Week 4: Microworlds: Incubators of Knowledge, Powerful Ideas in Mind-Size Bites

“New knowledge often contradicts the old, and effective learning requires strategies to deal with such conflict”

Things to think about:

  1. When describing microworlds, Papert outlines two principles of learning –– first, relate any new idea to things that you understand, and second, make something new with the idea (e.g. play with it and build with it). With a specific idea in mind, how might we teach it in a manner more in line with these principles? What might a ‘microworld’ for this idea look like (i.e. an intellectual environment that teaches this idea through interaction and play)?

  2. Papert writes, “it is my belief that learning physics consists of bringing physics knowledge in contact with very diverse personal knowledge”. Thinking of your experience as a learner, in what ways have you found tapping into your personal knowledge helpful for learning a new idea?

  3. Chapter 5 makes the argument that in teaching math and science, we spend too much time focusing on right and wrong answers, and too little time encouraging students to creatively explore the topic and construct their own ideas. Do you agree with this assessment, and what does a shift towards the latter goal look like?

  4. In what ways has education already embraced the ideas outlined in these chapters, and shifted from ‘following the cookbook’ to a more experiential and hands-on form of learning?

  5. In Chapter 6, Papert discusses the distinction between abandoning one’s intuition and expanding one’s intuition when faced with a puzzling or contradictory situation. Describe a moment where you encountered an idea that contradicted your intuition. How did you proceed?

Cool resources/links:

Rosa:"Students cannot make a thing their own without knowing what kind of thing it is." p.125

Links:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Good_and_Evilhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V-0KfBdWaohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnVCyL9BwS8

Fun quote:  “Intuition is a suspension of logic due to impatience.” – Rita Mae Brown

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau! Mock on, mock on: 'Tis all in vain! You throw the sand against the wind, And the wind blows it back again. And every sand becomes a gem Reflected in the beams divine; Blown back they blind the mocking eye, But still in Israel's paths they shine. The atoms of Democritus And Newton's particles of light Are sands upon the Red Sea shore, Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.  - Blake


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