We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected]
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
When children ask questions, learning may occur, a connection that has led some researchers to posit that children’s questions are a mechanism of cognitive development. There is an implicit assumption of universality in this view. Yet much of the research on this topic has been conducted in cultural settings where children’s questions are encouraged and supported. In this chapter, we discuss children’s questions as a form of social and cultural behavior. We draw on theories of language socialization to emphasize how, over development, children learn to use language in ways that are appropriate in the sociocultural setting in which they live. We describe evidence from a sample of 96 three- and five-year–old children living in four traditional communities, Garifuna (Belize), Logoli (Kenya), Newars (Nepal), and Samoans (American Samoa), that suggests there may be substantial differences across developmental contexts in children’s question-asking behavior, especially questions that seek explanation. We do not take issue with the idea that children have great curiosity about the world, a characteristic that leads them to seek out opportunities for learning. Rather, we are concerned with the form this curiosity takes and its relation to the social and cultural context of development.
Recommend this
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.