This paper proposed the application of the constructivist approach in virtual university where learners can learn based on their learning style, information and skills to succeed in life and also in their job. Constructivist learning and the strategies in constructivist learning can foster in-depth learning and practical application. Integration of communication and information technologies into curricula offers significant potentials for designing new learning environments, and advancing research and development in learning theories. Based on the main aspects of the constructivist approach, traditional universities and classroom cannot provide the conditions for learners to construct the knowledge for themselves, for this reason virtual university with the communication and information technologies (ICT) can implement constructivist strategies in the process of teaching and learning. In virtual university, constructivism promotes the learner’s skills to solve real-life problems and practical problems.

Key words: virtual university, constructivist learning, constructivist approach in virtual university.

Excerpt: When one creates a constructivist learning opportunity or lesson, the goal is for the created situation to have the property that it stimulates the learner to solve a problemortakesomeactionandthentoreflectonwhathashappened,connecting the situated experience to prior knowledge. This goal presupposes that we know the learner’s prior knowledge state. Perhaps we will not know all of it, but we need to know enough to have confidence that the learner will notice and make connections between the situation experienced and his or her prior knowledge and that those connections will be sufficient to achieve the learning goals of the lesson.

Excerpt: Anyone who has seen Monty Python’s Life of Brian will probably remember the scene where a heated and hilarious argument breaks out between the Judean Liberation Front and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Judea. Although both have a common enemy – the Romans – they cannot make common cause because of their differences (small to us, but huge to them). One can sometimes be reminded of this when seeing the disputes between constructivists and social constructionists. Yes, there are differences between them, but might it not be better to focus on what they have in common? In a world dominated by objectivist psychology, would it not make more sense to build bridges and look for commonalities? This book sets out to do just that, and its aim is to build bridges between personal and social constructionism. It is divided into four sections: The Personal Meets the Social, The Personal and Social in Psychotherapy, The Personal and Social in Research, and Dialogue, Reflection and Anticipation: Future Directions. The chapters come mainly from two North American conferences (an APA and a NAPCN conference in 2002), although there are also two from the XV International Congress on Personal Construct Psychology held in Huddersfield, UK in 2003 as well as a further two prepared specially for this volume.

Architecture is differentiated from building in that it is deemed to induce sensations of delight or wonder in its observers. The paper takes the metaphor of a trivial machine and argues that a work of architecture is the physical embodiment this. The process of constructing such a machine for the first time is not trivial and can induce sensations of delight in an observer. This applies both to the observer who designs the machine (the architect) and to the observer who passes by and who reconstructs it in his or her understanding. Can trivial machines be constructed which have some of the attributes of non-trivial machines in that the output is continually surprising and new? When a trivial machine is nested inside another machine whose function is not fully known the result is an inverted, non-trivial machine in Von Foerster’s terms. The paper argues that physical architecture can be observed in this way.

Key words: architecture, delight, non-trivial machine

This article discusses the theory and practice of constructivism and suggests a way to move from the theory into the practice of it.

Key words: teaching, attitude, constructivism, statistics achievement.

Excerpt: Die Annahme, dass die Bewohner der Arktis über deutlich mehr Begriffe für Schnee verfügen als die Sprecher indoeuropäischer Sprachen, ist ein – hinreichend widerlegter – Gemeinplatz von Franz Boas, den heute jedes Schulkind zitiert, wenn es um die Beziehung von Erfahrung, Wissen und Sprache geht. Nur wenige wissen jedoch, dass der populärste und meistzitierte Vertreter dieser Behauptung, Benjamin Lee Whorf, sein Leben lang als Mitarbeiter einer Versicherungsgesellschaft die Ursachen und Folgen von Brandschäden analysierte. Geboren im Jahre 1897 an der Schwelle zum 20. Jahrhundert studierte Whorf Chemie am Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston und arbeitete ab 1919 als Brandschutzinspektor für die Hartford Fire Insurance Company in Betrieben der chemischen Industrie. Wie kam der Ingenieur und Geschäftsmann Whorf dazu, eine der bekanntesten Thesen der Sprachwissenschaft des 20. Jahrhunderts, die “Sapir-Whorf-Hypothese” zu formulieren?

Excerpt: Dieser Artikel ist ein Versuch, nach vierzig Jahren intensiver Beschäftigung die hauptsächlichsten Einsichten, enthalten in Jean Piagets Werk, zu einem kohärenten Modell zusammenzufassen. Es handelt sich also um eine Interpretation, die auf weit verstreuten Hinweisen beruht. Wo immer möglich habe ich Jean Piaget für sich selber sprechen lassen. Aber da ist auch manches, was sich nicht durch bündige Zitate belegen lässt. Ob diese Interpretation seines Denkens plausibel und brauchbar ist, muss der Leser entscheiden.

In this article, the author examines Colin Grant’s recent criticism of the so-called “interaction paradigm” and Jürgen Habermas’s universal pragmatics. Grant’s approach, which is presented as an open challenge to communication theories grounded in philosophical conceptions of communality and dialogue, can be construed as an exemplar of a radical constructivist approach to vital questions of contingency and incommensurability in communication studies. In response, the author outlines a classical pragmatist approach to the problem areas identified by Grant, with the aim of outlining how a pragmatist outlook can offer promising theoretical alternatives to universal pragmatics and radical constructivism. It is argued that moderate Peircean pragmatism, appropriately interpreted, can provide a philosophical platform capable of addressing issues of contingency, uncertainty, and autonomy in communication theory without succumbing to incommensurabilism, traditional objectivism, or nominalistic individualism.

The anti-realist nihilism of post-modernist thought provides a constant challenge for science and scientists not only to refute this view but to make clear what constitutes science and the scientific method. In this article, I review the major arguments of post-modern thought and its criticism of science and then provide a point by point refutation. The Popperian notion of refutability and empiricality provide the cornerstone of this discussion.

This paper addresses the change in teachers’ thoughts as they progress through an inservice program. The aim of the inservice program was to encourage teachers to implement and reflect on constructivist approaches to teaching and learning within the junior secondary school area. The program itself was centred on constructivist philosophy, as a means to guide the program and to model constructivist approaches for the teachers. Prior to the inservice program teachers were asked three major focal questions: How do children learn?; What teaching strategies do you use?; and Who controls learning? On completion of the program these questions were again used to examine the participating teachers’ thoughts. Results indicated that there was a distinct change in the way that the teachers viewed the classroom. These changes addressed issues such as the separation of control of learning from management, the valuing of student knowledge and the need to involve students within the learning process.