Our next LuCiD seminar is on Tuesday 11th January this time at 10.30am (UK time). Prof Nivedita Mani (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) will talk about Curiosity-driven learning in early childhood.
Abstract: Curiosity-driven theories of learning highlight the notion of children as “little scientists” (Papert, 1999; Piaget, 1952; Gopinik, 1996), who actively shape their learning experience by selectively sampling from the barrage of information available to them. Empirical research on young children’s learning convincingly demonstrates that children actively solicit what they want to learn, when they want to learn and whom they want to learn from (Mani & Ackermann, 2018). In this talk, I will present a series of studies examining the extent to which children’s interest in learning about particular aspects of their environment, their intrinsic motivation to learn and their engagement in a task influences their word learning success. At the same time, I will embed these findings in studies showing that learning takes place in dynamic sociocultural contexts where children, like social apprentices (Vygostky, 1978), learn from optimal models who are already in possession of the information they are after. Bringing these two research streams together, this talk will characterise learning as a dynamic mutual interaction between the child - and what she knows and what she is interested in - and the social context in which learning takes place.
How to join the seminar: Our seminars are currently online, free to attend & booking isn't required, just get in touch to request the zoom link or to join the seminar mailing list.