The bold hypothesis: "Any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest way to any child at any stage of development." The method: early emphasis on the "structure" of each subject —the most basic ideas underlying all science, math and literature. Once grasped, the basics free the mind to explore more complex things with a growing "sense of excitement about discovery."
Thus noted Harvard Psychologist Jerome S. Bruner, in The Process of Education (Harvard University Press; $2.75), summarizes the experience of 35 top scholars, who pooled their theories for improving science teaching last year at a ten-day meeting called by the...