Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage (CeRCA, UMR CNRS 7295), University of Poitiers.
Department of Psychology, New York University.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2021 May;16(3):533-552. doi: 10.1177/1745691620953781. Epub 2021 Jan 29.
Classroom settings bring to light many differences between children-differences that children notice and attempt to explain. Here, we advance theory on the psychological processes underlying how children explain the differences they observe in the classroom. Integrating evidence from cognitive, social, cultural, developmental, and educational psychology, we propose that young children tend to explain differences among their peers by appealing to the inherent characteristics of those individuals and, conversely, tend to overlook extrinsic reasons for such differences-that is, reasons having to do with external circumstances and structural factors. We then outline how this in children's explanations affects their motivation and performance in school, exacerbating inequalities in achievement and making these inequalities seem legitimate. We conclude by suggesting several means of counteracting the inherence bias in children's explanations and its effects on their educational outcomes. Throughout, we highlight new directions for research on the relation between children's explanations, their motivation and achievement, and the inequalities observed in elementary school and beyond.
课堂环境揭示了儿童之间的许多差异——这些差异是儿童注意到并试图解释的。在这里，我们提出了一个关于儿童解释他们在课堂上观察到的差异的心理过程的理论。综合认知、社会、文化、发展和教育心理学的证据，我们提出，年幼的孩子往往通过诉诸个体内在特征来解释同伴之间的差异，相反，他们往往忽视造成这种差异的外在原因——也就是说，与外部环境和结构因素有关的原因。然后，我们概述了这种在儿童解释中的偏见如何影响他们在学校的动机和表现，加剧了成就上的不平等，并使这些不平等看起来是合理的。最后，我们提出了几种克服儿童解释中的内在性偏见及其对他们教育成果影响的方法。在整个过程中，我们强调了儿童解释、他们的动机和成就以及在小学及以后观察到的不平等之间关系的研究的新方向。
