We invite you to join us for a conversation about Jean Piaget with two prominent psychologists, Eleanor Duckworth and William Crain. Understanding how children think and perceive the world is central to supporting children’s learning, understanding, thinking and development.
Jean Piaget is one of the most influential child developmental psychologists of the 20th century. He studied the ways children construct their ideas through their actions and experiences. He discovered that children perceive the world in ways that are unique to childhood as they learn about themselves and the world around them. Learning how to learn about children’s thinking by close observation, clinical interviewing, and interaction is the foundation for the inquiry courses offered at the CCNY School of Education.
This conversation will be of interest to students, families, classroom teachers, school leaders, psychologists, professors, and anyone else who is interested in exploring how children’s thinking develops. Come with your questions, comments, and curiosity!
This event will be a conversation between Prof. William Crain and Dr. Eleanor Duckworth. It will be introduced and moderated by Dr. Nancy Cardwell.
William Crain is a professor of psychology at The City College of New York. His work focuses on developmental theory and children’s sensitivity to the natural world. He co-founded Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary in Poughquag, NY. A long-time advocate of humane treatment of living beings and the environment, Crain wrote Reclaiming Childhood: Letting Children Be Children in Our Achievement-Oriented Society; The Emotional Lives of Animals and Children: Insights from a Farm Sanctuary; and the popular child development text Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications, which is now in its sixth edition. In 2018, he received a PETA Hero to Animals Award.
Eleanor Duckworth is a teacher, teacher educator, psychologist, and author. She earned her Ph.D.
(Docteur en sciences de l’education) at the Universite de Geneve in 1977. Her work with Jean Piaget began when they first met in 1957. She translated Piaget’s writings from French into English, making it accessible to North Americans. Duckworth worked with the Elementary Science Study and African Primary Science Program to develop curricula. These were foundational experiences that shaped her subsequent research and practice in exploratory methods in science learning. Over her career, Duckworth has developed Critical Explorations, which uses two approaches: children’s exploration of subject matter and teachers’ study of the child’s thinking and understanding to promote understanding. Duckworth has written many articles, chapters and books; notable among these is The Having of Wonderful Ideas. Duckworth was a regular participant in the Workshop Center for Open Education.
Nancy M. Cardwell, Ph.D., is a doctoral lecturer in the early childhood education graduate program at The City College of New York with expertise in neuroscience, child development, unconscious bias reduction, and culturally and linguistically inclusive classroom practices. In her work, Nancy seeks to create learning communities where everyone is valued, welcomed, and heard. She is the co-chair of the Institutional and Academic Culture Sub-Working Group of The City College Working Group on Diversity and Inclusion. Earlier in her career, Nancy was on the graduate faculty of Bank Street College and began her education career as an early childhood classroom teacher in Central Harlem.
This event is sponsored by the School of Education of the City College of New York and the Workshop Center for Open Education Sub-committee of the Centennial Committee.
Materials we recommend for participants to read and view before the event:
- Eleanor Duckworth’s The Having of Wonderful Ideas and Tell Me More
- www.criticalexplorers.org
- William Crain’s Reclaiming Childhood: Letting Children Be Children in Our Achievement Oriented Society and The Emotional Lives of Animals and Children: Insights from a Farm Sanctuary
- Videos: “Children and Trees”, “A Pig Rescue”, and “Two Calves and a Lamb”
Last Updated: 03/22/2021 10:21