Developmental Approaches To Learning

     From time to time, I find that developmental ideas of learning are extremely compelling. They suggest that children's learning unfolds from predictable levels of abstraction that occur over time. Bob Samples (1976) has talked about the legacy of Piaget (p.55) in developing a linear model of how the mind transcends the sensuous to encompass successively higher levels of abstraction. Yet, Samples suggests that rather than being a natural pre-given order of things, Piaget is simply echoing a larger cultural bias toward logical, linear thinking that dominates mainly in Western society. This reminds me of a chicken and egg dilemma: does the "natural" order of learning determine cultural models, or vice versa? Because different cultures learn differently and are influenced by different language structures, I am compelled to feel that culture plays a great part in socializing and organizing the learning experience for children. What appears natural ---especially in hindsight--is most likely the result of dialectical tensions between the learner and her or his social environments. To put it plainly: because there are cultural pressures in place to learn, behave and respond in certain ways that are somewhat predetermined and somewhat negotiable, people do tend to learn roughly the same things in the same order. Even one's motivations to learn are often conditioned by what is afforded to people in the environment.

    As a child, I was fascinated by so many things--nature, astronomy, science fiction and so on. But now that I am in my forties, I feel that that part of my life is not so compelling. Although I still feel a sense of wonder about some things, my questions nowadays tend to focus more on process and practicality. A question, for me, needs to lead to some sense of purpose that goes beyond the simple pleasures of learning a subject for its own sake. All of this probably came from being socialized to think along the lines of academia, but I also think it's because my personality did change as well. I think that "development" might not be so much a sense of one stage being "better than" another, as it is the way cultures choose to select and encourage certain kinds of curiosity that most serve the greater community. This is how "pleasures" are channeled into "professions" and skills come out of interests.

Samples, B (1976),The Metaphoric Mind: A Celebration of Creative Consciousness. Reading, MA: Addison-Wellesley