In William James’ chapter on “The Acquisition of Ideas,” I soon realized the connection with between James’ view on acquiring and applying knowledge and Jean Piaget’s theories on cognitive development. Piaget believed that acquired knowledge comes from our experiences, and the actions we do in order to adapt to our environment. Also, as a constructivist, Piaget believed that children are their own builders of intelligence.
According to James, “Constructiveness is the instinct most active; . . ., the child not only trains the muscles to co-ordinate action, but accumulates a store of physical conceptions which are the basis of his knowledge of the material world through life” (p. 72).
William James believed that students should be exposed to various forms of learning, and not just through books and lectures in school. He emphasizes the importance of hands-on learning for the growth of knowledge. Thus, through having broadening knowledge, students will be able to adapt into their environment, and keep up with society and its changes. According to Piaget’s equilibrium concept, he also believed that the knowledge we acquire should serve as the advancement in the world around us; and for which there should be a balance between the mind and the environment.
Furthermore, Piaget’s schema concepts (assimilation and accommodation) are similar to James’ theory on the acquisition of ideas. Although James does not directly give examples of each of the schema, it interested me that he used the actual name of one of them. James says, “There is a native tendency to assimilate certain kinds of conception at one age, and other kinds of conception at a later age” (p. 72). Similarly, Piaget thought that everyone has native knowledge, in which we expand by adding or changing new information into our existing knowledge we tend to get from our experiences. According to Piaget’s accommodation concept, we often change our behavior to accommodate new changes in our environment.
James explains, “As I used at our first meeting, of the child snatching the toy and getting slapped, the vestiges left by the first experience answered to so many ideas which he acquired thereby, -ideas that remained with him associated in a certain order, and from the last one which the child eventually proceeded to act” (p. 71).
This passage is similar to Piaget’s accommodation theory because James describes how a child learned to changed his behavior to better fit the situation in his favor next time he plays and interact with his peers.
In regards to applying for a job, career, or graduate school, one of the main emphases is on experience. After graduating from college with a bachelor degree, I soon realized that the hard way. Every job I applied for not only wanted a piece of paper indicating book knowledge, but they also wanted proof that I could actually do the work and not just have read about it or attended lectures on it. My father, who is an electrician for a cooperation with only a high school diploma, has expressed to me that several of the young guys he works with, have a degree, yet have trouble understanding and accomplishing their work.
Therefore, the process of obtaining an education is not only established through having a formal education, however, our experiences significantly contribute to our knowledge. As my great grandmother would always say, “It is better to have commonsense than book-sense.” Over the past several years, I finally understood what she meant. Knowledge is not always about how much information someone is gaining from a book, but it is mainly the experiences that the knowledge derived from and what a person does with the knowledge he or she has is true intelligence. The question is, if experience is significant in proving our intelligence in the society, why is there so much emphasis on standardized tests in our educational system?
References
Cherry, K. (2011). Background and key concepts of Piaget's Theory. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/a/keyconcepts.htm
Falynn,
ReplyDeleteGood connection to Piaget. I also think that it is interesting at the end of that chapter that James suggests that exposure to a topic too early can be detrimental. As a math teacher, I see that some students are ready for the abstract concepts in Algebra and some are not. However, I am required to teach Algebra to eighth graders, regardless of whether they are ready for the abstract. I try to make concrete examples and use manipulatives to help.
I totally agree with you that experience contributes to our education and provides different ways of knowing than lectures and books. I also think it’s interesting you mention applying for jobs; I would comment here that there can be a “catch-22” when job hunting with regard to experience and education. Many jobs want to know that you have both the education and previous experience in a certain field. But how can you get experience when you’ve been in school your entire life? And how can you get the education if you are working full-time? It seems as though when you are first starting out on your career path that is next to impossible to have both.
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