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We begin this chapter with Piaget's notion that students cannot make the transition to a higher level of intellectual development until the student has reached the right level of maturity. Students develop faster if they are in an inquiry-based course rather than a teacher-centered course. It is really up to us as teachers to move these students to a higher level of intellectual development. Indeed, McKinnon and Renner (Am J Phys 39:1047–1052, 1971) have shown that "The majority of entering college freshmen do not come to college with adequate skills to argue logically about the importance of a given principle when the context in which it is used is slightly altered."Moreover, judging how well students can solve problems and at what level of difficulty is in Vygotsky's opinion only one measure of the student's developmental level. In his opinion, what the student can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense even more indicative of their mental development than what they can do alone.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-66140-7_2

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