week 4

Donaldson 4 compatibility, possibility, and necessity questions that don’t sound right—failure to communicate trying to figure out what the adult intends “in any event, the questions the children were answering were frequently not the questions the experimenter had asked." (46) “an expectation about the question that would be asked” (46) the failure of Piaget to explore alternative explanations—blindered by his theory

Donaldson 5 inference familiar situations vs. contrived situations “if we cannot get children to reason when we contrive experiments, whereas we can observe them reasoning spontaneously, the we must ask why." (53) if and if and only if. “even the youngest children did not behave randomly” (54) children not so egocentric or limited in reasoning ability as Piaget, and others, have claimed. gap between children and adults less than many have claimed language-learning skills not isolated from rest of mental growth (56)

the basic teaching question what do we need to know about these developing children’s minds & hearts (that is, about how these children develop) in order to go about developing these children’s minds & hearts (that is, to support and direct their development)?

learning and development when new knowledge starts to make sense, then you are beginning to learn when new knowledge becomes meaningful, that is, part of who you are, then you are beginning to develop

theory and practice doubtless, skill can be improved with the aid of theory, as when we learn about the inside and outside edges of our skis, but our skiing doesn’t improve until we get that knowledge back into the skill of skiing. Knowledge helps only when it descends into habit. (Jerome Bruner, 1996, p. 152)

big questions for placement what is the big picture –why are we here (in this school etc.) –what are we really trying to do here what are our long-term goals what do the words really mean –developmental –giving kids choices