Children's Learning in Social Context

Catalog description

Young children are incredible learners. In a handful of years, they become fluent speakers of a language (or more than one!) and acquire abstract, coherent concepts about the physical, natural, and social world. How is this learning possible? Informed by research, class discussions, assignments, and a collaboration with the Sciencenter, we examine children’s learning, curiosity, and exploration and how these can be shaped by their observations and interactions with others. A particular focus of this semester is on children's learning of skills associated with later entry into the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. As an engaged-learning course, we will work in collaboration with the staff of the Sciencenter ( http://www.sciencenter.org/about-us.html ), a non-profit, hands-on science museum, to examine children's learning and support their mission.