Essay review

✍ Scribed by C. J. Lawless

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 412 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-4277
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00124569

✦ Synopsis

To take three controversial areas -Piagetian genetic epistemology, individual differences and cognitive psychology -and attempt to bring them together as a basis for improving teaching and learning is no mean undertaking. This is a significant work which should be placed alongside those of Glaser (1978) and Lesgold et al., (1978) in the application of cognitive studies to education. For those concerned with the practical business of the design of instruction, like the present reviewer, a first reaction is likely to be one of slight disappointment at the limited and tentative nature of the practical implications which emerge. Three factors need to be borne in mind which should modify such an initial reaction. Firstly the book contains conference papers and is not a comprehensive textbook. Thus it would be unfair to expect a detailed description of the cognitive approach and its 'information processing metaphor,' though an overview might have been given in