frequent involvement in specialised child-focused activities may relate to their more limited opportunities to learn through observing work activities of their communities. It may be less necessary for the Efe and San Pedro children to be involved in specialised child-focused activities to prepare them for involvement in mature community practices, because they are already a regular part of them.

This article examines how people learn by actively observing and “listening-in” on ongoing activities as they participate in shared endeavors. Keen observationand listening-in are especially valued and used in some cultural communities in which children are part of mature community activities. This intent participation also occurs in some settings (such as early language learning in the family) in communities that routinely segregate children from the full range of adult activities. However, in the past century some industrial societies have relied on a specialized form of instruction that seems to accompany segregation of children from adult settings, in which adults “transmit” information to children. We contrast these two traditions of organizing learning in terms of their participation structure, the roles of more-and less-experienced people, distinctions in motivation and purpose, sources of learning (observation in ongoing activity versus lessons), forms of communication, and the role of assessment.

We argue for the importance of keeping a focus on the dynamically coordinated functioning of multifaceted cultural practices for investigating cultural aspects of human development. Although some research projects benefit from focusing on specific aspects of cultural functioning, it should be with the recognition that segmentation into ''variables’ is for the sake of analysis rather than assumed necessarily to reflect the reality of the phenomena that we study. The portfolio of research on cultural aspects of human development needs to include analyses that focus more broadly on the historically changing constellation of cultural practices in which individuals participate, even as other studies examine specific aspects as if they were freestanding variables. We illustrate this argument with research suggesting that middle-class European American adults’ ways of interacting with children can be illuminated by seeing their practices as an aspect of a somewhat coordinated historical, cultural system. Cultural analyses that focus on coordinated, multifaceted practices can help us understand human development in the context of people’s participation in pervasive cultural institutions such as schooling and societal changes such as industrialization. For the research portfolio to develop a comprehensive approach to investigating coordinated patterns in cultural aspects of human development, we need a more open-minded respect for a variety of approaches to cultural research than is sometimes found within disciplines.