Abstract
Children's understanding of the concepts of teaching and learning is closely associated with their theory of mind (ToM) ability and vital for school readiness. This study aimed to develop and validate a Preschool Teaching and Learning Comprehension Index (PTLCI) across cultures and examine the causal relationship between children's comprehension of teaching and learning and their mental state understanding. Two hundred and twelve children from 3 to 6 years of age from Hong Kong and the United States participated in study. The results suggested strong construct validity of the PTLCI, and its measurement and structural equivalence within and across cultures. ToM and PTLCI were significantly correlated with a medium effect size, even after controlling for age, and language ability. Hong Kong children outperformed their American counterparts in both ToM and PTLCI. Competing structural equation models suggested that children's performance on the PTLCI causally predicted their ToM across countries.
Highlights
In a trial that eventually led to his death, Socrates defended himself by claiming: All I know is that I know nothing
The primary goal of the current study is to empirically test the relationship between children’s teaching and learning comprehension and their theory of mind (ToM) development by consolidating and validating a comprehensive teaching and learning scale for young children based on previous studies
In order to ensure the construct validity of the Preschool Teaching and Learning Comprehension Index (PTLCI), the relationships among the items and the latent factors were evaluated by confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) by means of maximum likelihood (ML) estimation
Summary
In a trial that eventually led to his death, Socrates defended himself by claiming: All I know is that I know nothing. We aimed to develop and validate a scale of young children’s understanding of the concepts of teaching and learning, an important dimension of personal epistemology (Ziv and Frye, 2004; Frye and Ziv, 2005; Ziv et al, 2008; Wang, 2010), and establish causality between young children’s comprehension of teaching and learning and their ToM ability from a cross-cultural perspective. This line of inquiry can enrich our understanding of school readiness and pedagogy in early childhood.
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