ABSTRACT
The similarity between embryonic development and cognitive development had been crucial for Piaget and remains implicit in many subsequent analyses of learning and cognition. Moreover, the metaphor development works both ways. Not only have educators and psychologists used models coming from embryology, but embryologists (now often called developmental biologists) take many of their metaphors from social learning. The embryological and educational use of the word development extends beyond the English language. The two German words for both development and learning are Bildung and Entwicklung. Bildung connotes a broad cultural learning involving experiences learned during life’s encounters. The Bildungsroman is the novel of life’s education; the Bildungsgeschichte is the history of an animal’s development. The term Bildungzentrum has been used to indicate a particular portion of the embryo that instructs the fate of other cells. Entwicklung connotes the actualizing of something previously present only in potential. The Entwicklungsbad is photographic developing bath. Entwicklungsmechanik is the physiology of embryonic development. In English, developmental biology uses terms such as instruction and education to describe how immature, pluripotent cells are told what cell type they are to become.
