Collaborative Research: The Role of Culture and Experience in Children's Understandings of the Biological World

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

The current project is designed to discover how fundamental biological concepts are understood in different learning contexts and across different cultural groups. Mainstream European-American and Native-American populations are compared to discover how concepts of the natural world are shaped by different belief systems and practices; urban and rural populations are compared to discover how both direct contact with the natural world and exposure to popular media influence learning and reasoning. The investigators attempt to tease apart: a) various sources of environmental input (e.g., habitual contact with the natural world, native language, and belief systems); b) various formal and informal contexts (e.g., school and home settings); and c) various media of transmission (e.g., books, videos, and conversation). The research protocol includes an array of categorization and reasoning tasks that have been adapted to suit the cultural profiles of each community. In addition, the project involves an analysis of the cultural practices and the input that parents and teachers provide to children. Focal content points of this proposal are children's intuitions about the place of humans in the natural world (e.g., anthrocentrism) and their tendency to engage in ecological or taxonomic reasoning. An integral component of this research program is its integration of members of under-represented communities and building of infrastructures to support their lasting involvement in research.