We have to thank the Swiss developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget for 'learning by play' applied to the classroom - a personal discovery which he believed to be far more effective than sitting in rows learning by rote. His idea was that children don't just store facts, they process them. As they interact with things around them every day they build a model of the world in their minds, so in the classroom they need the chance to experiment. There's no disputing the importance of Piaget's educational legacy, but critics have questioned the methodology of much of his experimental work and have concluded that some of his experiments were basically flawed. One such is the Three Mountains - from this experiment Piaget concluded that, because young children could not imagine what someone on the other side of the mountain model from the side they were standing could see, they were incapable of empathy. Subsequent experiments allowing children to imagine different social, rather than spatial, situations have had very different results. Claudia Hammond asks how far we should rely on Piaget's findings today. Those taking part:- Margaret Donaldson Children's Minds by Margaret Donaldson. Fontana Press 1978 ISBN 0-00-686122-9 Sue Eagle, Head Teacher of Tuckswood Community First School John Flavell - Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Stanford University The Developmental Psychology of Jean Piaget by John H Flavell. D Van Nostrand Company Ltd, 1963 Cognitive Development by John H Flavell. Pearson Education Inc., 1977 ISBN 0-13-791575 Martin Hughes, Professor of Education at University of Bristol Annette Karmiloff-Smith - Professor of Neurocognitive Development at Institute of Child Health Karin Murris, Educational Consultant John Oates - Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Open University Peter Sutherland - Lecturer at Institute of Education, University of Stirling Cognitive Development Today by Peter Sutherland. Paul Chapman Publishing, 1992 ISBN 1-85396-133 7 Jacques Voneche - Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychology at The University of Geneva. Director of Jean Piaget Archives