In one of his most famous experiments, Piaget asked children, 'What
makes the wind?' A typical dialogue would be:
Piaget: What makes the wind?
Julia: The trees.
Piaget: How do you know?
Julia: I saw them waving their arms.
Piaget: How does that make the wind?
Julia (waving her hand in front of his face): Like this. Only they are
bigger. And there are lots of trees.
Piaget recognised that five-year-old Julia's beliefs, while not correct
by any adult criterion, are not 'incorrect' either. They are entirely
sensible and coherent within the framework of the child's way of
knowing. Classifying them as 'true' or 'false' misses the point and
shows a lack of respect for the child. What Piaget was after was a
theory that the wind dialogue demonstrated coherence, ingenuity and the
practice of a kind of explanatory principle (in this case by referring
to body actions) that stands young children in very good stead when they
don't know enough or don't have enough skill to handle the kind of
explanation that grown-ups prefer.
1. According to the writer, what point is illustrated by the dialogue
A. The factual accuracy of what children say is of minor significance.
B. Children want to learn about scientific principles.
C. Children's reasoning processes can be amusing to adults.
D. Children often pretend that they know the answers to questions.