| The New
School encourages children to come up with their
own questions, to devise ways to find the
answers, and to get them. |
This idea of guidance without
constrictive control is supported by the work of
Lev Vygotsky, a Russian educational philosopher,
psychologist, and semiotician. He developed the
idea of the Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD.
It was Vygotsky's belief that children learn by
trying things just slightly outside their range
of ability, the upper end of their ZPD, and then
seeking the aid of someone more knowledgeable.
The more knowledgeable other helps the child by
letting the child do everything they can for
themselves, only interjecting with possibilities
or corrections when the child can no longer make
progress with the task. Children, by observing
the more knowledgeable other, by working with
the expert, just as an apprentice works beside
the master, learn something beyond their own
ability and so progress by expanding their ZPD. |
 This
process is dependent on children recognizing that they
are stymied, their desire to advance, and their asking a
question. In many children's educational experience,
only the first step, recognition that they are lost, is
prevalent. Deanna Kuhn (The Skills of Argument, 1991)
found that most educational programs teach about good
thinking rather than engaging children in the activity
of thinking well. Because much current educational
practice focuses on subject matter determined to be
important by the teacher or school and progresses by
children answering rather than asking questions, what
learning occurs is often superficial and
more time consuming than
it needs to be.
The New School follows a different
course. The New School,
-
Provides a secure place and enough
time for children to practice being responsible for
their lives.
-
Helps children analyze reality,
determine its nature, their relationship to it, and
its ramifications for their thoughts and actions.
-
Allows children to observe and
interact with others who are both more and less
knowledgeable than themselves in order to see and
engage in learning as a process practiced in a
variety of ways with a variety of goals.
-
Encourages children to come up with
their own questions, to devise ways to find the
answers, and to get them.
In practice, children at The New School
are fully engaged in their own learning. For instance,
should a student decide they* want to study Biology and
that, rather than working on their own, they would like
a staff member to be involved in their inquiry, the
first two questions the student must address are, why do
they want to study Biology, and what do they mean by
Biology? In the ensuing conversation between the student
and staff member, the student is required to examine and
articulate the student’s assumptions and objectives with
someone who, being the more knowledgeable other, is
intent on assisting only when truly needed in the
child’s work of developing their understanding of
Biology and their ability to think well. This
dialectical exchange which will continue through the
course of the student’s inquiry is the essence of The
New School.
*The third-person plural form is here used as a the
third-person singular generic pronoun, since the word "student" in the
School's usage denotes a group of persons as well as the condition of an
individual; see, The American Heritage Book of English Usage (1996) Sec.
18 "they with singular antecedent.".
©
1996 - December, 2011
The New School.
Last revised
09 Dec 2011 |
