Assignment

INTRODUCTION

What is the difference between Piaget's constructivism and Papert’s “constructionism”? Beyond

the mere play on the words, I think the distinction holds, and that integrating both views can

Enrich our understanding of how people learn and grow. Piaget’s constructivism offers a window

into what children are interested in, and able to achieve, at different stages of their development.

The theory describes how children’s ways of doing and thinking evolve over time, and under

which circumstance children are more likely to let go for hold onto their currently held

views. Piaget suggests that children have very good reasons not to abandon their worldviews just

because someone else, be it an expert, tells them they’re wrong. Paper’s constructionist, in

contrast, focuses more on the art of learning, or ‘learning to learn’, and on the significance of

making things in learning. Papert is interested in how learners engage in a conversation with

[their own or other people’s] artifacts, and how these conversations boost self-directed learning,

and ultimately facilitate the construction of new knowledge. He stresses the importance of tools

INTRODUCTION

What is the difference between Piaget's constructivism and Papert’s “constructionism”? Beyond

the mere play on the words, I think the distinction holds, and that integrating both views can

Enrich our understanding of how people learn and grow. Piaget’s constructivism offers a window

into what children are interested in, and able to achieve, at different stages of their development.

The theory describes how children’s ways of doing and thinking evolve over time, and under

which circumstance children are more likely to let go for hold onto their currently held

views. Piaget suggests that children have very good reasons not to abandon their worldviews just

because someone else, be it an expert, tells them they’re wrong. Paper’s constructionist, in

contrast, focuses more on the art of learning, or ‘learning to learn’, and on the significance of

making things in learning. Papert is interested in how learners engage in a conversation with

[their own or other people’s] artifacts, and how these conversations boost self-directed learning,

and ultimately facilitate the construction of new knowledge. He stresses the importance of tools

Key Terminologies for the Cognitive Learning Theories

• Schema
• schemata
•  information processing
• symbol manipulation
•  information mapping
•  and mental models.

Main Concepts under the Cognitive Learning Theories

• These theories focus on the inner mental activities – opening the “black box” of the human mind is valuable and necessary for understanding how people learn.
•  Mental processes such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving need to be explored.
• Knowledge can be seen as schema or symbolic mental constructions.
• Learning is defined as change in a learner’s schemata.
• A response to behaviorism, people are not “programmed animals” that merely respond to environmental stimuli.
• People are rational beings that require active participation in order to learn, and whose actions are a consequence of thinking.
• Changes in behavior are observed, but only as an indication of what is occurring in the learner’s mind.

Cognitive uses the metaphor of the mind as computer: information comes in

CONSTRUCTIVISM

Scholars who support Constructivism:

• Vygotsky, Piaget, Dewey, Vico, Rorty and Bruner

Constructivism: Overview

• Constructivism as a paradigm or worldview posits that learning is an active, constructive process.
• The learner is an information constructor.
•  People actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective reality.
•  New information is linked to prior knowledge, thus mental representations are subjective.
• Constructivism as a paradigm or worldview posits that learning is an active, constructive process.
• The learner is an information constructor.
•  People actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective reality.
•  New information is linked to prior knowledge, thus mental representations are subjective.
• Constructivism as a paradigm or worldview posits that learning is an active, constructive process.
• The learner is an information constructor.
•  People actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective reality.
•  New information is linked to prior knowledge, thus mental representations are subjective.

Key Words

• Learning as experience
•  Activity and dialogical process
•  Problem Based Learning (PBL)
•  Anchored instruction
•  Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
•  Cognitive apprenticeship (scaffolding)
•  Discovery learning Inquiry and.

Central Ideas advocated by Constructivism

• Constructivism states that learning is an active, contextualized process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it.
• Knowledge is constructed based on personal experiences and hypotheses of the environment.
•  Learners continuously test these hypotheses through social negotiation.
• Each person has a different interpretation and construction of knowledge process.
• The learner is not a blank slate (tabula rasa) but brings past experiences and cultural factors to a situation.

Comprehensiveness of Constructivism??

• NOTE: A common misunderstanding regarding constructivism is that instructors should never tell students anything directly but, instead, should always allow them to construct knowledge for themselves. This is actually confusing a theory of pedagogy (teaching) with a theory of knowing.
• Constructivism assumes that all knowledge is constructed from the learner’s previous knowledge, regardless of how one is taught.

Thus, even listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge.

CONCLUSION

 Generally a common misunderstanding regarding constructivism is that instructors should never tell students anything directly but, instead, should always allow them to construct knowledge for themselves. This is actually confusing a theory of pedagogy (teaching) with a theory of knowing.

Constructivism assumes that all knowledge is constructed from the learner’s previous knowledge, regardless of how one is taught.

Thus, even listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge.