Scaffolding preschool children’s problem solving: A comparison between Chinese mothers and teachers across multiple tasks

Abstract

This study compared Chinese mothers' and teachers' scaffolding of preschool children in different problem solving tasks. Participants were 57 children (including 29 girls) from seven kindergartens in Beijing, their mothers and teachers. Mothers varied in educational levels while all teachers were professionally qualified. Children solved four problems (supermarket, jigsaw puzzle, worksheet, and map) with their mothers and four comparable ones with their teachers. These tasks were appropriate for Chinese five-year-olds and differed in terms of dependence on verbal guidance, explicit learning content, contextual information, and complexity. Twenty-eight children worked with their mothers first; the problems were presented in the same order for both sets of dyads. Problem solving episodes (n = 228) were videotaped and transcribed. An interaction turn was the unit of analyses. Results indicated that teachers gave higher-level cognitive support and emotional feedback than did mothers. Mothers with more education provided more optimal scaffolding than those with less education; but teachers' scaffolding for these two groups of children rarely differed. Both mothers and teachers adjusted their scaffolding as a function of task characteristics but teachers were more sensitive to task characteristics than mothers. Possible reasons for these results are discussed.

An exploration of the participation of kindergarten-aged Hong Kong children in extra curricular activities

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Parent–Child Math Talk About Fractions During Formal Learning and Guided Play Activities

“…Given the limitations of both observational and survey-based research on parent-child math engagement, there is a need for research that manipulates activity context, but only a few studies have examined contextual effects on parent-child math engagement. Sun and Rao (2012) compared mothers' scaffolding of preschoolers during playful and school-like contexts; however, the contexts utilized two activities-a jigsaw puzzle and arithmetic worksheet-that differed substantially in math content, making it difficult to directly compare the quality and quantity of parent math talk across contexts. To our knowledge only one study has compared two different activities designed to tap into the same math concept.…”

A Play-responsive Early Childhood Education didaktik

“…The concept of scaffolding is prevalent in many analyses of and discussions about early childhood education and children's learning and development (e.g., Sun & Rao, 2012;van de Pol & Elbers, 2013). Conceptualizing interaction in terms of changing division of labor has proven illuminating of strategies employed in supporting new insights and abilities in children.…”