Pedagogical Questions Empower Exploration
- Anishka Jean, Psychology, Rutgers University - Newark, Newark, New Jersey, United States
- Emily Daubert, Psychology, University of Rutgers – Newark, Newark, New Jersey, United States
- Yue Yu, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- Patrick Shafto, Rutgers University - Newark, Newark, New Jersey, United States
- Elizabeth Bonawitz, Psychology, Rutgers University - Newark, Newark, New Jersey, United States
AbstractLearners who persist through many different solutions are able to solve problems that they might otherwise not. Here, we ask whether a particular kind of prompt from a knowledgeable other, deemed “pedagogical questions”, encourage children to test out more solutions to a difficult problem-solving task as compared to prompts using direct instruction or questions posed by a naive others. Results suggest that pedagogical questioning encourages children to attempt more hypothesis-test interventions as compared to other kinds of prompts.