We learn differently as children than as adults. For grown-ups, learning a new skill is painful, attention-demanding, and slow. Children learn unconsciously… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
The real excitement is collaborating with computer scientists and neuroscientists and starting to understand in detail how children learn so much so… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Developmental scientists like me explore the basic science of learning by designing controlled experiments. — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Knowing what to expect from a teacher is a really good thing, of course: It lets you get the right answers more… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Adults often assume that most learning is the result of teaching and that exploratory, spontaneous learning is unusual. But actually, spontaneous learning… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Imagine if baseball were taught the way science is taught in most inner-city schools. Schoolchildren would get lectures about the history of… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
We have lots of evidence that putting investments in early childhood education, even evidence from very hard-nosed economists, is one of the… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
What we want in students is creativity and a willingness to fail. I always say to students, 'If you've never at some… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
What, of course, we want in a university is for people to learn the skills they're going to need outside the classroom.… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
The youngest children have a great capacity for empathy and altruism. There's a recent study that shows even 14-month-olds will climb across… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
I think universities are trying to figure out how we could use what we know about learning to change our education system,… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
You read a bunch of books and you get a bunch of how-tos, and you take a bunch of classes and you… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Teaching is a very effective way to get children to learn something specific - this tube squeaks, say, or a squish then… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Scientists learn about the world in three ways: They analyze statistical patterns in the data, they do experiments, and they learn from… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Preschool kids learn best when exploring, but kids in school learn best when they do things, interacting with a master. Unfortunately, our… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Philosophers and psychologists have long puzzled over the question of how we know as much as we do despite our limited experiences.… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Philosophers and psychologists have long puzzled over the question of how we know as much as we do despite our limited experiences. One way… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
Adults often assume that most learning is the result of teaching and that exploratory, spontaneous learning is unusual. But actually, spontaneous learning is more… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
Adults tend to think they have much free will. Kids younger than six are less sure. They may be more realistic! — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
From an evolutionary perspective children are, literally, designed to learn. Childhood is a special period of protected immaturity. It gives the young breathing time… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
There is a tension between our desire to get our kids to turn out a particular way versus letting them develop to be their… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
“Instead, it may be that experience itself has changed our brains so that we perceive and interpret the world in a certain way. Once… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
Caring for children has always been one of the deepest and most satisfying things that a human being does, and yet it is hard… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
Imaginary friends are one of the weirder forms of pretend play in childhood. But the research shows that imaginary friends actually help children understand… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
“Like their parents, the Korean children used more verbs than the English-speaking kids, while the English-speaking kids used more nouns. But in addition, the… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
“We decided to become development psychologists and study children because there aren't any Martians. These brilliant beings with the little bodies and big heads… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
Each new generation of children grows up in the new environment its parents have created, and each generation of brains becomes wired in a… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
I'm the oldest of six children and I had my own first baby when I was 23. So I've always been interested in babies,… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
“Literature is the equivalent of the climate scientist’s computer simulations: set up some new starting conditions, run the whole complicated process and see what… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
The brain knows the real secret of seduction, more effective than even music and martinis. Just keep whispering, 'Gee, you are really special' to… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share
