Impact of Teacher's Mental State Talk on Young Children's Theory of Mind: A Quasi-Experiment Study

Jianfen Wu; Minmin Liu; Wenqi Lin

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.668883

Frontiers in Psychology (Mar 2021)

Impact of Teacher's Mental State Talk on Young Children's Theory of Mind: A Quasi-Experiment Study

Jianfen Wu,
Minmin Liu,
Wenqi Lin

Affiliations

Jianfen Wu: School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
Minmin Liu: Hangzhou Qiantang Jiangchao Kindergarten, Hangzhou, China
Wenqi Lin: School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.668883
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 12

Abstract

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This study investigated the relationship between teachers' mental state talk and young children's theory of mind with a quasi-experiment. In total, 56 young children were assigned to the experiment group (meanage = 41 months, SD = 2.47, 46% girls) and the control group (meanage = 40.68 months, SD = 2.23, 43% girls). The experiment group was engaged in a 12-week intervention program with mental state talk in storytelling, casual conversations, and role-playing games, whereas the control group received no interventions. All the children were tested with three theory of mind (ToM) tasks before and after the intervention. The results indicated that the experimental group had a significant improvement in the ToM scores, whereas the control group showed no significant change. The educational implications of these findings are discussed.

Published in Frontiers in Psychology

ISSN: 1664-1078 (Online)
Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Philosophy. Psychology. Religion: Psychology
Website: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology

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