chapter 6

Why don't school make most courses discussion based? This chapter shows how language and our interaction with other people helps our cognitive development. In looking at the move from merely seeing other humans as having intentions to having beliefs that can be different from their own we can see that language plays a huge role in that. Children learn through listening to adults that causation counts as a proper explanation of things and this then forms the child's belief that people are related to the shaping and changing of the environment around them. They continue to develop the understanding of others as having different beliefs and knowledge bases through confusion over the meaning of utterances in conversations. Children also do better on various tests of cognitive development when asked to work with other kids like the example of whether the taller glass has more water than the wider glass or not. When paired in groups where one believes the taller glass does and the other believe the wider glass does the children are able to see the problem better. Also through talking problems through children reach better answers than they do if only asked for the answer. All of this suggests to me that humans develop best when allowed to discuss problems and ideas with others and work them out rather than just listening to a lecture or reading a text book.