華人母親的學習信念與共讀行為：努力有用觀與能力增進觀的比較

Chinese Mothers' Belief Systems about Learning and Shared-Reading Behaviors: The Pragmatic View of Effort vs. the Incremental View of Intelligence

親職行為除與家長信念系統、孩童特質有關，也是文化氛圍下的行為腳本。本研究藉由親子共讀情境，探討西方文獻揭舉的「能力增進觀」與推演自華人文化學習哲學的「努力永遠有用、成果沒有極限」信念是否在孩子學齡前便已嵌入母親的繪本共讀行為中，並比較這兩種信念如何受母親對幼兒氣質的既定印象之調節，而預測華人母親的共讀行為。共有50對4到5歲的幼兒與其母親參與十分鐘的共讀錄影。並以時間取樣編碼兒童中心、父母中心、及華人傳統重複熟練教學策略等三類共讀行為。母親並填寫能力增進觀、努力有用觀、及孩童氣質問卷。階層迴歸分析顯示，在控制母親教育程度與孩童性別後，能力增進觀及其與各項氣質指標的交互作用無一可預測任一類母親共讀行為。反之，在認為孩童的抑制控制較低的母親中，努力有用觀可顯著預測其展現較多知識考核與要求孩子重複熟練的華人傳統教學策略；而在認為孩童活動量較高的母親中，努力有用觀則可預測母親展現較少的兒童中心行為，且此效果在先控制了能力增進觀的變異量後仍然顯著。本研究顯示，植根於華人文化中的「努力絕對有用、且永續助長成果」的信念，在兒童早期便與母親對孩童的印象交織，在家庭中營造出具文化特色的社會情緒及學習氛圍。

Culture is transmitted both symbolically and behaviorally. The way parents teach and interact with young children may reflect the mindset about learning embedded in them by their particular culture. This study chose to test this through shared picture book reading, as it can be considered an activity either just for fun, or to develop reading capacity. We compared whether and how each of the two types of learning beliefs-the incremental view of intelligence documented in Western research versus the pragmatic view of effort rooted in the learning philosophy of Chinese culture-are manifested in Chinese mothers' shared-reading behaviors. We were especially interested in, above and beyond the variance of the incremental view of intelligence, the unique predictability of the pragmatic view of effort, which subscribes to the belief that effort never fails to improve performance even when one has already reached peak levels of performance. We also investigated the moderating effect of mothers' impression of their child's temperament on the relation between mothers' learning beliefs and parenting behaviors. Fifty dyads of 4- to 5-year-old preschoolers and their mothers participated in a ten-minute shared-reading session. The mothers' Child-Centered, Parent-Centered, and Traditional Chinese Teaching Behaviors were coded using the time-sampling method. Mothers also filled out questionnaires assessing their incremental view of intelligence and pragmatic view of effort. They also reported their child's temperament using the Children's Behavior Questionnaire-Very Short Form. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, after controlling for child sex and maternal educational level, neither the main effects of mothers' incremental view of intelligence and children's temperament nor their interaction predicted any of the three types of mothers' shared-reading behaviors. Conversely, when mothers perceived a lower level of inhibitory control in their child's temperament, mothers' pragmatic view of effort positively predicted their Traditional Chinese Teaching Behaviors. When mothers perceived their child's activity level to be high, their pragmatic view of effort predicted less Child-Centered Behaviors; this effect stayed significant even when the variance of mothers' incremental view of intelligence was statistically controlled. This research suggests that culturally rooted learning beliefs and pedagogies are interwoven with parental perceptions of their child's learning propensities, even before children start school. The dispositional, parental, and cultural factors altogether lead to a learning milieu that situates Chinese children in a culture-bound socioemotional context of learning.