Re: Stone article

Robin Harwood (HARWOOD who-is-at UConnVM.UConn.Edu)
Wed, 01 May 96 06:57:28 EDT

Dewey writes:
>strongly. The data is in strong contradiction that college students
>understand the physics spoken in typical physics lectures. Instead it
>strongly supports the clear superiority of interactive experiences in
>physics classes.

Thanks for your thoughts here, Dewey! I've always believed that
my undergrads learn child psychology better when I structure
interactive experiences into the course. I guess one of the questions
we were toying with on the list was whether a discussion format
qualifies as a more engaging interactive experience than a lecture
format...

> recommend caution using what is claimed to be the 'Piagetian framework of
> "concrete operational" thought versus "formal operational" thought.' This
> version of Piaget was popularized by people who apparently neither
> understood his beliefs concerning the nature of knowledge nor that he lived
> an worked and evolved his notions several decades _after_ trying to

I agree with your recommendation for caution, but would be interested
in hearing more about how you would characterize differences in child
and adult learning, if any.

Robin