Abstract

Although well-documented in assorted research areas, early-years stereotyping has not garnered comparable attention. Under the assumption that stereotyping can be prejudicial to the development of children’s critical thinking abilities, this paper reports on a study that examined how the pedagogical intervention of awakening to languages may develop children’s critical thinking and instill a sense of cultural relativism that encourages them to challenge stereotypes from an early age. Based on a mixed-methods research design, a psychometric test was specifically developed to tap changes in participants’ stereotyping behavior added to a follow-up interview to formulate a detailed picture of their questionnaire responses. Both the quantitative and qualitative results confirmed the hypothesized attitudinal change in the participants, turning cultural absolutes within their and across other cultures into cultural variations. In view of these findings, it follows that awakening children to languages have a transformative value of enhancing their cognitive capacity towards viewing the world critically.

摘要

尽管在各种研究领域都有据可查，但早年的刻板印象并未引起类似的关注。在陈规定型观念可能不利于儿童批判性思维能力发展的假设下，本文报告了一项研究，该研究审查了唤醒语言的教学干预如何发展儿童的批判性思维，并灌输鼓励他们挑战的文化相对主义意识。从小就成见。基于一种混合方法的研究设计，专门开发了一种心理测验，以挖掘参与者定型行为的变化，并在后续访谈中增加其对调查表回答的详细描述。定量和定性结果都证实了参与者的假设态度变化，将其内部以及跨其他文化的绝对文化转变为文化变异。根据这些发现，可以得出结论，唤醒儿童使用语言具有增强他们批判性地看待世界的认知能力的变革性价值。