Mothers' Interactions with Children Doing Mathematics

专家们继续谴责美国儿童在标准化数学考试中的糟糕表现。 数百项研究调查了学校正式环境中的数学学习，包括分析师生互动和教师在教学中使用的最佳方法。 相比之下，在家庭中的非正式数学学习很少受到研究的关注，并直接分析涉及数学问题的亲子互动很少有人尝试。 这项研究的主要目的是研究母亲帮助五年级和七年级的孩子解决数学问题的情况。 研究人员开发了一种标准化的数学任务，可以在家中使用笔记本电脑进行管理。 母亲和孩子的互动将被录像和编码。这种方法基于认知社会学习理论和维果茨基的前提，即儿童的智力发展在很大程度上植根于儿童的社会环境，或者罗格夫所说的思维学徒期。

Experts continue to decry the poor performance of American children on standardized mathematics tests. Hundreds of studies have investigated mathematics learning in the formal setting of the school, including analyses of teacher-student interactions and best methods for teachers to use in instruction. In contrast, informal mathematics learning in the home has received little research attention, and direct analyses of parent-child interactions involving math problems have seldom been attempted. The primary purpose of the proposed research is to study mothers as they help their 5th and 7th grade children with math problems. The researchers developed a standardized mathematics task that can be administered in the home using a laptop computer. Mother-child interactions will be videotaped and coded. The approach is based on cognitive social learning theory and Vygotsky's premise that the child's intellectual development is heavily rooted in the child's social environment, or what Rogoff calls an apprenticeship in thinking.