ABSTRACT
This extract is taken from an influential book which seeks to modify and reinterpret the Piagetian view of children’s development outlined earlier (pp. 288-9). This re-interpretation is based partly on a number of studies with children carried out by Donaldson and her associates. One such investigation is described here and relates to children’s ability to take account of someone else’s spatial perspective. Not only is Piaget’s claim disputed, but an important point is made about factors affecting children’s performance on tasks. When a child understands what is wanted, performance is better than when the task is not clearly comprehended. This truism is tested in experimental form by Donaldson and her associates, and except for its significance for education, might have been thought to be too obvious to merit research. The extract outlines two important implications for teaching. First, if a task is outside our comprehension, if it does not make sense, then we have only our own point of view to fall back on — an egocentric view. Donaldson argues that this is the case with tests of egocentricity in understanding spatial relations in Piaget’s Three Mountains Task. A second implication is that understanding is at first specific to the context in which it occurs and in order to abstract general principles or to form what Piaget called ‘structures d’ensemble’ a child needs a variety of related experiences. Experiences of counting with acorns, buttons, peanuts and the like, as examples from the classroom, are necessary to the formation of concepts about ordinal and-cardinal number. Each separate experience, rooted in everyday life, provides the ‘aliment from which concepts develop in a fusion of nature and nurture.
