“You Have to Do It Like the Duckies Hatch Their Egg”: Parent and Sibling Teaching of Conceptual and Procedural Knowledge in Early Childhood

ABSTRACT

This study investigated parents’ and siblings’ knowledge use during naturalistic teaching episodes in the home. Thirty-seven middle-class families were observed for six 90-minute sessions (siblings aged 4 and 6 years). Parent and sibling teaching sequences were coded for knowledge type (conceptual, procedural), conceptual subcategories (social conventional behavior; game discussions; academic concepts; problem solving) and procedural knowledge subcategories (game procedures; general skill procedures). Research Findings: Findings indicated no significant mean difference between mothers’ and fathers’ and older and younger siblings’ conceptual and procedural teaching. However, parents taught proportionally more conceptual knowledge than siblings, indicating that siblings taught proportionally more procedural knowledge compared to parents. In terms of conceptual subcategories, parents taught more social conventional behaviors, whereas siblings taught more academic concepts. Siblings also taught more general skill procedures compared to parents. Practice or Policy: Overall, our findings indicate that the home environment is a rich context for the naturalistic teaching of conceptual and procedural knowledge by both parents and siblings, thus advancing our understanding of the role of family dynamics on children’s learning and development.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) strategic research grants to the last author for the data collection and to the second author for the secondary analyses. The second author was also supported by the Concordia University Research Chair in Early Childhood Development and Education. We extend our gratitude to the families who participated in this study, as well as Nazila Tolooei and Ryan Persram for research assistance. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.