The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery
Motivated by computational analyses, we look at how teaching affects exploration and discovery. In Experiment 1, we investigated children’s exploratory play after an adult pedagogically demonstrated a function of a toy, after an interrupted pedagogical demonstration, after a naïve adult demonstrated...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
Elsevier B.V.
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60992 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 |
| _version_ | 1826196629065039872 |
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| author | Bonawitz, Elizabeth Shafto, Patrick Gweon, Hyowon Schulz, Laura E. Goodman, Noah D. Spelke, Elizabeth |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Bonawitz, Elizabeth Shafto, Patrick Gweon, Hyowon Schulz, Laura E. Goodman, Noah D. Spelke, Elizabeth |
| author_sort | Bonawitz, Elizabeth |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Motivated by computational analyses, we look at how teaching affects exploration and discovery. In Experiment 1, we investigated children’s exploratory play after an adult pedagogically demonstrated a function of a toy, after an interrupted pedagogical demonstration, after a naïve adult demonstrated the function, and at baseline. Preschoolers in the pedagogical condition focused almost exclusively on the target function; by contrast, children in the other conditions explored broadly. In Experiment 2, we show that children restrict their exploration both after direct instruction to themselves and after overhearing direct instruction given to another child; they do not show this constraint after observing direct instruction given to an adult or after observing a non-pedagogical intentional action. We discuss these findings as the result of rational inductive biases. In pedagogical contexts, a teacher’s failure to provide evidence for additional functions provides evidence for their absence; such contexts generalize from child to child (because children are likely to have comparable states of knowledge) but not from adult to child. Thus, pedagogy promotes efficient learning but at a cost: children are less likely to perform potentially irrelevant actions but also less likely to discover novel information. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:30:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/60992 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:30:44Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | Elsevier B.V. |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/609922022-09-27T09:51:55Z The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery The double-edged sword of pedagogy: Teaching limits children’s spontaneous exploration and discovery Bonawitz, Elizabeth Shafto, Patrick Gweon, Hyowon Schulz, Laura E. Goodman, Noah D. Spelke, Elizabeth Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Schulz, Laura E. Gweon, Hyowon Schulz, Laura E. Motivated by computational analyses, we look at how teaching affects exploration and discovery. In Experiment 1, we investigated children’s exploratory play after an adult pedagogically demonstrated a function of a toy, after an interrupted pedagogical demonstration, after a naïve adult demonstrated the function, and at baseline. Preschoolers in the pedagogical condition focused almost exclusively on the target function; by contrast, children in the other conditions explored broadly. In Experiment 2, we show that children restrict their exploration both after direct instruction to themselves and after overhearing direct instruction given to another child; they do not show this constraint after observing direct instruction given to an adult or after observing a non-pedagogical intentional action. We discuss these findings as the result of rational inductive biases. In pedagogical contexts, a teacher’s failure to provide evidence for additional functions provides evidence for their absence; such contexts generalize from child to child (because children are likely to have comparable states of knowledge) but not from adult to child. Thus, pedagogy promotes efficient learning but at a cost: children are less likely to perform potentially irrelevant actions but also less likely to discover novel information. 2011-02-18T20:31:35Z 2011-02-18T20:31:35Z 2011-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0010-0277 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60992 Bonawitz, Elizabeth, et al. "The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction Limits Spontaneous Exploration and Discovery." Article in press in Cognition. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.10.001 Cognition Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf Elsevier B.V. MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Bonawitz, Elizabeth Shafto, Patrick Gweon, Hyowon Schulz, Laura E. Goodman, Noah D. Spelke, Elizabeth The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery |
| title | The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery |
| title_full | The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery |
| title_fullStr | The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery |
| title_short | The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery |
| title_sort | double edged sword of pedagogy instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60992 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 |
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