How Children Learn: A Case for EdTech Based on Jewish and General Sources

Read the article in JedTechCentral.org upon which this source sheet is based: The Rationale for Educational Technology for General and Jewish Studies

משנה אבות א׳:א׳

(א) משֶׁה קִבֵּל תּוֹרָה מִסִּינַי, וּמְסָרָהּ לִיהוֹשֻׁעַ, וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ לִזְקֵנִים, וּזְקֵנִים לִנְבִיאִים, וּנְבִיאִים מְסָרוּהָ לְאַנְשֵׁי כְנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה...

Pirkei Avot 1:1

(1) Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Yehoshua, and Yehoshua to the Elders, and the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly...

נדה ל׳ ב:ל״ט-נ״ה

דרש רבי שמלאי... ומלמדין אותו כל התורה כולה... וכיון שבא לאויר העולם בא מלאך וסטרו על פיו ומשכחו כל התורה כולה...

Niddah 30b:18-23

R. Simlai delivered the following discourse... [The embryo in the mother's womb] is taught the entire Torah... And as soon as it sees the light of the world an angel comes and strikes its mouth and causes it to forget the entire Torah...

עץ יוסף על עין יעקב

ומלמדין אותו כל התורה כולה וכו', ולכאורה מה התועלת בלימוד כיוון שמשכחין אותו? אך יבואר על פי מה שכתב האלשיך על מה שאנו אומרים "ותן חלקנו בתורתך" לפי שכל הנשמות עמדו על הר סיני וקבלו כל אחד חלקו בתורה. ולזה אמר בגמרא: יגעת ומצאת תאמין, כאדם שמוצא אבדתו לפי שהוא חלקו. ולכן אילו לא היו מלמדים אותו במעי אמו, לא היה יכול להגיע חלקו בתורתו אף על ידי יגיעותיו כמו שכתב אפלטון שלא יבין האדם כלל בדברים אשר לא קדמה בהם שום ידיעה או מחשבה, אבל מה ששמע או ראה כבר מעניניהם איזה רמז או הרהור ישוב ויזכרם... שמה שראה ושמע שם יעשה רושם בקרב אדם בכוח, אף על פי שאינו בפועל, ולכן אם יאמר לך אדם "יגעתי ולא מצאתי" – אל תאמין שזה מהנמנע

Etz Yosef on the Ein Yaakov

We teach it the entire Torah... What is the benefit of this learning since we make it forget? This is explained based on the writings of the Alshich on what we say "And give our portion in your Torah" because all the souls stood on Mount Sinai and each one accepted their portion in the Torah. That is what the Talmud means when it says, "If one made an effort and found [success in Torah learning] believe him." This is like a person who finds a lost object which is his portion. If the embryo had not been taught in its mother's womb, then it would not be able to [later] achieve its portion in the Torah even through effort. This is based on the writings of Plato that a person cannot understand things for which one does not have prior knowledge or experience. But what one hears or sees which is based on prior experience or thought will be remembered... What one sees and hears in womb [even after forgetting] makes an impression on the potential of a person even though it is not yet actualized. Therefore if someone says, "I made effort in Torah learning and did not achieve success" we do not believe him since this is impossible.

It is part of the educator’s responsibility to see equally to two things: First, that the problem grows out of the conditions of the experience being had in the present, and that it is within the range of the capacity of students; and, secondly, that it is such that it arouses in the learner an active quest for information and for production of new ideas. The new facts and new ideas thus obtained become the ground for further experiences in which new problems are presented. The process is a continuous spiral. (Dewey, 1938. Quoted in Martinez & Stager 19)

Constructivism emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, giving rise to the idea that learners are not passive recipients of information, but that they actively construct their knowledge in interaction with the environment and through the reorganization of their mental structures. Learners are therefore viewed as sense-makers, not simply recording given information but interpreting it. This view of learning led to the shift from the “knowledge-acquisition” to “knowledge-construction” metaphor. The growing evidence in support of the constructive nature of learning was also in line with and backed by the earlier work of influential theorists such as Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner. While there are different versions of constructivism, what is found in common is the learner-centred approach whereby the teacher becomes a cognitive guide of learner’s learning and not a knowledge transmitter. (From: Most Influential Theories of Learning)

“Constructionism—the N word as opposed to the V word— shares contructivism’s view of learning as “building knowledge structures”through progressive internalization of actions... It then adds the idea that this happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, whether it’s a sand castle on the beach or a theory of the universe. (Papert, 1991. Quoted in Ackerman)

The Lonely Man of Faith By Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, Page 12
Man's likeness to God expresses itself in man's striving and ability to become a creator.

It is 100 years since John Dewey began arguing for the kind of change that would move schools away from authoritarian classrooms with abstract notions to environments in which learning is achieved through experimentation, practice and exposure to the real world. I, for one, believe the computer makes Dewey’s vision far more accessible epistemologically. It also makes it politically more likely to happen, for where Dewey had nothing but philosophical arguments, the present day movement for change has an army of agents. The ultimate pressure for the change will be child power. (Papert, 1996. Quoted in Martinez & Stager 19)

I think that the great thinkers about education – the Deweys and the Piagets and the
Montessoris and the Vygotskys – they all see the same fault in our education system.
I think the differences between them are absolutely minor compared with the
situation of sticking with the system as it is. But although they had the right idea, like
Leonardo da Vinci and his airplane, they didn’t have the infrastructure to be able to
implement it. So, are we going to continue using the new technology to implement
what was only there because there wasn’t the technology? (Papert, 2006. Quoted in Martinez & Stager 24)

Works Cited

Ackermann, Edith. 2001. "Piaget’s Constructivism, Papert’s Constructionism: What’s the difference?" in Constructivism: Uses and Perspectives in Education, Conference Proceedings (Geneva Research Center in Education).

Martinez, Sylvia Libow. Stager, Gary S. Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. Constructing Modern Knowl, 2016.

Soloveitchik, Joseph Dov. The Lonely Man of Faith. Maggid Books, 2012.

UNESCO. "Most Influential Theories of Learning." United Nations, Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Accessed December 17, 2017.