Reference?: The 'american problem"Hi Mary Bryson,
I hope this information is helpful.
Jean Piaget and The American Question
A Conversation with Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder
By Elizabeth Hall
Psychology Today, 1970, 3, pp 25-56
Page 30
Hall: Now that we've mentioned an American educator, may I ask what you have called "the American question"? Is it possible to speed up the learning of conservation concepts?
Page 31
Piaget: In turn may I ask the counter-question? Is it a good thing to accelerate the learning of these concepts? Acceleration is certainly possible but first we must find out whether it is desirable or harmful. Take the concept of object permanency - the realization that a ball, a rattle or a person continues to exist when it no longer can be seen. A kitten develops this concept at four months, a human baby at nine months; but the kitten stops right there while the baby goes on to learn more advanced concepts. Perhaps a certain slowness is useful in developing the capacity to assimilate new concepts.
We also know that the ease of learning varies with the developmental level of the child. In the same number of learning sessions children who have reached an advanced stage make marked progress over younger children. It apperars that there is an optimum speed of development. It you write a book too slowly it won't be a good book; if you write it too fast it won't be a good book either. No one has made studies to determine the optimum speed.
Hall: But wouldn't the optimum speed vary with the person? Some people naturally write faster than others - and write just as well.
Piaget: That's highly possible. We know the average speed of the children we have studied in our Swiss culture but there is nothing that says that the average speed is the optimum. But blindly to accelerate the learning of conservation concepts could be even worse than doing nothing.
Hall: I think we ask the American question because the ever-increasing length of education troubles us. Many of us would like to find some way to shorten those years that go into professional preparation.
Piaget: It is difficult to decide just how to shorten studies. If you spend one year studying something verbally that requires two years of active study, then you have actually lost a year. If we were willing to lose a bit more time and let the children be active, let them use trial and error on different things, then the time we seem to have lost we may have actually gained. Children may develop a general method that they can use on other subjects.
Mohamed Elhammoumi
----- Original Message -----
From: Mary Bryson
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2002 8:32 PM
Subject: Reference?: The 'american problem"
Yikes
I just got a query for a reference to "what Piaget referred to as 'the American Problem' - what can I cite for this concept?
Mary
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School is an institution built on the axiom that learning is the result of teaching. And institutional wisdom continues to accept this axiom, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Ivan Illich.
Mary Bryson, Associate Professor, ECPS, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia
Research Site: http://www.shecan.com and http://www.e-capacity.ca
Digital Studio Site: http://www.digital-studio.org
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