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????父母大人們，你們是不是不喜歡孩子在得到答案以后還想知道“為什么”？老師大人們，前排孩子層出不窮的問(wèn)題是不是快把你們逼瘋了，因?yàn)槟銈冞€要趕著完成州府規(guī)定的當(dāng)日教學(xué)計(jì)劃。如果是這樣，你們大概不會(huì)喜歡保羅?哈里斯倍受爭(zhēng)議的新書《耳聽(tīng)為實(shí)》（Trusting What You're Told）。在書中，這位來(lái)自哈佛大學(xué)（Harvard）的教育學(xué)教授向認(rèn)知發(fā)展理論的傳統(tǒng)觀念發(fā)起了挑戰(zhàn)。曾幾何時(shí)，人們認(rèn)為孩子是“搖籃里的科學(xué)家”，通過(guò)觀察來(lái)學(xué)習(xí)，而哈里斯則認(rèn)為孩子們是小小的人類學(xué)家，他們向“可靠”的“信息提供者”學(xué)習(xí)，而且這種學(xué)習(xí)的效果最佳。舉個(gè)例子，正是通過(guò)這種方式我們才認(rèn)識(shí)到地球是圓的。哈里斯的研究結(jié)論在很大程度上不同于當(dāng)代課堂教學(xué)的模式。恰恰相反，哈里斯要求的是口齒伶俐的老師——有人也許會(huì)想到羅杰斯先生（美國(guó)兒童電視之父），認(rèn)為他就是教師的典范——和充滿耐心的父母?！敦?cái)富》雜志（Fortune）撰稿人戴維?卡普蘭最近對(duì)哈里斯進(jìn)行了專訪，他們討論的話題是，傾聽(tīng)是否比動(dòng)手學(xué)習(xí)更加重要。

????我認(rèn)為教育的關(guān)鍵之一是鼓勵(lì)孩子們閱讀——引導(dǎo)他們成為小科學(xué)家。

????根據(jù)認(rèn)知發(fā)展理論的描述，兒童善于鉆研，愛(ài)好讀書，對(duì)此我沒(méi)有疑問(wèn)。我所質(zhì)疑的是來(lái)自盧梭、皮亞杰以及蒙臺(tái)梭利等人描繪的兒童形象，他們認(rèn)為兒童是親自動(dòng)手的實(shí)驗(yàn)者。這種看法未免過(guò)于狹隘。

????大多數(shù)低年級(jí)兒童對(duì)動(dòng)手情有獨(dú)鐘，不是嗎？

????不妨想想蒙臺(tái)梭利課堂，孩子們拿到一堆積木就拼裝起來(lái)。在孩子們眼中，這些積木可以從矮到高按照某種順序搭建。如果世界有秩序可尋，這一方法還比較管用，但是如果身邊無(wú)章可循，這種方法就會(huì)失效。

????孩子們從哪里獲得信息？

????老師，父母，還有專家。他們最終會(huì)更加信賴其中的某些人。然而，我描繪的不只是兒童形象。我們所有人其實(shí)都受困于一個(gè)現(xiàn)實(shí)，那就是我們自己獲得的知識(shí)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)少于通過(guò)聆聽(tīng)專家得到的知識(shí)，無(wú)論是投資還是應(yīng)對(duì)癌癥，情況都是如此。

????為什么認(rèn)清孩子的學(xué)習(xí)方式如此重要？

????人們?cè)趯W(xué)齡前教育中還不夠重視挑選善于和孩子交談的老師。在學(xué)校里，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)師生談話的質(zhì)量正急劇下降。而在家里，孩子們會(huì)問(wèn)更多問(wèn)題。他們與父母交談的時(shí)間也更長(zhǎng)。

????這不是必然的嗎？家里的“師生比”畢竟高得多。

????當(dāng)然，從某種意義上來(lái)說(shuō)這是由現(xiàn)實(shí)情況決定的。然而選擇教師目前看的往往是其 “撫育能力”，而不是看他們是否善于交談，是否能闡明事理。

????提問(wèn)是不是變得不重要了？

????不是這樣。提問(wèn)會(huì)一直延續(xù)到小學(xué)甚至是中學(xué)。我不了解你的孩子，但是我的孩子抱怨他們?cè)趯W(xué)校問(wèn)問(wèn)題時(shí)，老師往往沒(méi)有時(shí)間回答。決定學(xué)習(xí)進(jìn)度的其實(shí)是課程計(jì)劃。

????譯者：王駿

????So, Mom and Dad, you don't like your kids demanding to know "why" after every answer? And, teachers, do those relentless questions from the front row drive you crazy as you attempt to cover today's state-mandated lesson plan? You'll hate Paul Harris' controversial new book, Trusting What You're Told. In it, the Harvard professor of education challenges entrenched notions of cognitive development. Rather than seeing children as "scientists in the crib" who learn through observation, Harris argues that they're nascent anthropologists who learn best from the "testimony" of "informants." That's how we find out the world is round, for example. Harris' research cuts against much of what happens in today's classrooms; instead, it demands verbally acute teachers -- one might imagine Mister Rogers as the paragon -- as well as patient parents.Fortune contributor David A. Kaplan recently spoke to Harris about how listening to others can be more important than hands-on learning.

?????I thought a key part of education is getting children to read -- to get them to be little researchers.

????The portrait of cognitive development I'm trying to undermine is not that of the child as a kind of scholar or bibliophile, but the image you get from people like Rousseau or Piaget or Montessori, where the child is a hands-on experimenter. That vision is too narrow.

????Most early grades prize the hands-on, right?

????If you think about the Montessori classroom, the child is given some bricks to assemble, and the child sees the bricks can be placed in some kind of serial order from shortest to tallest. While that strategy may well work for observable regularities in the world, it's not a strategy when evidence isn't readily available.

????Where do children get their information?

????Teachers, parents, experts. They'll learn to trust some more than others. But I'm not just offering a portrait of young children. We're all stuck with the fact that the amount of knowledge we can gather for ourselves is minuscule compared with the amount we gain by listening to experts, whether it's how to invest or what to do if we have a cancer.

????Why is it important to distinguish how children learn?

????In preschool there's not very much emphasis on choosing teachers who are good at having a dialogue with children. At school, you see a sharp decline in the quality of dialogue. At home, children ask more questions. They have more sustained exchanges with a parent.

?????Isn't that out of necessity -- at home it's a lower "student-teacher" ratio?

????Of course in some sense it's dictated by practicalities. But teachers are mostly selected for their ability to be "nurturers" rather than for verbal or intellectual abilities.

????Does questioning become less important?

????No. It extends to elementary school and even high school. I don't know about your children, but mine complain that often when they've asked questions in school, there's not been time to deal with them. It's the curriculum that dictates the pace of learning.