I had the fabulous opportunity to listen to Dr. Meltzoff speak last night. He is the co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Science here at the UW. He had many interesting things to say about the work they are doing with young children there and their new MEG (magnetoencephalography) machine that measures the magnetic changes of the brain outside the skull! Basically children can move around a bit and still provide invaluable information.
The main thing that I want to share here is that when asked if their work refutes or supports Piaget's constructivist theories of development, he went on at length to say that their research mostly supports Piaget's ideas. He actually was able to speak with Piaget before he died about one discovery that did refute his work somewhat - the power of imitation in learning. He said that Piaget took the information in eagerly and waxed on about its implications.
Dr. Meltzoff talked a fair bit about cultural stereotypes and their developmental influence on children from a young age. He strongly recommends that we think carefully about what we communicate to our children through choices we make in what we say, purchase, place on walls, read, listen to, etc.. They have documented how these pernicious messages can actually change interest and performance! He recommends a new book on this: Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us by Claude Steele.
That is all for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment