With the resumption of face-to-face classes in schools, children have begun to ask questions about the COVID-19 outbreak not only to parents but also to teachers. However, there has not been any research examining children’s questions and teachers’ responses about the Covid-19 pandemic. The study examined 3-12-year-old children’s questions and teachers’ responses about the Covid-19 pandemic in two sociocultural contexts: Turkey and the United States. A total of 119 teachers from Turkey and 95 teachers from the United States participated in the study. Teachers completed an online survey consisting of a demographic form and a questionnaire asking them to report three questions about Covid-19 asked by children in their classrooms and their responses to these questions. We analyzed children’s questions and teachers’ responses for their type and content. We also examined whether demographic factors were associated with children’s questions and teachers’ responses. Consistent with the literature, children in the Turkish sample asked fewer explanation-seeking (i.e., why/how) questions than children in the US sample. Children asked questions about virus and precautions to teachers and teachers responded to children’s questions realistically in both cultures. We discuss these findings in relation to similarities and differences across cultures in children’s question-asking behavior when acquiring knowledge.

Abstract:Children’s picture books are important resources for parents to teach children about complex scientific phenomena such as biological concepts. As cultural products, picture books often reflect the values and ideas of the culture in which they were developed and provide a crucial socialization context. In this study, we examined picture books about COVID-19 intended for 3- to 12-year-old children published in the first year of the pandemic (2020-2021) in two sociocultural contexts: Türkiye and the US. We examined 15 books found on popular bookselling websites in Türkiye in July 2021. We examined 25 books from the US; these were the top-rated COVID-19-related children’s books on the Amazon website in July 2021. We found that books in Türkiye tended to have directives and recommendations and had more content related to authority and coping strategies than books in the US. In contrast, books in the US tended to provide explanations and had more emotional content. Moreover, the presentation of anthropomorphism was more common in Turkish books (22%) than in American books (2.5%). These findings highlight similarities and differences in the content and communication styles of the books in the two cultures. Implications of this work suggest that books are important socialization tools that parents can use to help their children better understand the COVID-19 pandemic in particular and the virus and health-related issues in general.