Cultural teaching: the development of teaching skills in Maya sibling interactions.

Full Abstract

Psychology has considered the development of learning, but the development of teaching in childhood has not been considered. The data presented in this article demonstrate that children develop teaching skills over the course of middle childhood. Seventy-two Maya children (25 boys, 47 girls) ranging in age from 3 to 11 years (M = 6.8 years) were videotaped in sibling caretaking interactions with their 2-year-old brothers and sisters (18 boys, 18 girls). In the context of play, older siblings taught their younger siblings how to do everyday tasks such as washing and cooking. Ethnographic observations, discourse analyses, and quantification of discourse findings showed that children's teaching skills increased over the course of middle childhood. By the age of 4 years, children took responsibility for initiating teaching situations with their toddler siblings. By the age of 8 years, children were highly skilled in using talk combined with manual demonstrations, verbal feedback, explanations, and guiding the body of younger learners. Children's developing competence in teaching helped their younger siblings increase their participation in culturally important tasks.

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Author information

Author/s: Maynard, Ashley E (AE);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Honolulu 96822, USA. amaynard(-atsign-)hawaii.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Child development (Child Dev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2002 May-Jun; vol 73 (issue 3) : pp 969-82

Dates: Created 2002/05/31; Completed 2002/11/19; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12038563, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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