How Ideas Travel - Curriculum Ideas
How Ideas Travel is a podcast series from the Jean Piaget Society for the Study of Knowledge and Development. These conversations, led by Colette Daiute and Nancy Budwig, highlight people who ponder the nature, culture, and dynamics of ideas that fuel the development of individuals and societies. By exploring the personal and interpersonal dimensions of knowledge and knowing, we show how ideas are alive and practical. This series reaches out to everyone interested in ideas as beacons in human life.
Colette Daiute
Nancy Budwig
Co-Conveners: Colette Daiute & Nancy Budwig
Editor: Bridget Woods
Music: Jack J. Wright
Art: Gooloc/Jamie-Lee Barden
Contact: howideastravel@gmail.com
Season One of How Ideas Travel presents personally intellectual stories of how ideas develop across generations. We interview luminaries in the field of human development to explore how they were inspired by a teacher – Jean Piaget, the namesake of our organization – and shifted their foundational ideas and research programs in unpredictable generative ways over time. These stories seek twists and turns of ideas guiding research careers, thereby also raising questions about any linear notion of professional life, like human development. This inaugural series is designed to address the often silent issue of standing on the shoulders of giants while creating knowledge beyond their horizon.
Anne- Nelly Perret- Clermont
Episode 1: Experiencing thinking
Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont is Professor Emerita at the Institute of Psychology and Education at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. She was a student in psychology with Jean Piaget at the University of Geneva, but also studied vocational guidance at the University of Lausanne and child development at the University of London.
With her research, teaching, and professional leadership, Professor Perret-Clermont has led the way to a social and cultural turn in the understanding of cognitive development. She is especially interested in children’s and adults’ thinking as activity, rather than primarily as abstraction. Dr. Perret-Clermont’s scientific studies of argumentation have been so relevant to professionals in practice, who regularly invite her into their deliberations about how to improve teaching and learning.
Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont has written and edited many books, beginning with her first book, La construction de l’intelligence dans l’interaction sociale (1979 French edition, Peter Lang)/ Social interaction and cognitive development in children (1980 English edition, Academic Press), which breathed new life into the study of children’s cognitive development. She has written many books since then, including Social Relations in Human and Societal Development, with co-authors Chris Psaltis and Alex Gillespie, and Apprentice in a changing trade, a book she wrote with her husband Jean-Francois about a Swiss technical college that trains young people in precision mechanics during a period of major technological change. Anne-Nelly’s many honors include an honorary doctorate at the University of Göteborg, Sweden, the Yelpanov Medal from Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, and the National Latsis Prize.
https://libra.unine.ch/Personnes/Anne-nelly_Perret-clermont
SUGGESTED READINGS:
Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (1980). Social interaction and cognitive development in children. Academic Press. Chapters 2 & 6 here.
Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (2012). “Choose two or three scapegoats and make your point!” Should I? Critical thoughts on a fabulous experience and its heritage. In E. Martí & C. Rodríguez (Eds.), After Piaget (pp. 207-225). New Brunswick, London: Transaction Publishers. Version électronique [doc.rero.ch]
Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (2015). The Architecture of Social Relationships and Thinking Spaces for Growth. In C. Psaltis, A. Gillespie & A.-N. Perret-Clermont (Eds.), Social Relations in Human and Societal Development (pp. 51-70). Palgrave Macmillan. Version électronique [doc.rero.ch]
Perret-Clermont, A.-N., Schär, R., Greco, S., Convertini, J., Iannaccone, A., & Rocci, A. (2019). Shifting from a monological to a dialogical perspective on children’s argumentation. Lessons learned. In F. H. van Eemren & B. Garssen (Eds.), Argumentation in actual practice. Topical studies about argumentative discourse in context (pp. 211-236): John Benjamins Publishing Company. Version électronique [doc.rero.ch]
CURRICULUM IDEAS:
-Listen to the podcast
-Read one or two articles/chapters provided by the interviewee
-Write a reflection statement:
What surprised or inspired you most about this scholar’s story?
How have you been influenced by your mentors’ or other teachers’ ideas?
In what ways have you built upon the ideas of others?
What might you take from this interview as you continue your academic path?
Excertps from How Ideas Travel Podcast: Episode One
Anne- Nelly Perret- Clermont
Turning Point
Anne- Nelly Perret- Clermont
Roots and Branches
Anne- Nelly Perret- Clermont
Deficit Thinking in Developmental Psychology
If you use this episode and curriculum ideas in your course(s), please post comments or any additional ideas here:
4 Comments
Submit a Comment
To contact “How Ideas Travel” Conveners directly, email
I assigned the podcast to my Developmental Psychology undergraduate class I’m teaching at City University of New York (Spring 2021). Professor Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont’s findings about argumentation in young children in the context of social interaction with one’s family and peer groups was a fascinating addition to my class. I had many students who brought their work and/or parenting experiences with children into our discussions, and from their observations, we started complex and informative discussions on activity in context, materiality and embodiment in relation to child development. Another aspect of the podcast that I personally found very engaging is how it presented an opportunity for listening to a scholar’s trajectory and seeing the variety of influences in one’s educational life. I feel like such opportunity to observe important scholars reflect on their work and trajectory is rarely presented to undergraduate students, regardless of their field, and I was struck by Professor Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont’s narrative of distancing oneself from the face value of the curriculum. I think undergraduate students need to and would love to hear that! Therefore I assigned the suggested questions: ‘What surprised or inspired you most about this scholar’s story? How have you been influenced by your mentors’ or other teachers’ ideas? In what ways have you built upon the ideas of others? What might you take from this interview as you continue your academic path’. In her own response to these questions, in many ways, Professor Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont shows intellectual and social development to be a dynamic and ongoing phenomenon based on multi-faceted interactions and environments we’re a part of.
Thank you for this thoughtful commentary, Bengi! I think you’ve offered interesting insights for using the podcast, and this one in particular, with undergraduate students AND insights for other early career academics.
Thank you for this wonderful Podcast, Dr. Daiute, Dr. Budwig, and Dr. Perret-Clermont. My students and I absolutely enjoyed listening to this Podcast, which led to great conversations and an interactive classroom environment. I used this Podcast to introduce an assignment that served students with a better understanding of psychological theories and research. I incorporated this assignment after our initial discussion of Piagetian theories, where during class, I introduced background information and research by Dr. Perret-Clermont. For this assignment, students were asked to listen to the Podcast and read one article/chapter (from the four provided on this website). Following this, I created an open-ended question assignment that asked students to summarize Dr. Perret-Clermont’s research while referencing the Podcast and the research article(s) they chose to read. Inspired by this Podcast, I also integrated another creative factor in this assignment. I asked students to imagine creating a Podcast (related to developmental psychology) and inviting a Psychologist (of their interest) to their Podcast interview. In a written assignment, I asked about the Psychologist they will be interviewing and challenged them to create three questions that they will ask their guest. In addition, I also asked them to summarize a past or current work of their interviewee. It was remarkable to see the diverse names that students came up with and the questions they even constructed to ask their interviewees. Students learned a great deal while enjoying these unstructured yet thought-provoking discussions that were raised due to this Podcast. It highlighted an experience that goes beyond the usual textbook and allowed students to be creative in their own way while integrating research and theories.
Dear Noama,
Thank you for sharing these curriculum ideas for integrating interview with Prof. Perret-Clermont! This series of reflective activities offers a different kind of engaged perspective to developmental psychology, generative and respectful of undergraduates’ abilities. I hope this podcast and ones in the future will be useful in your upcoming courses.
Best, Colette