Mead holds that the process of acquiring changes the thing acquired, making change of subject matter the rule¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoretical r2 · q1
Currency · newest study 1997 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Evidence quality · No study behind this claim is a peer-reviewed article with a DOI: it rests on an ERIC document (a report, conference paper or thesis). It is kept because 2 design pages cite it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims¶

q1 i? Because getting meaning is a process of social interaction rather than imitation, Mead argues that the very process of acquiring changes the thing acquired, so the subject matter of education changes as it is transmitted. → Biesta 1997

Evidence¶

Biesta 1997¶

Biesta, Gert J. J. (1997). George Herbert Mead's Lectures on Philosophy of Education at the University of Chicago (1910-1911). Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED422199

q1 · i? · theoretical · r2

Reconstruction from lecture XXVIII of Mead's Course 50, reported in the article's discussion of the social origin of meaning. The article reports Mead's claim that "the very process of acquiring, changes the thing acquired", because getting meaning is communication in which the younger generation is not fixed by the older. This is a philosophical claim from the lectures, not an empirically tested result.

"the very process of acquiring, changes the thing acquired"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• In Mead's lectures, meanings grow out of social intercourse and the child constructs meanings only in social process — related
• Mead argued education functions as a mechanism of social and cultural change, not only cultural transmission — a broader claim this one bears on
• Mead observed that rapid change makes yesterday's knowledge useless, requiring education to teach coping with change rather than fixed content — related
• Mead holds that a method of thought cannot be transferred but must be gained through the learner's own abstractions — related
• Mead holds that social interaction precedes and produces reflective self-consciousness — related
• A tool's effectiveness results from the whole configuration of events, activities, and contexts in which it is used — related
• Ability acquired in one branch of study appears transferable to another to a considerable extent, or else general intellectual and moral attitude matters more than method