3V0216.02 Social context of learning (8/26/78)

Relevance: I see this example as an outstanding example of how a child could discover ideas such as object permanence in a most incremental fashion in the midst of social situations — especially in children’s play with each other. when the older child draws out a simple situation to keep a baby doing something more interesting than mouthing everything in reach, that child will play with what the baby desires and pushing at the boundaries of the baby’s ignorance — so the baby may be surprised and delighted — but babies learn quickly and can’t be surprised the same way forever.

This is an example of intrusive, socially driven learning. The perspective in which this is seen as important agrees then that learning in a social situation is most affected by the quality of the play. Having people around is not what’s important. Hugging the baby is not the factor that directly promotes learning. the active/interactive play where the more learned uses his understanding of the less learned’s knowledge prods the less learned kid into situations where insights are likely to occur.

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