The Roles of Family
Maternal Scaffolding Strategies: Informal Home Teaching and Learning Environment in Chinese and US Families
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Xiao-lei Wang
This study examines everyday scaffolding styles in Chinese and US families, as well as children’s responses to the scaffolding styles. Forty Chinese and US mothers and their 4-year olds (half girls and half boys) participated in the study. The mother-child dyads were asked to play with a classic Chicco Gazebo toy in their homes. The mother-child interactions were video-recorded, transcribed, and coded with a scheme developed by Wang, Bernas, and Eberhard (2005). The results suggest that mothers in the two cultural groups used distinct interactive styles. Chinese mothers initiated more task-related interactions, took more interaction turns, and elaborated more on children’s initiations than US mothers. Moreover, Chinese mothers used immediate scaffolding (e.g., immediate correction and demonstration) and the US mothers used deferred scaffolding (e.g., asking questions and suggesting alternatives). Furthermore, the study indicates that children did not always passively comply with the strategies used by their caregivers. They actively transformed adult strategies by elaborating on and appropriating them. The findings of this study urge educators to make efforts to understand the complexity of students’ everyday home learning environments and to maximize their learning potential by taking advantage of the funds of knowledge they developed at home.
Current Research and Challenges for Early Childhood Learning and Education: The Development of Cognitive, Memory and Language/Literacies in Children, Birth to 7 Years
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lawrence . V Majovski, David Breiger
The paper presents current research and important challenges for professionals in early childhood learning and the impact of global migration of displaced families. During early childhood, learning and knowledge are gained by dynamic cognitive processes of experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing and doing. Multi-sociocultural factors significantly influence what a child learns and thinks. The challenge of knowing what works for one child's learning, but might not work for another child, will be discussed. How the child satisfies a learning task's demand will be discussed from a pedagogical science perspective and practice of a dynamic process of learning versus assessment i.e. a measure of the extent of a child's learning transformation over time. A review of key research findings in the following areas will be presented: neurocognitive development and maturation; development of memory in early childhood; language/literacies and reading progress; working memory and executive functioning impact on learning and academic performance; sociocultural interactive processes; Vygotsky's and Luria's influences on dynamic processing v. performance in children's learning; maternal/familial influences on a child's learning and literacy; impact of global immigration on war-displaced children; and health conditions and poverty effects.
Safe Spaces for Aboriginal Families and Their Children: Early Literacy Learning, Cultural Representation and Engagement in an Aboriginal Playgroup
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Liam Adrian Morgan
Children’s early literacy learning is multifaceted and lays down the foundations for their overall progress throughout their school years and into later life. While most policy focus has been on formal early childhood programs and preschool attendance, for a significant proportion of Aboriginal families, informal programs can provide opportunities for Aboriginal run safe family spaces that facilitate integrated early childhood programs and services. This paper draws on data from a case study investigating the literacy practices of children urban Aboriginal backgrounds attending an informal playgroup setting. The focus on supporting early literacies while drawing on families’ strengths and their social, cultural and linguistic capital, resulted in increased engagement and literacy learning for these children and their families.
