Meeting in the middle: acting and learning in social environments

In the course of a typical day, an individual child will encounter a range of social situations, all of which afford the opportunity to learn. Patient, caring adults may be engaged with them in conversation or direct instruction. Playful groups of peers may attract their attention to interesting new objects or games. Even when they are on their own, they may be exploring classrooms prepared intentionally by adults to facilitate their learning.

How do children learn in and from this changing social world? One idea is that children meet their social environments "in the middle": The more the social environment is one of direct pedagogy, the more a child has to rely upon her emerging theory of mind to learn. Conversely, the more the environment consists of social resources not directed at the child but nonetheless available to her, the more active she will be in gathering social information. This implies a need for a broader definition of social cognition, one that includes mental state inferences, active social engagement, and everything in between.

Speaker: Tamar Kushnir, Cornel University