HOW CHILDREN
LEARN
Presented by
Patty Copeland
INFANT’S CAPABILITIES

Theories
 “Blank
Slate”
 Piaget (1920) Gradual coordination of
looking, listening, and touching.
 Newell (1958) and Gibson (1969) Rapid
information processing
 Vygotsky (1978) “Zone of Proximal
Development”
INFANT’S CAPABILITIES

Main areas of research:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Early predisposition to learn about some
things but not others. (Carey and Gelman, 1991)
Strategies and Metacognition (Deloach, 1998)
Theories of Mind (Gardner, 1983)
Children and Community.( Wright & Huston,
1995)
INFANT’S CAPABILITIES

Methodological advances.



Non-nutritive sucking,
habituation, and
visual expectation.
EARLY COMPENTENCIES IN
THE PRIVILEGED DOMAINS

Physical Concepts
Objects need support to prevent them from falling;
 Stationary objects are displaced when they come into
contact with moving objects;
 Inanimate objects need to be propelled into motion.

Possible Event
Impossible Event
-Needham & Baillargeon (1993)
Test Events
Possible Event
Impossible Event
-Baillargeon, Needham , & Devos (1992)
EARLY COMPENTENCIES IN
THE PRIVILEGED DOMAINS

Biological Causality

Differences between Animate and inanimate
objects.
Drawings used in studying
preschoolers’ reasoning about
movement
-Massey and Gelman (1988)
EARLY COMPENTENCIES IN
THE PRIVILEGED DOMAINS

Early Number Concepts
What math do you see
going on?---Arnie
What is the Math?
Many different kinds of mathematical
thinking occur in this video:
•Geometry (shape, symmetry, spatial relations)
• Measurement
• Patterns
• Number concepts: the idea of “more”
• Informal strategies such as estimation
• Math is more than just “numeracy”
Use of Numerical Data in their
Environment…
the “How Many” Story

What knowledge does a child need to
understand the concept of ‘how many’?

The “How Many” story begins with an
attempt to understand the concepts of
more/less/and same.

• Examples from your experiences?
• Arnie’s (video) example?

There’s “more” to the concepts
of more/less/the same


Watch this video clip …What does Tina
understand about the concepts of more /
less / the same?
[Tina Video]
EARLY COMPENTENCIES IN
THE PRIVILEGED DOMAINS

Early Attention to Language
4 months prefer words to other sounds (Colombo
and Bundy, 1983)
 6 months distinguish the properties that characterize
the language of their environment (Kuhl, 1992)
 8-10 months actively attempt to understand the
meaning of the language around them. (Chapman,
1978)

Reaction time to French and English
sentences for 2-month-old infants.
2500
Reaction times (msec)
2400
2300
2200
2100
2000
1900
English
French
-Mehler & Christophe (1995)
Language Development
Studies indicate:
Children’s biological capacities are
set into motion by their
environments.
STRATEGIES FOR LEARNING
AND METACOGNITION

Capacity



Strategies





Less than adults?
Same as adults?
Rehearsal
Elaboration
Summarization
Chunking
Knowledge

Metacognition—knowledge of
learning,
 strengths and weaknesses, and
 demands of the learning task at
hand.
 self regulation

plan,
 monitor success, and
 correct errors when appropriate


Effort
STRATEGIES FOR LEARNING
AND METACOGNITION

Multiple Strategies
Accuracy
 Amount of time required
 Processing demands
 Range of problems to which they apply.


Strategy Choices
Solve Problems
 Most useful
 Transfer to new situations

STRATEGIES FOR LEARNING
AND METACOGNITION

Multiple Intellegences (Gardner 1983, 1991)
Linguistic
 Logical
http://www.bgfl.org/
 Musical
bgfl/custom/resourc
 Spatial
es_ftp/client_ftp/ks3
 Bodily kinesthetic
/ict/multiple_int/ind
 Interpersonal
 Intrapersonal
ex.htm
 1997 add…Naturalistic

GUIDING CHILDREN’S
LEARNING






Interesting the child in the task
Reducing the number of steps
required to solve a problem by
simplifying the task
Maintaining the pursuit of the goal
Marking critical features of
discrepancies
Controlling frustration and risk
Demonstrating an idealized version
---Wood et al, 1976
GUIDING CHILDREN’S
LEARNING

Learning to Read and Tell Stories
Cultural Variations in
Communication
 Conversing
 Observing
 Eavesdropping
Cultural Variations in
Communication

Schooling and Role of Questioning
“known-answer” questions
 Metaphoric, narrative questions


Adaptive Flexibility in both directions
Conclusion
 The
concept of
“development” is
critical to
understanding the
changes in
children’s thinking.
Conclusion
 Young
children are
actively
engaged in
making
sense of
their
worlds.
Conclusion
 Children’s
early
understanding
of the
perceptual and
physical world
may jump-start
the learning
process.
Conclusion
 Children
are
both
problem
solvers and
problem
generators
Conclusion
 Adults
help
make
connections
between new
situations and
familiar ones for
children.
Conclusion
 Children
exhibit capacities for
learning that are shaped and
expanded by environment
experiences and the individuals
who care for them.
The Moment
of Truth!
Some children
cannot learn math.
FALSE
Boys learn much
better than girls.
FALSE
Poor children and
minority children do
not perform well in
mathematics.
FALSE
American children
have less
mathematical
ability than Asian
children.
FALSE
Pre-Kindergarten /
Kindergarten
Mathematics
learning difficulties
are common.
FALSE
To teach well,
teachers need to
understand their
students’ thinking
as it occurs in the
classroom.
True
The education of young children
should focus mainly on socialemotional development and
should avoid such topics as
mathematics because young
children are not ready for those
subjects and will therefore be
harmed by studying them.
FALSE
Young children are
interested in mathematical
topics and spontaneously
develop a relatively
complex set of informal
ideas about quantity in the
natural environment.
True
Young children should be
taught the same kind of
formal written mathematics
that older children learn …
just smaller numbers and
easier concepts.
FALSE
A concentration on
memorized number facts
and drill on the “basic”
skills ignores children’s
informal mathematics and
introduces number in a
meaningless way.
True
A concentration on drill
and memorization in
mathematics lessens a
child’s interest,
exploration, and
experimentation with
mathematics.
True
The first work that proposed
that young children
DISCOVER the rules of
arithmetic through the
manipulation of counters
and bead frames was
published in 1818.
True
The first program that
emphasized geometry for
young children was
developed by Froebel
during the second half of
the nineteenth century.
True
Thank you!
pcopeland@esc11.net