What I Am Thinking About Now: Jin Li and Yoko Yamamoto, “When Silence is No Longer Golden: Low-income Chinese American Preschoolers’ Beliefs About Learning and their Achievement”

, Room 103

Please join us for a “What I Am Thinking About Now” presentation by Jin Li, Professor of Education and Human Development at Brown University, and Yoko Yamamoto, Visiting Assistant Professor of Education at Brown University. The title of their talk is, “When Silence is No Longer Golden: Low-income Chinese American Preschoolers’ Beliefs About Learning and their Achievement.”

Abstract: Research in child development and education consistently places Asian American children at the higher achievement end. However, most of this research is on middle-class children; very little research exists on low-income children. Our research followed 300 preschool children starting at 4 from three backgrounds: middle-class European American (EA) and both middle-class (MCA) and low-income Chinese American (LCA). To elicit their learning beliefs, we engaged each child in completing two stories with one showing a hard-working bird learning and succeeding how to fly and another depicting a bear trying to learn how to catch fish but giving up after failure. Children were also tested for their achievement in math, reading, and oral expression. We found that LCA children are behind their EA and MCA peers in developing learning beliefs (both EA mind-based and East-Asian virtue-based). LCA children are also behind their middle-class peers in math and reading achievement. Most striking is their significantly lower oral expression. In a culture that places a high premium on verbal skills, LCAs are severely disadvantaged. Implications for education policy and practice will be discussed.

RSVP: [email protected]. Snacks and caffeine will be provided.

“What I Am Thinking About Now” is an on-going informal workshop/seminar series to which faculty and graduate students are invited to present and discuss recently published work and work in progress. All are invited to attend and participate.