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Kids Learn More When Mom Is Listening |
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From Ascribe Newsfeed: Kids may roll their eyes when their mother asks them about their school day, but answering her may actually help them learn. "We knew that children learn well with their moms or with a peer, but we did not know if that was because they were getting feedback and help," Bethany Rittle-Johnson, the study's lead author and assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt's Peabody College of education and human development, said. Rittle-Johnson, along with co-authors Megan Saylor, assistant professor of psychology, and recent graduate Kathryn Swygert, set out to determine if 4- and 5-year-olds learn more when they have to explain the solution to a problem to someone else. They were shown a series of plastic bugs, and then had to say which bug should come next in the series based on color and type of bug, a problem that is challenging for 4- and 5-year-olds. The researchers found that explaining the answer to themselves and to their moms improved the children's ability to solve similar problems later, and that explaining the answer to their moms helped them solve more difficult problems. "This is one of the first studies to examine whether or not explanation is useful in helping children under 8 apply what they've learned to a modification of a task," Rittle-Johnson said. Rittle-Johnson and Saylor are Learning Sciences Institute and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development investigators. Vanderbilt University's Peabody College was ranked as the No. 3 education school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in 2007. We provide direct, immediate access to mainstream national media for 600 colleges, universities, medical centers, public-policy groups and other leading nonprofit organizations.
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