经济学人178:教育心理学 现在你要知道

 　　Educational psychology¹

　　教育心理学

　　Now you know

　　现在，你要知道

　　When should you teach children, and when should you let them explore?

　　什么时候应该告诫孩子，和什么时候应该让孩子自己摸索？

　　It is one of the oldest debates in education.

　　这是教育界最古老的争论之一。

　　Should teachers tell pupils the way things are or encourage them to find out for themselves?

　　老师应该告诉学生事物的本质还是要鼓励学生自行摸索？

　　Telling children truthsabout the world helps them learn those facts more quickly.

　　告诉孩子们世界的真理”有助于他们更快地了解现实。

　　Yet the efficient learning of specific facts may lead to the assumption that when the adult has finished teaching,

　　对具体事物的高效率学习也许导致孩子们会有这个假设”的假设。

　　there is nothing further to learn—because if there were,

　　当长辈停止教育时，那就不需要进一步的学习了——因为如果有的话，

　　the adult would have said so.

　　长辈们也应该应经告诉他们了。

　　A study just published in Cognition by Elizabeth Bonawitz of the University of California, Berkeley, and Patrick Shafto of the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, suggests that is true.

　　伯克利加州大学的Elizabeth Bonawitz和路易斯维尔大学的Patrick Shafto刚刚共同发表在《认知》中的研究表明这是对的。

　　Dr Bonawitz and Dr Shafto arranged for 85 four-and five-year-olds to be presented, during a visit to a museum, with a novel toy that looked like a tangle² of coloured pipes and was capable of doing many different things.

　　Dr Bonawitz和Dr Shafto安排了85名四到五岁的小朋友带着看起来像一团乱七八糟的着色的管子且能够做成不同形状的新奇玩具参观博物馆。

　　They wanted to know whether the way the children played with the toy depended on how they were instructed by the adult who gave it to them.

　　他们想知道孩子们玩这玩具的方式是否会取决于给他们玩具的大人们的提示。

　　One group of children had a strictly³ pedagogical introduction.

　　按照严格的教学方法进行介绍给第一组孩子。

　　The experimenter said Look at my toy! This is my toy.

　　示范者说：看着我的玩具！这是我的玩具。

　　I'm going to show you how my toy works.

　　我将展示给你们看这玩具是怎样玩的。”

　　She then pulled a yellow tube out of a purple tube, creating a squeaking⁵ sound. and then demonstrated the effect again.

　　然后她把一个黄色管子从紫色管子抽出，发出吱吱的叫声。

　　Following this, she said, Wow, see that?

　　接着，她说：哇，看到了吗？

　　This is how my toy works!”

　　我的玩具就是这样玩的！”然后再展示一下它的效果。

　　With a second group of children, the experimenter acted differently.

　　对于第二组孩子，示范者以不同的方式展示。

　　She interrupted herself after demonstrating the squeak⁴ by saying she had to go and write something down,

　　她演示完怎样发出吱吱声后，声称要记下些东西而打断了，

　　thus suggesting that she might not have finished the demonstration⁶.

　　因此暗示她可能没有完成演示。

　　With a third group, she activated⁷ the squeak as if by accident. To a fourth, the toy was simply presented with the comment,

　　对于第三组孩子，她展示发出吱吱声好像意外发出一样。而对于第四组，

　　Wow, see this toy? Look at this!”

　　简单地用哇，看到这个玩具了么？看看它？”这样的话语来进行介绍。

　　After these varied⁸ introductions, the children were left with the toy and allowed to play.

　　经过这些不同的介绍后，就留下玩具给孩子们让他们自己玩。

　　They might discover that, as well as the squeaker, the toy had a button inside one tube which activated a light,

　　他们可能会发现，除了可以发出那吱吱声外，在玩具的一个管子里还有一个电灯按钮，

　　a keypad that played musical notes, and an inverting⁹ mirror inside one of the tubes.

　　一个可以播放音乐的键盘和其中一条管道里面的倒像镜。

　　All the children were told to let the experimenter know when they had finished playing and were asked by the instructor¹⁰ if they were done if they stopped playing for more than five consecutive¹¹ seconds.

　　所有孩子都被告知，当他们结束玩耍时要告诉实验人员，而且如果他们停止玩耍连续超过五秒钟，老师便问他们是不是不想玩了。

　　The entire interaction was recorded on video.

