How People Learn:
Brain, Mind,
Experience, and School
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BOX 1.2
Fish Is Fish
Fish Is Fish (Lionni, 1970) describes a fish who is keenly
interested in learning about what happens on land, but the fish cannot
explore land because it can only breathe in water. It befriends a
tadpole who grows into a frog and eventually goes out onto the land.
The frog returns to the pond a few weeks later and reports on what he
has seen. The frog describes all kinds of things like birds, cows, and
people. The book shows pictures of the fish's representations of each
of these descriptions: each is a fish-like form that is slightly
adapted to accommodate the frog's descriptions--people are imagined to
be fish who walk on their tailfins, birds are fish with wings, cows are
fish with udders. This tale illustrates both the creative opportunities
and dangers inherent in the fact that people construct new knowledge
based on their current knowledge.
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