The Learning Belief Development Of Chinese Preschoolers

In recent years,culture has become an important influencing factor in the attention paid to children’s early learning experience at home and abroad.A large number of studies on learning show that motivation,purpose,academic achievement and performance have a great influence on learning.However,these factors can not completely explain how children learn.Some researchers shift their attention to children’s learning beliefs to explore the potential influencing factors.Children’s learning is a kind of cultural practice,in which the child’s views and attitudes towards learning actually reflect the core spirit and implication of their culture.Therefore,paying attention to Chinese children’s learning beliefs plays an important role in understanding children’s learning development and Chinese culture.Based on the open ended continual narration of the story about children’s learning(SCL),this study focuses on the following research questions :(1)what is the status quo of Chinese preschool children’s learning beliefs?(2)How do children’s learning beliefs develop and what kind of overall picture do they present?(3)How does children’s narrative ability perform in continual narration of SCL,and how does it influence children’s learning beliefs expression?(4)How do Chinese children’s learning beliefs reflect the characteristics of Chinese culture?We randomly selected 191 children aged 3-5 years old in Shanghai and collected the narrative corpus of SCL,and also,collected the questionnaire of language development,family learning environment.Subsequently,60 children selected for one-year follow-up,were acquired three waves of learning story narrative corpus and other corresponding data about language development.First of all,based on the coding and specific content analysis of children’s narration of SCL with different themes,the study obtained the characteristics of children’s learning belief development at 3-6 years old.From the perspective of learning purpose: 3-6 years old children’s cognition of learning purpose comes from their learning process,that is,their understanding of achieving goals and maintaining a positive learning attitude.The frequency on Children’s explanations about the reason why they go to school,the benefits of learning and the disadvantages of situation of play without learning were also growing.As they get older,the perception about the disadvantages of not learning declined.And the perception about the benefits of learning shifted from general to specific.In terms of learning frustration,children’s understanding of overcoming learning frustration gradually became rich and diverse with age.Children aged 3-6 owned their understanding of learning quality and paid attention to the acquisition and embodiment of learning quality.Horizontal and vertical analysis showed that children overcome learning frustration mainly from a deep understanding of learning objectives,learning process(practice and attempt),learning benefits(positive emotions)and social interaction(parental support and instruction).We found positive learning attitude is an important aspect for 3-6 years old children to solve learning conflicts.With the growth of age,the deep understanding of learning attitude and learning value is the driving force for children to solve learning conflict.On the other hand,we further argued that diverse learning strategies provide solutions for children to solve learning conflict.Secondly,the clear expression of belief benefited from the development of children’s narrative ability.The nouns and adjectives in the narration of SCL were increasing with the age of children,and the vocabulary related to learning content,learning site,learning attitude and emotion were gradually increasing and becoming three-dimensional.The structural elements and types of children’s narratives were gradually improved and enriched,and the important elements of narrative structure in story of different learning themes were not similar.The development of narrative ability made children’s expression of learning beliefs more stereoscopic and clear.Thirdly,based on the analysis and refinement of the subject content of learning beliefs,we found that Chinese children have formed an ideal image of learner in their learning beliefs.A "good kid" image appeared in every Chinese children’s mind.The image of good kid should have the following characteristics,such as owing good learning attitude,getting satisfaction from parents and teachers,willing to learn from a partner who is better than themselves.The image of the "good kid" who loves to learn embodies the characteristics of the quality orientation of learning under Chinese culture,the learning purpose of Chinese culture for oneself,the exemplary power of Chinese culture learning and so on.The image of learning loving "good kid" is gradually constructed and grown by children under the influence of long-term culture and interaction with family and kindergarten social environment.Under the cultural process and transmission,Chinese children expect to grow into such "good kid" who loves learning.Finally,the research put forward some educational suggestions as follows.In the process of learning and development,we should pay attention to the value identification of learning belief to children’s development.In the learning stage,we should create a compatible cultural learning mode for children,and form a good learning quality to support subsequent learning and development.Paying attention to the role of cultural communities and effective learning styles in children’s learning development and promoting children’s positive learning attitude are important.Combined with the construction of family education and kindergarten curriculum,we also should form a trinity education environment which pointing to children’s learning quality from the aspect of "family--child--kindergarten".