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Young Children’s Recognition of the Intentionality of Teaching
Author(s) -
Ziv Margalit,
Solomon Ayelet,
Frye Douglas
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01186.x
Subject(s) - imitation , psychology , intentionality , theory of mind , perception , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , teaching method , learning theory , cognitive development , cognition , social psychology , mathematics education , epistemology , philosophy , neuroscience
Two studies examined the role of intention in preschoolers’ understanding of teaching. Three‐ to 5‐year‐olds judged stories in which there was an intention to teach or not (teaching vs. imitation) for 4 different learning outcomes (successful, partial, failed, and unknown). They also judged 2 stories with embedded instructional intent (e.g., guided discovery learning) and several standard theory of mind tasks. There was an age‐related change in the understanding of teaching. Five‐year‐olds distinguished teaching from imitation and recognized guided discovery learning. Understanding of imitation and false belief was related. The findings indicate that theory of mind is relevant to other means of knowledge acquisition besides perceptual access and that understanding intention could help young children to recognize instruction and identify its different forms.