An experimental program is starting to
provide very promising results among children as they grow up. Many different
theories have been tested, focusing primarily on academic curricula and
teaching based on reward and punishment. The goal has been to raise IQ levels
and start the academic model of learning in a classroom setting at a very young
age.
Over the past few years, however, Deborah Leong and Elena
Bodrova have started a program called “Tools of the Mind”, founded on the
Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s principles in the 1930s. The element that
differentiates this method from its counterparts is that the objective is no
longer to raise IQ but to improve the control of cognitive and emotional
impulses, in other words, to train and increase willpower. Self-regulation has
been found to be more malleable and a more indicative index of future success than IQ. Their method consists of engaging kindergarten-aged children in complex play under
the form of “make-believe”. As they take on the roles of fictional characters,
they are constrained by a whole set of social norms and conventions and must
act accordingly. A child told to stand still can only do so for approximately a
minute, but when he is told that he is a guard and must stand still to protect the
fort, he can hold out for almost four.
The issue this raises is whether the benefits outweigh the
risks of psychologically testing different methods and philosophies on young
children with the goal of raising their SAT scores by a few points ten of
fifteen years down the line. Although there is no physical harm to their
development, children are heavily influenced by their surroundings especially
in the pre-school age range, and methods that were once all the rage have now
produced a generation that is raising their own children in a completely new and “better” way. There is obviously no other way to test developmental and child
psychology other than to apply it, but the results (only seen
decades later once the child is grown up) are sometimes ambiguous and
subjective, when it comes to evaluating social skills for instance. Raising a child is a delicate topic, and the choice to enroll them in pre-schools that
test experimental learning methods should be carefully thought out.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27tools-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27tools-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
1 comment:
Improving kids’ self-regulation seems like a great approach. Kids have different IQ levels, which are largely based on genetics, but ability to focus and work hard can be improved, and luckily, in most cases, working hard can make a big difference. As a result, Tools of the Mind seems like a great program. Unfortunately, studies of Tools of the Mind have found that while Tools classrooms encourage mature play and increase kids’ ability to talk about their play, the children in Tools classrooms are no better at self-regulating than those in non-Tools classrooms. This suggests that Tools classrooms are structured differently than regular programs and do affect how children can play, but these effects do not carry over to have the desired results on self-regulation.
Despite these discouraging results, I would encourage further experimental child development programs that target kids’ ability to self-regulate. As we discussed in class, prescriptions for drugs to help kids focus have risen in recent years, and students and professionals without prescriptions are often compelled to obtain drugs illegally to help them focus on their work. In some cases, these drugs may be needed, but in many cases, they are not (given that prescriptions for these drugs have risen substantially and people obtain drugs illegally).
Finding ways to encourage students’ confidence in their natural ability to self-regulate could help to combat this ever-increasing use of drugs to control impulses. Helping kids to develop their skills at self-regulating from an early age might therefore help in two ways. First, ability at self-regulating is important for academic success, as Marta mentioned. Second, learning natural self-control skills would hopefully make students less likely to seek non-internal means (drugs) to aid their ability to focus in later years.
Thus, programs like Tools of the Mind are valuable, and further experimental attempts to improve self-regulation in children are warranted, even if Tools of the Mind has not yet achieved success.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2012/03/tools_of_the_mind_shows_lacklu.html
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