Howard Steven James, Vasseleu Elena
Early Start & School of Education, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jan 23;11:49. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00049. eCollection 2020.
While the early years are often regarded as a critical period for establishing and supporting the developmental trajectories of delayed and typically developing children, they also represent a critical time for advanced learners. Yet to support advanced learners, a better understanding of sources and mechanisms of precocious early learning is needed. While there is ample research separately indicating importance of executive functions (EFs) and self-regulation for learning more broadly, it remains unclear whether, which, and to what extent EFs and/or self-regulation might account for the incidence of advanced learning in the prior-to-school years. The current study sought to investigate the EFs and self-regulation of 214 3- to 5-year old preschoolers, to better understand the profile of these abilities amongst advanced compared to non-advanced learners. Measures of self-regulation, EF and academic learning were taken at the start of the final pre-school year, and academic learning was assessed again at the end of the year. Results indicated that consistently advanced learning was predicted by socio-demographic factors (age, socioeconomic context), stronger cognitive development (combined EFs, cognitive aspects of self-regulation), yet lower behavioral self-regulation ratings. Results thus identify a profile of cognitive and behavioral characteristics of advanced early learners, which potentiates early identification and helps to clarify the nature and underpinnings of advanced early learning. It also raises questions about whether lower levels of behavioral self-regulation might constrain learning (e.g., difficulty remaining within the structures and sequences of the situation) or is a hallmark that is promotive of learning (e.g., convergent thinking, creativity).
虽然早年通常被视为确立和支持发育迟缓儿童以及发育正常儿童发展轨迹的关键时期，但对超前学习者来说也是至关重要的阶段。然而，要支持超前学习者，就需要更好地理解早熟早期学习的来源和机制。虽然有大量研究分别表明执行功能（EFs）和自我调节在更广泛学习中的重要性，但EFs和/或自我调节是否、哪些以及在何种程度上可能导致学前阶段的超前学习发生率，仍不明确。本研究旨在调查214名3至5岁学龄前儿童的EFs和自我调节能力，以更好地了解与非超前学习者相比，超前学习者的这些能力特征。在学前最后一年开始时进行自我调节、EFs和学业学习的测量，并在年底再次评估学业学习情况。结果表明，社会人口统计学因素（年龄、社会经济背景）、更强的认知发展（综合EFs、自我调节的认知方面）能够预测持续的超前学习，但行为自我调节评分较低。因此，研究结果确定了超前早期学习者的认知和行为特征，这有助于早期识别，并有助于阐明超前早期学习的本质和基础。这也引发了关于较低水平的行为自我调节是会限制学习（例如，难以维持情境的结构和顺序）还是促进学习的标志（例如，聚合思维、创造力）的问题。
