LC0aVC1H

Three Visions of Educational Psychology: Sheldon H. White, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University

Themes: Background, and a Friendly Warning to “outsiders” to ask the right questions

Source: (Lawler) Cognitive Science and Education: the future within our reach: a series of Invited Talks at Purdue University, 1988-1989
This panel is linked directly from “Mentors” in the right sidebar and the Introductions page, LC0aV, which serves as a directory to all these talks.

White Abstract: Education Research: helpful outsiders & recent research
Sheldon H. White was very much an insider in the education research and public policy domains: (from his obituary, The Harvard Gazette):
“…Widely respected for his creative studies of learning and cognitive development in young children, White gained national prominence starting in the 1960s
as a contributor to major initiatives for children including Head Start, “Sesame Street,” Follow Through, and programs associated with the 1965 Elementary
and Secondary Education Act. In the early 1990s, he chaired a Head Start Research and Advisory Panel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services….”
The talk begins with his review of the history of Psychology’s incursions into Public Education issues, as a friendly warning to “outsiders” to consider deeply how
they might actually contribute to the solution of the very real problems important in Education. The conclusion? Take John Dewey very seriously (panes e-g).
In the discussion of current issues, White notes the trend of developmental psychology to focus on the social context, for its impact on the learner, and
offers suggestions about how to interpret the interaction of the learning mind with the artifacts of the designed world we all live in.