　　整个互动过程都被录成了视频。

　　Footage of each child playing was passed to a research assistant who was ignorant of the purpose of the study.

　　每个孩子玩耍的片段被传给一个不知道该研究目的的研究助理。

　　The assistant was asked to record the total playing time,

　　助手需要记录孩子们的总玩耍时间、

　　the number of different actions the child performed,

　　孩子进行不同动作的数量、

　　the time spent playing with the squeak, and the number of other functions the child discovered.

　　花在发出吱吱声的玩法上的时间和孩子所发现的其他玩法的数量。

　　The upshot was that children in the first group spent less time playing than those in the second, the third or the fourth.

　　其结果是，第一组孩子们的玩耍总时间比第二的，第三的和第四的都少。

　　Those in the first group also tried out four different actions, on average.

　　平均下来，第一组的孩子也尝试出四种不同动作。

　　The others tried 5.3, 5.9 and 6.2, respectively.

　　其他组的尝试出不同动作数量分别为5.3、5.9和6.2。

　　A similar pattern pertained¹² to the number of functions other than the squeak that the children found.

　　孩子们发现不同于发出吱吱声的新花样的数量分别为0.7、1.3、1.2和1.2。

　　The researchers' conclusion was that, in the context of strange toys of unknown function, prior explanation does,

　　研究人员的结论是，事实上，在面对不知道其功能的新奇玩具的情况下，事先说明会抑制探索和发现能力。

　　indeed, inhibit¹³ exploration and discovery.

　　由此得出的归纳概况可能太大胆性急。

　　Generalising from that would be ambitious.

　　但它表明，进一步研究也不失为一个好主意。

　　But it suggests that further research might be quite a good idea.

　　尽管如此，进一步的研究还是十分令人期待。

　　1.explore v.探测；探险；考察

　　The experts are exploring every part of the island.

　　专家们正在勘查这个岛的各个部分。

　　2.encourage v.鼓励；促进

　　Her success encouraged me to try the same thing.

　　她的成功鼓励我尝试做同样的事。

　　3.assumption n.假定；设想

　　The project was predicated on the assumption that the economy was expanding.

　　这一计划是以经济发展的设想为依据的。

　　4.suggest v.建议；暗示

　　I suggested going for a walk.

　　我建议去散步。

　　5.arrange v.整理；安排；计划

　　You must arrange these books in alphabetical¹⁴ order.

　　你要把这些书按字母顺序排好。

1 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

2 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

3 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

4 squeak   

n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密

参考例句：

• I don't want to hear another squeak out of you!我不想再听到你出声！
• We won the game,but it was a narrow squeak.我们打赢了这场球赛，不过是侥幸取胜。

5 squeaking   

v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• Squeaking floorboards should be screwed down. 踏上去咯咯作响的地板应用螺钉钉住。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Can you hear the mice squeaking? 你听到老鼠吱吱叫吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

7 activated   

adj. 激活的 动词activate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The canister is filled with activated charcoal.蒸气回收罐中充满了活性炭。

8 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

9 inverting   

v.使倒置，使反转( invert的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She caught the insect by inverting her cup over it. 她用杯子扣住了那只昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He started out inverting 2,000,000, but eventually invested only 200,000. 他们开始打算投资200万，可是后来只有20万。 来自互联网

10 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

11 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

12 pertained   

关于( pertain的过去式和过去分词 )； 有关； 存在； 适用

参考例句：

• These are the privileges that pertained only to the wealthier class. 这些是属于富有阶级独享的特权。
• And did you feel it, in your heart, it pertained to everything? 而你是否感受到，在你心里，它如何和谐于万物？

13 inhibit   

vt.阻止，妨碍，抑制

参考例句：

• Don't let ego and greed inhibit clear thinking and hard work.不要让自我和贪婪妨碍清晰的思维和刻苦的工作。
• They passed a law to inhibit people from parking in the street.他们通过一项法令以阻止人们在街上停车。

14 alphabetical   

adj.字母（表）的，依字母顺序的

参考例句：

• Please arrange these books in alphabetical order.请把这些书按字母顺序整理一下。
• There is no need to maintain a strict alphabetical sequence.不必保持严格的字顺。