Children's Minds (平装) 0006861229

"One of the most powerful, most wisely balancedand best informed books on the development of thechild's mind to have appeared in twenty years. Itsimplications for education are enormous'JEROME BRUNERFirst published in 1978, Children's Minds has become a classicinquiry into the nature of human thought. Margaret Donaldsonshows how thought and language originally depend upon theinterpersonal contexts within which they develop, and how,given the support of such contexts, children are already skilledthinkers and language users by the time they come to school.However, when school begins, success depends on thedevelopment of new modes of thinking. Margaret Donaldsonshows what these entail and analyses the difficulties which theypresent. She claims that we have not fully understood the natureof these difficulties and so have not known how best to helpchildren deal with them. She suggests a range of strategies thatcan be used, arguing that the way in which reading is taught iseven more important than we have supposed.This book is essential reading for all who are interested in thedevelopment of the human mind.'A book of great, and very general significance... a classic"-- JACK TIZARD Preface Prologue The School Experience The Ability to "Decentre" Learning Language Failing to Reason or Failing to Undentand? What Is and What Must Be What is Said and What is Meant Disembedded Thought and Social Value Why Children Find School Learning Difficult What the School Can Do The Desire to Learn The Shape of Minds to Come Appendix: Piaget's Theoey of Intellectual Developpment References Index In the course of this book I argue that the evidence now com-pels us to reject certain features of Jean Piagct's theory ofintellectual development. It may seem odd, then, if my firstacknowledgement of indebtedness is to a man whose work Icriticize. Yet the indebtedness is there and the acknowledge,.mcnt is certainly due. Many years ago he was kind enoughto wdcome me to the Institut des Sciences de l'Education inGeneva; and much of my subsequent research was stimulatedby the excitement of that first visit. If I must now reject someof his teaching, no lessening of respect for the man or for hisvast contribution to knowledge is implied. No theory inscience is final; and no one is more fully aware of this thanPiaget himaeff. I should add further that, while the earlychapters of the book propose certain re-interpretations, muchthat is said htet is, I believe, in no way incompatible withPiaget's views and has certainly been iafiuaaced by thcaa inpositive ways.During the last ten or twdve years, I have had the goodfortune to work in Edinburgh with a number of extremelyable colleagues and graduate students. In the mid-x96os Ibegan a study of pro-school children in colhboratioa withRoger Wales, George Balfour, Robin Campbell, John Taylorand Brian Young; and Eve Curme also worked with us for awhile before she married Herbert Clark and went to America,to our considerable loss. The problem then is to understand how something thatbegins so well can often end so badly. And inevitably, facedwith this problem, people turn to wondering whether school-ing really does begin as well as it seems to do or whether thebrightness of the early years carries within itself the shadowof the darkness that is to come.Thus there is pressure now for change at the lower end ofthe system. And there is real danger that this pressure mightlead to change that would be gravely retrogressive.In an article in the Times Educational Supplement of 24 June1977, Karl Heinz Gruber urges us not to be so foolish as tothrow away what we have gained. He reminds us of these gainsby drawing a vivid contrast between our own schools and theelementary schools of continental Europe, which he describesas harsh and rigid places where, from the beginning, childrenare made anxious - ill, even- by the fear of failure.We should certainly not go back to that. But having listenedto Gruber's warning and alerted ourselves to the risk of loss,we must still ask whether we are doing well enough. For thecentral problem remains. There is no denying that, in spite ofthe enlightened concern of our primary schools with happi-ness, schooling somehow or other turns into a distinctlyunhappy experience for many of our children. From it largenumbers of them emerge ill-equipped for life in our societyand inescapably aware of it. So then either they regard them-selves as stupid for failing or else, in an understandable effortto defend against this admission, they regard the activities atwhich they have failed as stupid. In either event they want nomore of these things. How can we justify a long period ofnational service which ends like that？

ISBN	0006861229
出版社	HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
作者	Margaret Donaldson
尺寸	32