Teaching is the primary way children learn about the world. However, successful learning involves recognizing when teaching is ineffective, even in the absence of overt cues, and divesting from ineffective teaching to explore novel solutions. Across three experiments, we investigated 7- to 10-year-old children's ability to recognize ineffective teaching; we tested the hypothesis that girls may be less likely than boys to divest by exploring new solutions, given documented gender differences in socialization toward conformity and obedience. Overall, we demonstrate that children independently tested taught solutions and, upon learning that the solutions were ineffective, rationally traded off between instruction and exploration. Simultaneously, gender differences in divestment emerged. On average, girls demonstrated greater persistence in applying the taught solution, while boys tended to explore their own ideas, leading to differences in solving and learning. Importantly, these differences were observable across both masculine- and feminine-stereotyped tasks. These results have important implications for children's learning and the development of leadership. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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与男孩相比，女孩更坚持，但从无效的教学中撤资的次数更少。


教学是孩子们了解世界的主要方式。然而，成功的学习包括识别教学何时无效，即使没有明显的暗示，并从无效的教学中撤出以探索新的解决方案。在三个实验中，我们调查了 7 至 10 岁儿童识别无效教学的能力;我们检验了女孩可能比男孩更不可能通过探索新的解决方案来撤资的假设，因为有记录的社会化对顺从和服从的性别差异。总体而言，我们证明儿童独立测试了教授的解决方案，并且在了解到解决方案无效后，在教学和探索之间进行了合理的权衡。与此同时，撤资中的性别差异也出现了。平均而言，女孩在应用所教授的解决方案时表现出更大的毅力，而男孩倾向于探索自己的想法，从而导致解决和学习的差异。重要的是，这些差异在男性和女性刻板印象的任务中都可以观察到。这些结果对儿童的学习和领导力的发展具有重要意义。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。