Alison Gopnik, co-author of the must-read book The Scientist in The Crib, has a recent article on Slate.com reporting on two studies coming out soon that show direct instruction can limit children's learning, because children come to depend on the teacher to show them what is worth knowing or exploring about a given topic. As Gopnik write, "These assumptions [that what a teacher explains is only what is worth learning] lead children to narrow in, and to consider just the specific information a teacher provides. Without a teacher present, children look for a much wider range of information and consider a greater range of options." This makes inherent sense to me, and has important implications about the transference of cultural values and biases between generations, but because I also believe that there is a role for direct instruction in a classroom, I look forward to looking at the actual research itself to understand the design of the experiments.
On a related note, here's an article on play from the NY Times that I was just forwarded.
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