Customer Reviews

The Having of Wonderful Ideas: And Other Essays on Teaching and Learning

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is excellent. It is an important read for teachers today. As an educator it is extremely disheartening to see the direction of education being driven today by politicians, rather than parents and teachers. Ms. Duckworth redirects are attention where it belongs, on the students & how they learn. This book gets us (teachers) thinking about the kind of classroom culture we want to create for our children. It is about what we value as educators. Don't mistake it for a quick reference, how-to book. This is not meant to be a outline of various lesson plans to try out with your class. It is more thoughtful than that and more important

For me, the real strength of this book is the way the presence of Eleanor Duckworth shines through her writing. I liken it more to the beacon provided by a lighthouse than to a how-to manual that describes rowing techniques. The clear direction that shown through for me was that learning is complex, and that teacher behaviors must be equally complex, but the guiding light is simple: Listen to and respect the learner and respond with your whole person, and the learning that needs to happen will occur, for both partners in the process.

Eleanor Duckworth is an amazing inspiration to teachers. This book is an exploration of what it means to know something, and how teachers should listen to their students. This may sound simple, but every teacher knows that it is not simple. Eleanor is able to enlighten a sense of wonder in her reader in an un-pretensious manner. Each chapter leaves you excited and amazed at the complexity of the learning process.

As a parent and teacher, I strongly recommend this book to everyone concerned about children's learning. The main point of the main essay is that when children think and come up with their own ideas, it's the same fundamental process that scientists do when they are doing science, what inventors do when they are inventing, what creative artists do when they are creating, etc. Although the ideas may not seem like much to us (and may, in fact, turn out to be incorrect), they often seem wonderful to the children--and we should be supportive of children having ideas, rather than squelching them because it can be helpful in their learning. Moreover, Duckworth believes that children who are encouraged to generate ideas are more likely to grow up to be adults who come up with ideas that are true innovations in science or art, and that the world will benefit from them.

I needed to get this book as its part of the required text for this course I am taking. I thought that the text would not be engaging (academic texts are rarely so) but I was pleasantly surprised that this book is written in such a way that is so accessible, and allows me to imagine how I can do some of the things mentioned back in the classroom (conditions permitting)! The book strips me of my preconceived ideas about pedagogy as it is written by people who have practiced, and affirm the critical exploration pedagogy. Worth a read even for school administrators on the possibilities.

This books makes clear why the curricular, memorize and test methods of teaching STEM subjects in our public and private schools K-16 are failing so drastically. Eleanor Duckworth, a student of Piaget's, and expert on teaching science, wrote this over 30 years ago. The downward curve in teaching science has deepened sharply since this warning was first published.

Duckworth's colelction of essays that is a powerful reminder to educators that there is no one way of coming to understand, coming to know. Often the educators perspective is the one that dominates in the learning dynamic and yet we are reminded through these essays that the perspective of the learner is a critically important piece in communicating understanding. In the rush for accountability and the questionable dominance of test oriented assessment, it is important to be reminded there are multiple ways of demonstrating understanding. Duckworth provides a very readble reminder for educators that we are more facilitators of understanding than deliverers of knowledge.

Although the book was inciteful, it seemed to be a little less than original. As a result of studying under Jean Piaget, Eleanor Duckworth (author of the Having of Wonderful Ideas) learned a great deal about cognitive development. However, her ideas for the book and her foundation for the book was simply restating much of Piaget's work adding her own interpretations here and there. Many of these "interpretations" were quite helpful in further understanding Piaget's work, but most were not. Anyone familiar with Piaget's work might find this particular text somewhat repetitive.

This book is packed with the interesting observations derived from much experience.
"Knowing enough about things is one prerequisite for wonderful ideas." P.14.

I agree with all the other reviews, good and bad - which in some sense is in agreement with a point ED makes. We must seek out everyone's different ways of understanding. Ironic. Reminds me somewhat of Daniel Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence" in this regard.

"(P)eople sometimes use language that goes far beyond their thoughts. Some people can dazzle us with elaborate words when they do not really know what they are talking about." (p. 17). (But remember the Postmodern Generator!) I wonder how much familiarity with philosophy of language educators attempting to understand language learning in children have. A look at the references reveals no sign of folks like Quine, Wittgenstein, or even Chomsky. This alone suggests what benefit there might be in interdisciplinary efforts. Contemporary understanding of the nature of language shared with those who have practical experience teaching children and vice versa. Imagine what Wittgenstein might have said about the section on "Language and Thinking" (p. 16- 18) and on "Constructing What We Know" (p. 18-22) "In order to know something, or to think about something, then, we do not have to use words." or "Logic Is Deeper Than Language"! This is too much fun. One book that discusses a similar comparison is "Wittgenstein, Mind and Meaning: Towards a Social Conception of Mind" by Meredith Williams, as well as in "Constructive Evolution: Origins and Development of Piaget's Thought" by Michael Chapman. It seems that Piaget was influenced only by the earlier Wittgenstein when the later Wittgenstein would have been a much better fit. This seems so apparent to some that aspects of Piaget (genetic epistemology) are a "closed chapter in the history of science." (p. 127 in "Piaget-Vygotsky: The Social Genesis of Thought" by Anastasia Tryphon.

But this seems very good advice: "Words that people hear-and the younger the child is, the stronger the case-are taken into some thoughts that are already in their minds, and those thoughts may not be the ones the speaker has in mind." (p. 22)

Although the book was inciteful, it seemed to be a little less that original. As a result of studying under Jean Piaget, Eleanor Duckworth (author of "The Having of Wonderful Ideas") learned a great deal about cognitive development. However, her ideas for the book and her foundation for the book were simply restating much of Piaget's work adding her own interpretation here and there. Many of these "interpretations" were quite helpful in further understanding Piaget's work, but most were not. Anyone familiar with Piaget's work might find this particular text a little redundant. Nevertheless, her "twist" on Piaget's theories may be helpful, so try it for yourself.