What Children Bring To Light: A Constructivist Perspective On Children's Learning in Science (Ways of Knowing in Science and Mathematics Series)

By Bonnie L. Shapiro and Bonnie Shapiro

Book Overview

Bonnie Shapiro clarifies the historical development of constructivism, and employs a constructivist approach in her own methodology. To construct new ideas means to take action based on beliefs about what one is doing when one is learning science. Learning is understood not only as a cognitive experience, but also as one that derives from the emotional, personal, social, cultural, and preconceptual. These often neglected dimensions, which permeate all subject matter learning, are given high status in What Children Bring to Light. Six case studies, each emphasizing a very different reception of one teacher's introduction of the topic, light, form the core of the book. Shapiro not only analyzes this core in the book's third part, but shares the thinking that lies behind the research and data collection.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080773375X
• ISBN13: 9780807733752
• Release Date: June 1995
• Publisher: Teachers College Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

One of the "must read" books for educators

This book is a must read for all teachers. I believe that it is one of the most important books to come on the market in decades. Any teacher who believes that he/she is reaching all of the students in class need to know that the preconceptions that children hold are not only difficult to change, but are usually held secret so that teachers are unaware of the misunderstandings and beliefs of their students. This book is a delightful read and is an eye opener for anyone who works with children. I rate it at the top of books that have influenced my work over the last several decades.