A budget reduction threatens the cancellation of a curriculum designed to enhance children's thinking skills. The curriculum revolves around children's experimentation with concrete objects in a variety of settings (individual and small-group), teacher conducted small group inquiry sessions to explore the children's findings, and monthly visits by scientists from a nearby research lab. You are a member of a committee commissioned to prepare a defense of the curriculum. Other members of the committee are attending to the budgetary and political arguments. You are to address the theoretical basis for the program.

Develop a response, using Piagetian theory.

According to the theorist, what important assumptions about learning are reflected in the program?

What is the role of the small-group and teacher-conducted inquiry sessions in the program?

Recommend a concrete corrective strategy in accordance with the theory, and supportive rationale for each strategy.