Children`s Minds - Softcover

Donaldson, M

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393951014 ISBN 13: 9780393951011

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1979

Synopsis

Developmental psychologist Margaret Donaldson shows that much of the intellectual framework on which we base our teaching is misleading. We both underestimate the astonishing rational powers of young children and ignore the major stumbling block that children face when starting school. Given a setting and a language that makes sense to them in human terms, very young children can perform tasks often thought to be beyond them. The preschool child learns everything in a human situation. Only in school is he asked to acquire skills-reading, writing, arithmetic-isolated from a real-life context. This transition is difficult. The author suggests a range of strategies that parents and schools can adopt to help children. She argues that reading is even more important than we have thought it to be, since learning to read ca actually speed children through the crucial transition. This book is an essential source of guidance for parents and all who contribute to a child's education.

About this title

Review:

‘One of the most powerful, most wisely balanced and best informed books on the development of the child’s mind...Its implications for education are enormous.’ Jerome Bruner

‘A book of great, and very general significance...a classic.’ Jack Tizard

From the Back Cover:

First published in 1978, 'Children’s Minds' has become a classic inquire into the nature of human thought. Margaret Donaldson shows how thought and language originally depend upon the interpersonal contexts within which they develop, and how, given the support of such contexts, children are already skilled thinkers and language users by the time they come to school.

However, when school begins, success depends on the development of new modes of thinking. Margaret Donaldson shows what these entail and analyses the difficulties which they present. She claims that we have not fully understood the nature of these difficulties and so have not known how best to help children to deal with them. She suggests a range of strategies that can be used, arguing that the way in which reading is taught is even more important than we have supposed.

This book is essential reading for all who are interested in the development of the human mind.

"One of the most powerful, most wisely balanced and best informed books on the development of the child's mind to have appeared in twenty years. Its implications for education are enormous."
JEROME BRUNER

"A book of great, and very general significance... a classic."
JACK TIZARD

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 0393951014
• ISBN 13: 9780393951011
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176