Links between parents' epistemological stance and children's evidence talk.

Abstract

Recent experimental research highlights young children's selectivity in learning from others. Little is known, however, about the patterns of information that children actually encounter in conversations with adults. This study investigated variation in parents' tendency to focus on testable evidence as a way to answer science-related questions (e.g., causes of climate change, extinction of species) and asked whether this is related to children's own use of evidence in conversation. Parents read a science-themed book with their 4- to 8-year-old children. Guided by D. Kuhn's framework of epistemological stances, we coded (a) parents' expressions of epistemology-related information (e.g., using evidence to reason about an opinion, appealing to statements of fact that do not need evidence, or pointing out that knowing for sure may not be possible) while discussing four science-related topics and (b) children's comments about evidence for two different science-related topics. We found variation in parents' expressions of epistemological information by children's age and gender for particular topics. Also, parents' expressions of evaluativist epistemology (expressing the value of reasoning with evidence) were correlated with children's talk about evidence. To the extent that children experience different conversational environments, they may seek different types of answers to questions, become familiar with different ways of thinking about "knowing," and develop different strategies for being selective about learning from the testimony of others.

Generating Relations Elicits a Relational Mindset in Children

“…Across cultures, caregivers differ in whether and how they draw children's attention to relations and objects (Fernald & Morikawa, 1993;Ogura, Dale, Yamashita, & Murase, 2006;Senzaki, Masuda, Takada, & Okada, 2016), and corresponding cultural differences in disposition toward relations and objects emerge early (Carstensen et al, 2019;Imada, Carlson, & Itakura, 2013;Kuwabara & Smith, 2012;Senzaki et al, 2016;Waxman et al, 2016). Thus, caregivers may impart habitual modes of attending to certain types of information through interactions with their children (e.g., Luce, Callanan, & Smilovic, 2013;Valle, 2009).…”

Family Science Talk in Museums: Predicting Children's Engagement From Variations in Talk and Activity

“…Explicit talk about evidence is also related to science thinking, and previous research found that parents vary in their tendency to talk about evidence when explaining their reasoning (Luce, Callanan, & Smilovic, ; Valle, ). However, little research has explored whether parents' evidence talk relates to children's engagement or learning.…”

Exploration, Explanation, and Parent–Child Interaction in Museums

“…There is also substantial cultural variation in family explanatory talk. Differences in types of causal talk have been uncovered when comparing parents with varied schooling background, income levels, or attitudes about the nature of knowledge (Kurkul & Corriveau, ; Luce, Callanan, & Smilovic, ; Valle, ). For example, Valle () found that highly educated U.S. parents from engineering and science backgrounds focused more on scientific evidence about conflicting claims on topics such as climate change than did parents from other educational backgrounds.…”