George Kelly’s professional focus was on supporting people who were struggling with the stresses of their lives. Finding that the Freudian ideas he had been offered as tools in his own professional training offered little in working towards change with many of his clients, Kelly developed his own approach based upon a constructivist perspective of learning (which he called constructive alternativism) centred on the core metaphor of person-as-scientist. People, like good scientists, should always be open to exploring new data and considering alternative explanations and conceptions, rather than becoming fixed in established ways of thinking. Kelly’s work developed into a recognised approach in psychology, and became very influential in at least one school of thought in science education. Kelly did not only offer a theory that could support clinical practice for therapists, but also offered a methodology for exploring a learner’s developing thinking. In his own educational work, he found that his approach offered insights into teachers’ classroom difficulties. This chapter considers the core ideas of Kelly’s theory in comparison with other constructivist perspectives employed in science education. The chapter also discusses how Kelly’s personal construct theory can inform classroom teaching and reflects on an approach that explicitly expects people to behave scientifically as a perspective on science teaching and learning.

Key words: the method of triads, repertory grid, personal constructs, constructivism, children’s science, alternative conceptions, person-as-scientist, falsificationism, accumulative fragmentalism, systems of constructs, building one’s own maze, construct repertory

George Kelly’s The psychology of personal constructs put forward a new psychology that viewed people as actively constructing and anticipating their worlds. This paper considers personal construct theory and its philosophy; personal construct assessment techniques; the personal construct view of psychological disorder and its treatment; and the wide range of other applications of personal construct theory. It is concluded that personal construct psychology remains a radical approach over half a century after Kelly published his magnum opus.

Key words: Construct, repertory grid, psychological disorder, personal construct psychotherapy.