OISE lecture celebrates renowned developmental psychologist
March 9, 2012
More than 400 family, friends, and former colleagues of Professor Robbie Case (1945-2000) gathered in the OISE Auditorium on Thursday, March 8 to pay tribute to the world-renowned developmental psychologist at the Robbie Case Memorial Lecture, delivered by another world-renowned developmental psychologist, Professor Paul Harris from the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University.
Professor Harris, whose career work focuses on early development of children’s cognition, emotion, and imagination, spoke on the topic of his forthcoming book, Trusting what you're told: How children learn from Others (Harvard University Press).
Harris’s view of children as 'budding anthropologists,' suggests most of what we know we have learned from others. Children learn about the world not only through first-hand observation and experimentation, but also to a significant degree, through the 'testimony' of others. He revealed, through the use of examples and illustrations from his book, the extent to which this testimony is based on trust, how culture is intimately connected with children's development, and the importance of learning from others.
In her introductory remarks, OISE Dean Julia O’ Sullivan said of Case, “Interest is not a word that defined his approach. It was his passion to understand how children think and how they see the world. The length of his life and career bear absolutely no relation to the length and the size of his impact on education. He leaves behind a legacy of graduate students and colleagues who have built on his work and taken it all around the world.”
The third Robbie Case Memorial Lecture marks the 20th anniversary of the Dr. R.G.N. Laidlaw Centre for research at the Dr Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study. A renowned scholar and teacher, Robbie Case received his Master’s and doctorate from OISE. Among his many achievements he was professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, a fellow of: the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioural Sciences at Stanford and the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He joined OISE’s then Institute of Child Study (ICS) in 1993, becoming its director in 2000. Case was a highly-respected researcher in the field of child cognitive development, dedicated to improving children’s education and their lives through research and practical applications.
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