Quotations: Learning and Development

«The whole development of a person’s behavioral and knowledge base appears to be a huge process of construction with embedded phases of differentiation. Linking and objectification are the most important processes: Linking creates increasingly complex structures, objectification constantly consolidates them back into elements of high density and makes them available for incorporation into more comprehensive contexts.» (1978a, 622)

«The whole process of cognitive learning and of cognitive development is therefore to be understood as a constant repetition of the process of linking and consolidation, then reconnecting and consolidating. In this way, conceptual and operational ‘hierarchies’ emerge.» (1970e, 253)

«We interpret developments as the sum of the child’s learning processes and we claim that important developmental impetuses emanate from his social environment, especially the family, but also from school. Educators possess techniques that trigger learning processes in the child which would never emerge based on his spontaneous activities. Important mechanisms in this conscious steering of the child’s learning lie in the offer of structured behavioral role models, which, owing to his urge for action, the child imitates.» (1983a, 391)

«Every mental act is built up progressively, starting from earlier and simpler forms of reaction. Each operation has its own history. In the development of children’s thinking, one can observe how operations, starting from simple action schemata, become more and more differentiated in order to develop increasingly complex and flexible systems, which are ultimately capable of interpreting the whole universe. The teacher’s task therefore lies in creating psychological situations for a child, in which the child can build up the operations he needs to acquire. The teacher must pick up the earlier schemata which the child already possesses, and develop the new operation from these. The teacher needs to provide the material that is suitable for this mental activity and monitor whether the new operation is being sought in the desired direction.» (1951/1976, 88)

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