Excerpt: I consider four versions – personal constructivism, radical constructivism, social constructivism, and critical constructivism. These have had a major impact on science education and greater impacts than other forms/versions. I start with a brief consideration of Piaget’s cognitive constructivism, which laid the foundations for the emergence of the “Big Four,” and I conclude with an integral perspective on using different versions of constructivism to shape science teaching and learning.
Thompson P. W. (2014) Constructivism in mathematics education. In: Lerman S. (ed.) Encyclopedia of mathematics education. Springer, Berlin: 96–102. https://cepa.info/2952
Thompson P. W. (2020) Constructivism in mathematics education. In: Lerman S. (ed.) Encyclopedia of mathematics education. Second edition. Springer, Cham: 128–134. https://cepa.info/6891
There have been debates about the place of religion in science and in what ways knowledge that is produced through religion can aid in the learning and teaching of science. The discord between science and religion is mainly focused on whose knowledge is better in describing and explaining the reality. Constructivist epistemology seems to give some scholars hope in the possibility that the discord between science and religion can be ameliorated and that their expressions of reality can co-exist. In this forum contribution I present some Hindu perspectives to re-interpret how science and Hinduism explain reality. I have used only few Hindu perspectives based on selected Hindu writings, particularly Vedanta, to expand on objectivity and reality. Finally, I recommend that social constructivism may be a better framework in keeping science and religion discord at bay.
Van den Berg M. E. S. (2013) An enactivist approach to teaching and learning critical reasoning in ODL. Progressio 35(1): 192–207. https://cepa.info/7571
The current social constructivist approach to teaching critical reasoning in an open distance learning (ODL) environment may well be reductionist in the sense that it aims at training learners’ intellects to minimise errors and distortions of thought. Within the context of adult education and theories of learning, research indicates that social constructivism fails educational practices. These studies suggest that this is the result of focusing too narrowly on cognitive knowledge. Consequently, a social constructivist approach falls short of reflecting critically on the epistemological and ontological assumptions that underpin its pedagogical framework. However, I argue that, while the impact of sociocultural realities and political power structures on epistemological paradigms and educational practices cannot be ignored, social constructivism falls short of taking into account the embodied everyday experiences that form the vital context within which sense-making takes place. In the light of the above considerations, this article reflects critically on the current pedagogical style underlying the teaching of critical reasoning at Unisa. By investigating enactivism as an alternative approach, I propose a re-conceptualisation of the current critical reasoning teaching paradigm so as to reconsider the question of how we learn things and to understand the process whereby meanings are created, not only rationally but also across multidimensional contexts and complex situations in which learners operate and of which they form an integral part.
Vowe G. (2017) Theoretische Ansätze als kommunikative Konstruktionen: Optionen und Konsequenzen einer konstruktivistischen Erklärung der Wissenschaftsentwicklung. M&K Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft 65(2): 236–251. https://cepa.info/7093
Can theoretical approaches be seen as communicative constructions? Using the example of the ‘Media Reality’ approach in communication studies, we show which benefits of approaching the development of theoretical approaches on the basis of a constructivist understanding of science. Firstly, the explanatory possibilities of social constructivism on macro-, mesoand micro-level of interaction are explained.
Willison J. W. & Taylor P. C. (2006) Complementary epistemologies of science teaching: Towards an integral perspective. In: Aubuson P., Richie S. & Harrison A. (eds.) Metaphor and analogy in science education. Springer, Dordrecht: 25–36.
For over two decades, science education has been a site of struggle between adherents of the apparently antithetical epistemologies of objectivism and constructivism; recently, proponents of personal and social constructivism have locked horns. However, at the beginning of the 21st Century, we feel that it is timely for science education to enter an age of pluralism, of tolerance for multiple and competing ways of knowing, in which no one way is ultimately privileged; to exercise humility about the authority of our cherished ways of knowing the world around us. In the interest of creating greater equity of access amongst students to a much richer encounter with science, a new mode of pedagogical reasoning is needed. From the perspective of constructive postmodernism, we propose dialectical thinking as a way of generating unity-in- diversity, and metaphor as a key referent for overcoming the obstacle of literalism which tends to reinforce fundamentalist notions of difference. We illustrate the viability of an integral perspective on science teaching with a brief account of an inquiry into the scientific literacy of a class of junior high school students, from which emerged a 3-metaphor framework. Mindful of the limitations of this framework, we argue for science education researchers to join us in conceptualizing more powerful and compelling integral metaphors for promoting worldwide epistemological pluralism and cultural diversity.
Wood E. & Bennett N. (1998) Teachers’ theories of play: Constructivist or social constructivist? Early Child Development and Care 140(1): 17–30.
The concept of play and its relationship to learning is problematic in theory and practice. This paper examines this relationship from two standpoints. First, the contrasts between two dominant formal theoretical orientations deriving from the work of Piaget and Vygotsky, and the extent to which they have influenced pedagogy is explored. Second, data from an empirical study on teachers’ theories of play provides insights into how play is conceptualized and enacted in classrooms, and how teachers and contexts mediate the theory-practice relationship. Multi-method approaches were used to elicit teachers’ theories and juxtapose these to their practice. At the outset, their theories revealed a predominantly Piagetian, developmental orientation. An unintended outcome of the study was the changes in teachers’ theories, or practice, or both, towards a more social-constructivist orientation. Implications are drawn for understanding teachers’ perspectives and for their professional development.
There is a long tradition in philosophy for claiming that selfhood is socially constructed and self-experience intersubjectively mediated. On many accounts, we consequently have to distinguish between being conscious or sentient and being a self. The requirements that must be met in order to qualify for the latter are higher. My aim in the following is to challenge this form of social constructivism by arguing that an account of self which disregards the fundamental structures and features of our experiential life is a non-starter, and that a correct description and account of the experiential dimension must do justice to the first-person perspective and to the primitive form of self-referentiality, mineness or for-me-ness that it entails. I then consider and discuss various objections to this account, in particular the view that an endorsement of such a minimal notion of self commits one to an outdated form of Cartesianism. In the final part of the paper, I argue that the self is so multifaceted a phenomenon that various complementary accounts must be integrated if we are to do justice to its complexity.